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Hello and Happy New Year to all:

I 'm looking for photos of current model M1A1s (HAs, Ds, AIMs, etc.) in service in either Iraq (2003+) or Kosovo (1999+) fitted with the older T156 rubber chevron tracks. I know that I have seen photos of them, but I lost the photos during a hard drive "issue" recently. I've done searches of Defence Link, the US Army and Marine sites, as well as Getty and Corbis, but have not located any. If anybody could post photos or locations of photos, I would greatly appreciate it.

Cheers and thanks,

Scott Taylor

I'll check my Bosnia 99 Photos and see if I can help out...

Don

I won't say 100% that it was not used in Iraq but I am about 99.9% sure it wasn't. Pretty worthless stuff on M1A1's. All the tanks I've seen here use the latest version of T158 and none that I saw in OIF one used 156 either. It was usually saved for training units (FT Knox) because it's so much cheaper. Lately it's been seen used in Korea. I imagine for the same reasons. Just doesn't hold up if you drive on it a lot. Had a lot of negative experiences with it on M1A1's myself.

Joe D

I saw some today here at Sierra Army Depot but they won't let me take pictures

Looking thru all my photos of Bosnia in 1999, 'our' tanks had the T158 track.





I just rummaged thru 6 discs of photos from 1999. It is always good to make friends with the public Affairs guys. On the day before I flew home (Sept/Oct 99) I was given the entire collection of photos covering all events that my Task Force (2-12 CAV) participated in during the SFOR 5 rotation and the 'day-to-day' stuff also.

I think I'll post some more of this stuff, interesting...
Regards
Don

Wow, this is more difficult a task than i had anticipated! I just trolled through all the archived Iraq Army images at army.mil and was very surprised that I didn't find an example of the old chevron tracks in Iraq. I thought I had located one for a moment but the caption read 'March 22, 2005 - South Korea'! Dang!

Well, here's that link, anyway:
www4.army.mil/armyimag...photo=5321

Like I said,
There is no T156 here or ever was that I know of. There might be some laying in the Kuwaiti/Saudi desert from Desert Storm but none of the Fleet from Kuwait, Qatar, etc that was in Kuwait/Iraq since 2002 had it. Tanks designated as Pre-Positioned war stock were only authorized T158. Even the ancient M1A1's 1-34 AR brought over from Fort Riley in 2003 had T158. But never say never, One might have slipped in with light track. If it did it would have been no later than OIF-2.

Joe D

Hi All:

Thanks very much for the info so far. I should have clarified that I am interested in any M1A1 that has been in Iraq since March 2003, not just ones involved in the invasion itself. I know I've seen some photos, and I understand that a number of them have been showing up more recently as stocks of the T158 tracks get worn out at a much higher than anticipated rate.

Don, I really like seeing your Kosovo photos, and would love to see more of them.

Cheers and thanks,

Scott Taylor

- Scott_Taylor

Hi All:

Thanks very much for the info so far. I should have clarified that I am interested in any M1A1 that has been in Iraq since March 2003, not just ones involved in the invasion itself. I know I've seen some photos, and I understand that a number of them have been showing up more recently as stocks of the T158 tracks get worn out at a much higher than anticipated rate.

Don, I really like seeing your Kosovo photos, and would love to see more of them.

Cheers and thanks,

Scott Taylor

Scott

I was in Bosnia from March 1999 til Sept/ Oct 1999. The Kosovo operation occurred while 'we' were in Bosnia. Although we didn't actively participate in anything with the NATO Ops in the F.R.Y. or Kosovo, a lot of our day to day missions were conducted to prevent escalation of hostilities in Bosnia, and to twart attempts by F.R.Y. Serbs to aggitate the Bosnian Serbs from 'joining' the cause.

Thankfully all remained 'fairly' quiet. Several tense situations.

Anyway, I'll post some of the more interesting in another thread.

Regards,
Don

- MarkHolloway

I saw some today here at Sierra Army Depot but they won't let me take pictures

Hi Mark:

I"m looking for a subject to model using the new Dragon 1/35 scale M1A1 kit and a nice set of aftermarket T156 tracks. It sounds like you've at least seen what I'm after. If I can ask, would you be able to describe the markings on this tank? Bumper codes, anything on the barrel, whether it's in desert tan or NATO camouflage? I don't know whether this would violate security rules, but if would be able to do that for me, I'd really appreciate it.

Cheers and thanks,

Scott Taylor

I spent a fair amount of time working in the APS and retrograde yards in Kuwait 2004, I can say there were T156 tracks in there.
Rememer we ran out of track in early 04 after the run to Bagdhad and the goodyear rubber shortage hampered production, so a lot of old stuff was dusted off to plug the gap. Plus a lot of the stuff that came off the APS ships was not updated, we drove CUCV's and M810's off the boats for gods sake....
I'll see if I have pics, the yard where we kept the Abrams was a no picture zone, so I may not have much.

Chris,
Sounds like Camp Arifjan to me. That's why I never say things are 100% certain when it comes to the Army. It just amazes me we had to use 156 as a stop gap when you find perfectly serviceable 158 track here in Iraq being used for Speed Bumps on the FOBs. Same with Bradley track. I don't mean used either. Some FOB Mayor's/Sergeant Major's "important Project". Disgusts me every time we drive over them. That stuff ain't cheap.

Joe D

Joe,

You drove over those speed bumps too? They put them all over the retro yard right before I left.
During the great track shortage, one of my jobs was to go out in the track and tire yard and count the number and type of tracks in the connex boxes, we did not trust KBR's inventory, I also ran around KNB and the inbound yards looking for "lost" containers of track. Stupid dead battery RF tags.... met lots of interesting people and critters though.
I worked in the yard that stretched out behind the zone 1 DFAC, it was actually outside the berm and the Kuwaiti's wanted us to get back inside the wire, there was 22 acres of "stuff" My team and I pulled $55 million in parts for reclaim. My office was in 462 and I used to go out back where the customs sterile yard was and look at the M1's (My home station job is on team Abrams) Plus I liked to look at the barrel art....
I snuck this pic one day, I think these were 1AD tanks that had just been turned in to APS for overhaul, check out the tracks on "Crazy Train" this is how a lot of the looked.
Most of my other shots are of barrel art and you cannot see the tracks.

- ChrisC

Chris.... DAMN!!! I saw that photo and thought it was some different type of tank tracks. Then read your blurb and looked closer....DAMN.

The other tanks look to have new pads. Perhaps they ran out of pads before completing all the tanks.

I have collected some personal photos of the initial phase of the war. I'll check to see if any of the shots are of these tanks.

Don

There was a photo on Missing Lynx that had an OIF M1A1 with T156 tracks. I found the thread, but the photo isn't in photo bucket any more.