heres one of my companies tanks from oif 2 in baghdad got reaer ended by another abrams going almost 45

Ouch that must have been some impact , you can even see where the drive sprocket ended up , what did the other abrams look like , do you have a pic of that one ?


and


are abrams fitted with airbags ????????? just kidding :-)

heres the tank that did the hitting the driver fell asleep and basically rammed the tank ahead

Wow considering the damage to the first abrams this one dont look to bad.

Thanks for the pic btw

And it was only going at 45?????

I can see why tanks are often used to crash through wooden / aluminium structures.......the amount of carnage it creates.

Incidentally, how does one get assigned to the Abram tank division....did you opt for it or were you just blindly assigned to it?

When you join the US Army, if your test scores meet the standard, you can choose to be an armor crewmember, MOS 19. It is one of the Military Occupational Specialties (MOS). First you go through basic training and Advanced Individual Training (AIT), which trains you in your specific job, tank crewman in this case. After all that, you are assigned to a unit that corresponds to your MOS. You can express your desire to go to a particular unit, and assignment personnel will try to meet your desires, but in the end, it comes down to the needs of the Army and they place you where they need people to fill slots. Really not that hard to be a tanker. I myself am an Artilleryman. I like to blow s&*t up.

Thanks for that Gino.

What about those keen to be officers? Is that determined based on the MOS scores as well?

who would want to be an officer

LOL true that although admittedly when i was in the army, i had aspirations to become one and i do recall how ticked off i was when i didnt get selected.

I ended up leaving the armed forces after reaching 2nd Sergeant.

If you haven't read my profile, I am an Officer. A Major actually, and damn proud of it Soldier!!

For an officer, it is based on other things as to what branch you get. First, you have to complete 4 years of college and military training. You can either do this at the US Military Acadamy at West Point, if your HS grades are high enough and you desire to attend the USMA, or at a regular 4-year university through what is called Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC). Your branch is chosen by a board who looks at your academic records, your ROTC/USMA military record, your preferance sheet where you tell them what branch you would like to be, recommendations from the officers who trained you, and again, the needs of the army. Most officers get their first or second choice of the branches they want.

Another option is Officer Candidate School (OCS). This is for active duty enlisted Soldiers, usually with 4 or more years in who have some college completed (usually 2 yrs, Associates degree as a minimum) and display an aptitude for leadership. They are sent off for a 6 month, intensive training program and come out a 2nd Lieutenant, with the condition that they must complete 4 years of college before they can become a CPT. The branch selection for them is basically the same as other officers.

Hey Gino, sorry to hear you are an officer. They got a shot that can clear that up? :-)

While Gino gives you the standard scenario, with the National Guard and Reserves in the mix, becoming an officer has more interesting options. There are a fair number of officers out there who do not have a 4 year degree and while they are supposed to be working on getting one, quite a few do not and are stuck in grade. And, like my sister's fiance, you can get your 4 year degree and then join to become an officer, but it usually means having to enlist, go through basic, then go through a form of OCS...etc. If you are interested, there is a recruiter very excited to talk to you!

But remember, if you want to work for a living, only Non-Commisioned Officers command respect. (Gee, can you tell I was a NCO?)

Sorry about that Sir!

Hmmmm,
When we ripped the sprocke off of our M-60A2,in 1976,it landed in the same area.Must be some kind of tank Physics... (++) (++)

if you look closely that is the whole sprocket assembly, and part of the transmission all of the 50 sumthing bolts that hold the final drive on were sheared off

New transmission for the tank that got hit?

no the tank that got hit is still sitting in the motorpool here at fort hood texas it is coded out and set to be destroyed, its hull is bent and it is un repair able

It will not actually be destroyed. Not the way it works. It will be sent back to a depot level maintenance facility (most likely Red River Depot in Texarkana, TX) and be stripped of all usable parts, then what is left will be cut up and melted down for scrap. Most likely, that will only be the lower hull shell. Too costly of a piece of equipment to simply destroy it and waste the rest of its parts.

It would appear that the boys from 1st cav div need to do some remedial night driving.....

well, the tank commander was found to be at fault, the driver told him that he couldnt see and the tc told him to keep going, the tc forgetting this sat down to do something and the driver continued as directed and stopped when he hit 2nd platoons other tank, it is really hard to drive a tank on the streets of baghdad, there too dark and the DTV viewer doesnt really work worth a crap on the tank no matter what the situation, and cars and stuff coming at you blind the driver almost all night so the tc is basicall always driving the driver just goes where he says.

Wow thanks for sharing the pictures with us. Must have been quite the impact with something that big.

So what will happen to whomever they find at fault?? Pretty expensive piece of kit to be smashing up. Not like cracking up your dads Chevy.

nothing really, the tank commander was at the end of his time as a tc, so he went on to do his admin cycle in his career, and spc. howell is a gunner now, he was found not in any way at fault, and that was the end of it,

Im assuming they had tons of paper work to get through to write this one up?

Incidentally, what does happen to the soldier IF it was found that he was at fault like sleeping at the wheel or something?

If a soldier is found Negligent and he damaged a piece of equipment, he can loose up to a full months pay. If he it is found that he is Negligent and he willfully damaged it, he can be charged the full cost of repairs or replacement, -10% for depreciation. He can also be sent to jail if he hurt or injured a person in the process.

The above rarely happens though, especially in a combat zone, because there are many factors that can cause an accident. I had multiple accidents in my battery as we marched north to Baghdad during the invasion. Most of them involved rear ending another vehicle in the dark and dusty condions. No one was found to be negligent in any of them.

i just a pfc gunner, i dont really know much about the paper work, i know it was probably a big mess though, and like gino said i think the tank was just wrote off as a combat loss

Hey HeavyArty, you still active duty? If so, where and in what position? S-3?

I too had a desire at one time to take off my stripes and exchange them for bars.......mustave been nuts :-)

Hell, I even wanted to be SF but my wife said she'd go back to Germany (for good) if I did THAT. Didn't take her serious until I told her I passed their PT test.....OOOOohhhhh that hurt!

Still got her after 21 years!!!

Mike

Thanks guys for letting us know. I always find it interesting to hear from you folks that are in active service. Makes the whole modelling thing seem for real to me if that makes any sense at all.