Posted on 03/25/2003 9:30:16 AM PST by 11th_VA
I've crewed in the T-55L, and they're not that bad, other than the driver's position, horribly cramped for anyone over about 5'3". I'd happily prefer an M48A3, given my druthers, but would also pick the T55 over the gasoline-engined M48A2C in which I first trained as an armor crewman at Ft Knox in the mid 1960s, which routinely both caught fire and asphyxiated crews with carbon monoxide from it's auxilliary *little joe* generator engine used to keep the batteries charged. Indeed, the T-55 is preferable to the later T-64 in my eyes as well- that mechanical main gun loader is a Rube Goldburg nightmare just waiting to eat either the gunner or Tank Commander. Neither am I real thrilled about the T-72, nor the T-80/ T-80U/ T80UM2 with GTD-1250 turbine powerplant; make mine a T84U or T90, please.
But note too that many of Saddam's T54s were upgraded to the T72Z standard, refitting modern fire control and optics with the 125-mm main gun of the T72 tank, as replacements for T72s lost during Operation Desert Storm. Those might or might not take out an M1A2 Abrams or Challenger II with a frontal shot, but a side or rear flanking hit would probably get the job done- and there are other nasty surprises in the 125mm toybox as well. I wouldn't write off either Saddam's T54s or T62s just yet. There are both a lot of them, and they've been around long enough that their crews are both very familiar with their capabilities and weaknesses. Beware the tanker who has served in only one tank; he probably knows how to use it.
-archy-/-
Hi Archy,
Were you OPFOR at the National Training Center (NTC) at Fort Irwin, California? If so, my hat's off to you. 'You guys' made our forces the best in the world!
Never had the pleasure of going through NTC, that was before my time. However, in old age
we remember the good old days. (Me & Tommy circa 1971)
Hi Archy,
Were you OPFOR at the National Training Center (NTC) at Fort Irwin, California? If so, my hat's off to you. 'You guys' made our forces the best in the world!
Nope, not NTC per se. I was out at Irwin for Operation SwiftStrike, still have my *SwiftStrike II Desert Rat* certificate around someplace, but that was in the old, OLD *agressor* days, before Irwin was designated as NTC. I actually crewed as a TC in a California National Guard M48A2C on that one...
Never had the pleasure of going through NTC, that was before my time. However, in old age we remember the good old days. (Me & Tommy circa 1971)
I carried M1A1 Tommys a couple of times, the buttstock was a little too long to fit me right and I eventually shortened one about an inch and relocated the sling swivel so the buttplate could go back on. Thereafter when A Thompson came my way, I'd bolt up my shorty stock, and replace the original when I turned it back in. Then, once upon a time, I got one without having to sign for it, and subsuquently *lost* it, with my nicely sanded and waxed shorty stock still atattched to it. But I bet I could find it and about 15 magazines REAL quick if I had to....
I've only run across military 21/28 Thompsons a couple of times here and there, carried one once [set on semi, with a pair of 20-round magazines, all they had] to back up a .45 while riding around in a hellowhopter. And I've fired cop '28 Thompsons a couple of times. The M1A1 is cruder, but it works for me.
You can never tell where a '28 will show up.
But you can bet your bottom dollar it will do the job!
Even Forrest Gump wishes he could have gotten a '28 Tommy, instead of his M1A1....
Sheesh! All the Krauts in the world coming at us. Wish I had an L-drum....
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