In response to my contribution in this thread, I’ve been encouraged to start an “Ask the Tanker” thread.
I was a 19K M1 Abrams Armored Vehicle Crewman for just under 6 years (on a 4-year enlistment! :smack:) in the U.S. Army.
I joined in Oct. 1985, went to basic from Feb. 86 - Jun. 86. I was stationed in the 2nd Squadron, 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment in Bamberg, Germany from Jul. 86 to Jun. 88, when I “PCS’d” (Permanent Change-of-Station; transferred) to 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division at Ft. Hood, Texas.
I made it to the rank of Sergeant/E-5 by Jan. 1990, and reenlisted to be a “Navigation Avionics Specialist.” While awaiting an Avionics school slot (orders had actually come down, and I was “short”) when Saddam invaded Kuwait and we got preliminary orders to prepare for expedited movement to the Persian Gulf Theater. “Stop-Gap” went into place, and I was going to war.
We deployed on Oct. 11, 1990 and were assigned to 18th Airborne Corps to “backstop” the wind dummies in case Saddam got frisky and wanted to roll on into Saudi Arabia. As any good Airborne-type will tell you, “We don’t need no stinking tanks, or smelly tankers, to !@#$%& backstop us!” So we pretty much sat around doing much of nothing.
In December, the Army gave us brand-new M1A1 tanks for Xmas. That was nice. VII Corps out of Germany also showed up. Gen. Schwarzkopf found us a real job, and for the first time in about a decade, the 1st Cavalry Division actually had a Cavalry mission: screen VII Corp’s movement west of the Neutral Zone (yes, that’s what it was really called).
January and February had us up on the Neutral Zone, doing Reconnaissance-In-Force across Saddam’s “Line of Death.” With Engineers, we were doing “Berm Buster” missions. In short, Engineers blow a hole in Saddam’s berm, and we go through and shoot up anything and everything we can find of military value. Our penetrations into Iraq got deeper and deeper until Saddam detached some Republican Guard untis to deal with us.
Being Cavalry, we’d go up and “kick them in the nuts,” so to speak, and then run away. We’d then do it again from a different direction a few days later. Our job was, essentially, to be as annoying as all get out in order to fix Saddam’s attention to the south.
Come The Day, VII Corps attacked in force from the west, and rolled up Saddam’s forces pretty handily. My old unit, 2/2 ACR, was the “Tip-of-the-Spear” for VII Corps, and was instrumental in the Battle of 73 Easting.
We were eating VII Corps’ dust playing catch-up for 4 days. Come the morning of the 4th day, we had done a “Forward Passage of Lines” and were ready to take the lead for VII Corps. The order to move out and into the attack never came. Saddam sued for peace.
It was two months of “back staging” back into Saudi Arabi, through Khobar Towers, to get back to Ft. Hood.
One very minor war (from my perspective) later, and I was back at Ft. Hood, and trying to get new orders cut for my Avionics school. Unfortunately, I was in a “nutcracker” timewise. I no longer had enough time left on my enlistment for Aviation branch to want to send me to school, but I had too much time left yet on my enlistment for me to “extend,” a voluntary extension to my enlistment contract.
So I was stuck for the remainder of my second 4-year enlistment. I was ready to move on. Tanks were fun and all, but not what I considered a “carreer.”
Fortunately, the Army was overstrength, and in Oct. 91 offered qualifying personnel an “early out” voluntary separation option. I qualified, and departed the Army 25 Nov. 1991.
So: what do you want to know? I can speak with some authority on the strengths and weaknesses of the M1 Abrams family of vehicles. I can speak with some authority on Cavalry operations (although I was in tanks, I was never in Armor; I consider myself Cavalry first, last, and always), and the day-in-day-out life of the U.S. Army of the late 80’s/early 90’s.
Ask away!
Some pics from back then. It’s all DS/DS stuff. Nothing gross.
