Lesley:
Over 10 years soldiers will say ''look he was already in the army when they still had tanks. The other will say, whats a tank.....
I was at Fort Riley Kansas a little while ago visiting a very good friend before he shipped off (A-Stan this time). Spent some time in their Motor Pool during tank turn in since they are going without them (His 3rd deployment, none with tanks). He and another Platoon Sergeant both talked about how little they actually use their tanks in training once back from deployment. They had M1A1SA's and after 3 years from receiving them they still looked brand new. They both talked about the days of when they actually tanked. I kinda laughed and said "Remember, I complained then". That was compared to the "Cold War" days.
At least they still have their tanks, even if they don't use them much. Sorry for the loss Lesley, I can't imagine what I'd do if the US Army had eliminated tanks while I was still serving on them. Be almost like a death in the family. The worst part is once you eliminate a requirement (Expensive one at that), it is very hard to convince the powers that be to bring it back, even it it is needed. The loss of institutional knowledge gets greater too with each passing year. They really need to consider keeping some "Core" or "Cadre" to maintain that, even if it's just a Company sized element.