Trying to get this as accurate as possible...

Seen many examples during the 1970's of M60's with an interior standard white/red light fixed to the bustle rack as in this pic of mine.

Where would the wire enter the turret? would it be pinched in an antennae mount base? Snaked in through the ventilator? Surely something as semi-permanent as a this wouldn't just string it through the loaders hatch as sometimes a Hoffman device or other more temporary items were.

I can't think of any wiring on the outside of the turret where it could be split off of to power the light. I've put one of these lights on my own 1:1 scale Mutt and just used a Y connector to peel off power from another source, but can't imagine where it would be on a turret.

Hello I was a M60 tank commander in the 70's. I never seen a light on the rack. I would remove it.

Maybe, but this was specifically in Germany. Seems to be a lot of reference pics, especially early M60's. I don't have my REFORGER books at hand, but I assure you, from pre-1975 they are there more often than not.

We didn't have them in korea or Ft. Riley. I was in reforger 5. I wonder if they used them for tank gunnery. I would run the wire down the loaders hatch.

I only have my MASSTER/MERCD/DUAL TEX book with me right now, but here's a pic from that book. More are in the Tankograd first of the REFORGER series.

I have nothing to add but a question. Was this light used as a make-shift convoy light?



Erik

I have no idea... but that'd be my guess. The tiny little black out lights are pretty low and hard to see anyways. These things don't put out much light in my experience - the only thing they would have lit up would be the engine deck or a makeshift headlight when traversed.

These pics don't show any, but most of the time, when you see that light you also see the side marker lights added to the front and rear like a truck has. (I've added them to the M60 kit in my pic). Usually very early '70s.

Perhaps there was a light fetish of some sort - this was also when you started seeing the flashing/rotating yellow lights added to the rear of every vehicle as an "anti-collision" light. I'd imagine there was probably a series of accidents between US Army vehicles and German civilian motorists at night or in the fog that prompted attention to those matters.

______

Here's another view of the light... in the reference pics I don't notice any wires running to the loaders hatch. I have seen something run to commander's cupola base ring... but unable to confirm what it was.

I've also seen a reference pic of an M113 where some added on things were wired via pinching them underneath the antennae base.. doesn't sound like a good idea to me, but I'm hoping someone here might know.

My TC did it in Germany. The white light lense was painted green it was for tank gunnery at night. Switch on red weapons loaded. Green weapons clear. I don't think any other tanks in the platoon had it. We used a flat metal piece bolted to the antenna mount to hold the light. The light was only mounted for gunnery. I believe the power line went through one of the bolt holes on the antenna mount. It was quit a while ago 35 years. I'll see if I took any pictures of the back of the turret. This was before the chem stick days, We would use red and green flashlights at night. Anyone who ever used issue angle necked flashlights knows how finicky they were. So my TC the Plt SGT rigged up something he saw done else where.

Tom

My question is, where the heck did you get the dome light!! I've been wanting a decent set of lights and VIC 1 system for decades!

The real one for my MUTT came from Thomas Murray surplus... the one on the model comes from a PE detail interior for an M113.

Makes sense w the red green for gunnery. That would make sense that it would be mounted on the top of the turret by the antennae... and leaving a bolt out to route the wire makes perfect sense.

These were mounted on the rear basket of course. So I imagine it wouldn't be ideal for gunnery purposes - I'd hate to be the guy that climbs in and out to flip the switch to a different color. Lots of banging knees and stuff!