ATTN: AFV Club,
um,
TOW CABLES?
oopsie......

I was assigned to the deuce in 1980 at Fort Knox, they were at the end of their service life and we had pretty much every kind of configuration possible. We did possess A2s that had the chevron track and no bore evacuator for the main gun. Also I never heard anyone call them the starship, we usually referred to them as the "deuce" or other colorful names!

M60A2 tank platoon leader 3-33AR-3AD
we got our A2s at Vilseck in the summer of '75. Prior to that i had 2 M60s and 4 A1s with older desert camo. we were the second BN in Germany to get them (1-32AR was the first). spent a month per company training at Vilseck and Graf. My CO had run the A2 yest unit at Knox. Once back at home station they were painted in camo and it was forest green and medium brown with black highlights. may have had some sand too but cannot remember. road wheels were aluminum with steel wear plates. lower hull behind the road wheels was camo as well and road wheels would be all green or all brown depending on the pattern. CBSS, bore evacuator, older chevron track, and no dozer tank. loved the power stabilized cupola with target designate, passive sight, main gun and laser rangefinder controls. M85 was installed upside down with right hand feed and not fun to reload but fun to shoot at night on the move. IIRC we would lase bottom center mass and, if we got multiple range returns, would punch LAST and assume that was the target range. always carried a dime in case the firing mechanism failed. we had to tie down the turret with 2 tow cables when doing RR transport.

I arrived in 1-32AR in July of '75. Two weeks later we flew down to Vilseck to draw M60A2s. Ft Hood drew them in 1974. We drew tanks both with and without bore evacuators. The tank was standardized for issue with either gun. That had to do with when the gun was made. ALL tanks had the CBSS, thus ALL were M60A2s. On those with bore evacuators, the bore vents were welded shut and the evacuator sleeve was welded on. T-142 track was issued to the two tank battalions in our brigade in 1977. There were no "early" or "late" A2s. Several modifications were applied in the motor pool when we drew the tanks, inc!uding too-loading air cleaner boxes and the elevated infantry phone box. The initial coax machinegun was the M73, replaced soon after issue by the M219. Although claimed by one "expert" on Youtube, The .50 M85 was not replaced by the M2, if for no other reason than the M2 would not fit in the cupola. Track was replaced by T142 based on wear out of the T97 and availability of the T142. The T142 track was significantly heavier than T97. The blade equipment was not mounted on the tanks when drawn. Our battalion had just taken off the just from previous M60A1s, and there was talk about mounting them - on the second tank in company hq, but as far as I know, it was never done. I never heard the tank called a starship, although I heard it referred to by many colorful terms.

Our tanks were forest green with white bumper markings, later changed to black, small black stars. At some point, we were able to add black to the camo. After I left the battalion for 3-32, the brown paint came in. No sand ever arrived. The rotating Amber warning lights were also added in '75.