A long time ago, I was doing work at West Point. While hiking through the forest, I came across this long line of tanks. I snapped a few pictures, and moved on, being that I was standing in an old impact zone.
Now, I look back at them, and think that they were M103 tanks. Could somebody with a more experienced eye confirm that?

Very sorry if this is off-topic.

M60A3’s. You can tell by the thermal shroud on the barrel, welded over searchlight power receptacle and crosswind sensor on back left turret. Very cool pics, by the way 👍

Do you have some more pics?

Or the general area you were in, I just spent an hour google earthing every back road on West Point! Lol

Probably near a target range. They look like they are staged to be towed onto a range.

Thank you so much! Thats awesome. I'm always amazed at the way you experienced guys can pinpoint those differences. I need to find a M60 model, I'd like to build a diorama depicting one of these guys.

Sadly, these are all the pictures I have. I didn't have time to really get into them like I wanted to, as there were controlled detonations going off and I was on a time limit.

Also a bummer, is that I'm not entirely sure where I was at. I know that we were on the ranges that face Constitution Island. These tanks were on an uncleared access road very close to their artillery impact range (Another reason I didn't want to hang out, I had already found many UXOs that day, and didn't want to tempt fate).

Without a map of the ranges, I can't know for sure. I have this shot overlooking the Academy. This was the far end of the access road, and I found the tanks walking back from here.

Love that pic, “EOD”, bet I can find it, lol

That is exactly what they were being used for. They had a couple on the AT4 range, but, they were so damaged that I couldn't make out what they were, and I wasn't going to get close enough to find out if I didn't have to.

Best on the market right now.

AFV Club M60A3.


Tamiya's old one may be a better option to destroy though (definitely cheaper).

I love how they are all lined up ready for 'action' and then it looks they where just forgotten about!

I was there last month. Damn good eats in that little town. It was family day though.

And don't worry - this is very on topic. And even if it weren't, the On Topic Nazi was banned from here years ago.

What's interesting is the paint, as if they came out of storage.

Maybe not a Nazi but we could still use an On Topic Falangist from time-to-time.

KL

Thank you for the kit suggestions, Gino. That helps out quite a bit.


This group of tanks was really bizarre to me, and much of that was due to the condition that they were in. When I did basic at Ft. Benning, my sand pit faced the tank restoration yard. Even the tanks waiting to be restored/partially restored, didn't look to be in as good of condition as these were.

They really did appear as though they were dragged out of a garage and left there. As noted, the paint looked very fresh, almost like they were getting ready for a parade. I feel that if I were as into modeling then as I am now; I'd have squeezed a few more minutes to get some nice reference photos.

I have an album of some pictures I took while I was on that assignment. I spent my free time at the West Point Museum. I was dead set on finding an intact cannon ball, so, I got the historian to give me a look at their reference books. My goal being to find the original firing positions for the batteries in the Crows Nest and see if an old magazine could be found. I was unsuccessful. Some pictures of all the fun stuff I found there are in there too. I dunno, somebody might find it interesting.

https://imgur.com/a/7WgPZaB

Nice! Thank you for sharing as I have yet to visit the cemetery with Butterfield, Custer, and Schwarzkopf's markers. Most interesting museum tour, and helicopter ride as well.

That's very possibly exactly what happened.

Remember, the US had and has a lot of prepositioned equipment all over. Once a vehicle is swapped out of service, the prepositioned stocks would also be drawn down. Sure, Guard units got some and used it, but, in the end, there were always a lot in storage. When the final unit stopped using the M60s and no more could be sold overseas, the last would be trucked out of storage and given to museums or put on ranges or, in the end, dumped off barges and used as artificial reefs.

Paul

When my unit got our M1, we de- militarized the M60A3 for use as monuments or reefs. Afterwards, they looked exactly like these, with half the hatches open and certain bits missing. I think a look inside would show engines missing or at least batteries, as well as the sights and gunner's controls.

These look like how the ones dumped off New Jersey looked.

You know you’re getting old when a tank that you trained on back in 1980, was our best deployed... In numbers tank and now relegated to being range targets.

The M1s were just coming out when I was at Ft. Knox, but FAR more M60A1s/M60A3s in all the motor pools.

It's a fabulous place to visit. We are only an hour away and have been going for years. Something clicked because my oldest offspring finished his 7th semester there today. 1 more to go. And, yes, he will branch Armor after graduation in May.

I highly recommend making the trip up there for the home football game that is held during "branch week" in the fall. They have displays of all major weapon systems set up that you can wander around and look at, crawl on and photograph after the parade and before the game. I've gotten a lot of good pics (Abrams, Apache, Chinook, Bradley, Himars etc etc) during that display.

The visitor's center (outie the main gate) has just been refurbished and the museum is awesome. Just don't be like the hordes of Chinese Tourists and try to shanghai (bad choice of words lol) every passing Cadet for a selfie/photo. They are usually kind of busy and rushing between classes etc.

God Bless the Cadets, the staff and the troops assigned there.

The Cadets must have some around the areas they do summer training at, as evidenced by the photo below.

My Chinese daughter has a message for you:



My bad. (That's not her real message, but you may not care for it.)