Com-Central.net

- Joe_D

Jeff,

AN/VSS-1, 1A,1B,1C,1D,and 1E along with AN/VSS-2 and 2A are all those big screen TV looking ones with handles on the side. All the differences are internal, mostly consisting of sub component changes that didn't effect performance.

Major difference between the 1's and 2's was the IR setting. VSS-1 used a true IR filter which was used in conjunction with the IR sights fitted, hence the systems were called "Active IR" and "Painted" the target in order for the sight to see it.

Joe,
You could actually "see" the pink from the AN-VSS-1 from in front of it, but you were well-advised not to look at it from that angle.

We did most of the testing for this system at McFarland-Oliver Range with a variety of vehicles and "squads" approaching from various locations to see when they could be detected. (MFO was much more overgrown then than it is today). Obviously, these were night-only projects and there were nights down there in the bottoms that the fog was so thick that the white light beam (with many millions of candlepower) would only penetrate maybe 100' and then stop like it had hit a brick wall. We'd hang around maybe 2 hours on those nights before packing it in and going back in to try again next night. Took a lot of post-test breakfasts in that old house on Wilson Road just off post that used to be a diner. Building is still there, but something else in there now.

D.

Doug,

Yeah, not good for the old peepers.

Were you guys testing the new VSS-2 configuration??? The time period would be about right. M60A2 was the reason for it's creation.

Those A1's look pretty old, even for the time the picture was taken, that girl on the right has the early PSF markings on the turret.

If you haven't been to Knox in a few years, you'd be surprised how much the area around Wilson road has changed outside the gate. Don could probably verify it but I believe that building has been torn down.

- Joe_D

Doug,

Yeah, not good for the old peepers.

Were you guys testing the new VSS-2 configuration??? The time period would be about right. M60A2 was the reason for it's creation.

Those A1's look pretty old, even for the time the picture was taken, that girl on the right has the early PSF markings on the turret.

If you haven't been to Knox in a few years, you'd be surprised how much the area around Wilson road has changed outside the gate. Don could probably verify it but I believe that building has been torn down.

Joe,

It might well have been the VSS-2, since I'd done searchlight drills in AIT on 48's in AIT back in '71. Externally, there was no obvious difference.

I was last there in '06. This month. (Memorial Day weekend). I went looking for that old diner, which was white with a big picture window and might have previously been a house. I only found red brick buildings of the same vintage, and certainly nothing white.

What appalled me was the state of the old Redmar Plaza shopping center. I still have some records from Velva Darnells' record store. My "Support Our Boys in Vietnam" Sheridan poster was bought in the "head shoppe" in that little strip of stores.

Couple of my buddies and I used to dismay them in the restaurant portionof the now-abandoned department store there...they had an "all you can eat" shrimp night there on Tuesdays, and we taught them a couple of things about just how much hungry G.I.s on a limited budget can actually eat.

There was a discount bread outlet over on 31W in '06 that used to be a Burger Queen....near where the M103 is on display in Radcliff. Had many a fried chicken breast-fries-strawberry shake from that place.

The drive-in burger joint was still there in '06, I recall patronizing that place, too.

I never really did much in Radcliff or most of the local area,

Mostly since when I was stationed there I was married and didn't do those things single troops do. I lived on Post and actually could get home and back for lunch when I worked at Skidgel Hall. Later when I was at "Rent-A-Tank" I spent more time on Ranges and Five-North. Used to get take out at the DQ from Muldraugh and Chinese from Radcliff and bring it home. Redmare Plaza is pretty much vacant as of last year. Surprised no developer has taken advantage of it with the Post getting a Brigade in.

Here is a searchlight most never seen, AN/VSS-4. It was supposed to be used with the M60A1 IP program (M60A1E3 or A3). Fit in the cylindrical armored sleeve you see in this grainy image.



Does the background look familiar

The discount bread thrift shop was torn down last year and the umpteenth local bank built in its location.

A lot of construction going on at Wilson Road onto post, now referred to as the East Access Corridor or something. They are widening it to 4 lanes and built another strip mall right outside the Wilson gate where a tire shop used to be (place had a huge tire in front of it). Like the other four or five strip malls that have recently sprung up on the Dixie between Radcliff and E-town, it is mostly empty with just a coffee shop there. Terrible location for a coffee shop since you can't exit the parking lot to make a left onto post because of the extremely long line of cars waiting to get on post.

Thanks Joe and Doug for all your information, it certainly was not boring.