Com-Central.net

The last of this series, and with some cultural observations along the way.









Strange things could happen on post back then. For example, say you were driving your volkswagen along Wilson Road when, suddenly, this... thing...emerges from the woods, cuts you off, and proceeds down the highway in front, precluding any possibility of your passing.......while you eat its exhaust....




Some young Army pilot getting boot marks all over an M5A1, seemingly without a care.....


Here he is again, leaning against an M60A1, wondering what all the pretty flags are for.


In my BOQ there were, naturally, many armor guys. Since aviators were a relative rarity on post these armor types grew curious as to what we were all about. To satisfy their curiosity I was able to get permission to take some of them flying on maneuvers occasionally. In return, since one of them was XO of an AIT tank company, I was able to go on several road marches with them, got to fire the co-ax gun on the range, and drive an M48A2C and an M60A1. Here's one of my fellow pilots in the TC position of an M48A2C just having a gas! Note the extensive mud.


More mud.


Yet more mud.


I took this from the driver's position over the lip of the hatch as we descended down a hill into..........even more mud.


Here we're passing what I believe to be a column of Command & Reconnaissance Vehicle M114 'Lingles' parked by the side of the road. Note the M60 drivers are taking advantage of the tracks' self-cleaning capability to shed the excess onto the hapless M114s.
Eat some mud, Roy!...........heheheh.


There is a vast cultural difference between pilots and tankers. Aviators live the righteous life in "broad sunlit uplands". They're "clear-eyed buoyant extroverts" who (usually) return to roost in the evening to hot showers, warm chow, clean sheets.


Tankers, on the other hand, have a culture of...........mud!


Tankers live behind several inches of homogenized armor plate and think nothing of driving down an embankment into a creek. (They have a lot of difficulty with the level of protection afforded aviators: plexiglas and thin alclad aluminum sheet.)


This proximity to water may be as close as a tanker gets to a hot shower....other than the tank wash rack...<grin>


......or to a bath.....<yet another grin>


And that, Gentlemen, is the unbiased and completely objective accounting of the life of the tanker.

Hi Bob (A-109E)! Hi Folks!

- A-109E

The last of this series, and with some cultural observations along the way.

Here we're passing what I believe to be a column of Command & Reconnaissance Vehicle M114 'Lingles' parked by the side of the road. Note the M60 drivers are taking advantage of the tracks' self-cleaning capability to shed the excess onto the hapless M114s.
Eat some mud, Roy!...........heheheh.

Thanks for the photos Bob (A-109E). Thanks for the extra camo on the M114s. We Scouts don't carry as much armor around as tanker do, so we needed the extra protection the local mud added to our vehicles!
Eat Mud? Scouts Love Mud!
Sgt, Scouts Out!