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Hi Folks!

The follow is a group of pictures from our new CIA member "CaptCav"
The pictures taken during 1975 and 1976.

This Sp-4 Champion, his M114A2, and his best friend Sp-4 Rooks.
i41.photobucket.com/al...CRooks.jpg

The Vehicles of 1st Platoon. Notice the Lingles are always leading!
i41.photobucket.com/al...021975.jpg

G-37, a Sheridan under some local brush and surrounded by lots of sand dunes
i41.photobucket.com/al...eFeb76.jpg

The Troop Commander's vehicle "El Lobo" and 1st Sgt Bob Uhte
i41.photobucket.com/al...obUhte.jpg

The Troop Commander at the back of G66 trying to remove some of Ft Bliss's finest sand.
i41.photobucket.com/al...rp1975.jpg

A mortar track guarding the Troop TOC
i41.photobucket.com/al...mortar.jpg

Nothing like a Reforger to get the troops out of the desert. Oct. 1975.
i41.photobucket.com/al...unster.jpg

Somebody in G Troop was a good artist with a sense of humor.
i41.photobucket.com/al...fhumor.jpg
A note about that sign "Fred Wilson". That is the name of a street that is between the main camp at Ft. Bliss and the desert training areas to the north of the base. Crossing that street, for training purposes, was like crossing an ocean. From many years, the 3rd ACR was the first armored unit on the list to follow the 82nd Airborne anywhere in the world.

Special thanks to CaptCav for sending me this group of photos with permission to post them. Hope I got the details right.
I always love to see M114s in action!

Sgt, Scouts Out!

Roy,
Great post, I always love seeing pictures from the '70's. Relay to Capt Cav many thanks for sharing.

Joe D

Roy....... Thanks for posting my pix. We old troop COs don't do so well with computers, lol. I'd be "all thumbs" in today's hi Tech Army. It's been a long, long time ago; but I consider those 18 months commanding G Troop to be some of the finest times of my life.

And yes... that poor ole TC made it all the way through a 6 week field problem, only to have his "Shank" (a derisive term in the 3d ACR in those days for the Sheridan "tank") break down at the gate to the 3d ACR motor pools. Hmmmmm..... is that a case of Coors on the back deck? Gosh!!! NOOOOBODY in the 3d ACR drank in the field!!!!

Thanks for bringing back memories! I was with 3d ACR at Ft Bliss from 72-73 and 76-79.

WOW.... Shades of my teen years......

Moved back there (as dependent in 1977)
Don

- CaptCav

And yes... that poor ole TC made it all the way through a 6 week field problem, only to have his "Shank" (a derisive term in the 3d ACR in those days for the Sheridan "tank") break down at the gate to the 3d ACR motor pools. Hmmmmm..... is that a case of Coors on the back deck? Gosh!!! NOOOOBODY in the 3d ACR drank in the field!!!!

CaptCav,
Howdy and welcome to the forum! FWIW, that term..."Shank" (haven't heard that one in a while!) must have found it's way into the vernacular from Vietnam (as so many other terms did), because while I never heard it around the NCO Academy/Leadership Prep course for M551 School or in the M551 School itself (at Ft. Knox), I sure enough recall hearing it in G Troop, 2/11th ACR in RVN from time-to-time...
I'd give you odds that this word infiltrated the vocabulary of the 3rd ACR via some Viet Vet originally.
Thanks for the pics, I liked seeing all the vehicles, including the "shanks"!

D.

Doug - I won't take any bets on the origin!! I'm pretty sure it came from the 11th in-country. During the years I was in the 3d ACR ('73-'76); the ranks were teeming with VN era 11th ACR alums. As a matter of fact, we always referred to them as "the Blackhorse Mafia", because there were so many officers & NCOs in the regiment, wearing the Blackhorse on their right shoulder.

- CaptCav

Doug - I won't take any bets on the origin!! I'm pretty sure it came from the 11th in-country. During the years I was in the 3d ACR ('73-'76); the ranks were teeming with VN era 11th ACR alums. As a matter of fact, we always referred to them as "the Blackhorse Mafia", because there were so many officers & NCOs in the regiment, wearing the Blackhorse on their right shoulder.

"Blackhorse Mafia"...that's a keeper...we may need to commission a new sort of post-service patch...all sort of omerta-like and all. The club (when we had one, before we had to take over some aviation company's movie theatre on the way out of the country...Roy may remember that), and sometimes the patch, was occasionally referred to as the "soul pony", in the spirit of the day. Kind of a Curtis Mayfield take on things.

Roy, Doug, et al:

Great pictures from another era.

I was wondering about the guy in the first picture, Sp4 Champion. Do you know where he went from Fort Bliss? We had an SSG Champion in the Eaglehorse Squadron in the period 1979-1980; he was in H Company, 2nd Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry. At the time, he was an M60A1 TC, and was known in the squadron as being a kick-ass tanker, and was highly respected. I looked for more pictures, but could only find one with SSG Champion, poor quality and very small.

I'm pretty certain that he would have been a 19E at that time; is it possible that he was a 19D in Ft. Bliss during '75-'76, and then an SSG 19E only a couple years later?

If I remember correctly, his H Company mount was painted in a Dual-Tex camo scheme (strangely, the only one in the squadron), very similar to the picture that you posted in another thread (I'll write a blurb in that thread as well, since it is possible that the vehicle in the photo is SSG Champion's tank: "M60A3 with squares!"). When we drew new M60A3s in Feb (??) 1980, the camo pattern went with the tank, and SSG Champion's A3 stayed in factory Forest Green until a squadron paint detail did all the squadron's equipment in the Fall of 1980.

Anyway, if it is not the same Champion, so be it. It was fun thinking about the Hawgs, and going back through some old pictures.


Mark Neukom

Hi Mark (the Buq-Buq)! Hi Folks!

- Buq-Buq

I was wondering about the guy in the first picture, Sp4 Champion. Do you know where he went from Fort Bliss?
Mark Neukom

Sorry Mark, I have no idea. The pictures came from CaptCav and were taken by him during his time as Troop Commander of G Troop. The only other info he sent with the photo was that Sp4 Champion and Sp4 Rooks were the best of friends and if you saw one, the other one would also be there.

Sgt, Scouts Out!

Roy:

Yeah, I missed that you indicated CaptCav had provided the pictures. Thanks for the update; and my apologies to CaptCav.

And, speaking of CaptCav . . . perhaps he can shed more light on my query?


Mark Neukom