In the name of diversity and inclusion, we should have entered the BIPOC Abrams battle tank, aka the “Stacey,” in the tank biathlon. Put the fear of God in those Rooskies, she would.
mmackAugust 26, 2020, 7:01 PM
Gerard,
Thanks for sticking the shiv in sir. ☹️ As a longtime Indianapolis 500 attendee I was fed up with the stringing along from IMS, Indianapolis Mayor Hog’s Ass, and Indiana Governor How Dumb. Because racing inches apart at 220+ MPH is A-OK if you have The Mask to avoid the Corona. But all the fans will get sick and die. 🤦🏻♂️
u.k.(us)August 26, 2020, 7:51 PM
Tanks are so yesterday.
Cut the com’s and they are just target practice.
When was the last tank war ? (that wasn’t decided beforehand).
This is, after all, the satellite age.
We are already at the point where nobody will even let their jets takeoff, and they still get disabled while in their bunkers.
Not even a fair fight.
Now the question is, just how hard are we going to beat down the bully.
Casey KlahnAugust 26, 2020, 10:44 PM
uk(us), my compliments. You might as well say that maneuver war is so yesterday.
Of course, that’d be signing your surrender document ahead of time, too. Once you ignore war’s tenets, a great big handful of war’s substance rises up and bites you on the ass.
Sure, tanks are herrings in a technological sea, as is the carrier. But, the fat lady hasn’t quit sung land warfare away. As you said, “cut the coms…” When the computers go down, it’s all fun and games again, and infantry, armor and artillery are a nations best friend.
Russian tanks suck ass. That’s why this vid is s funny.
ghostsniperAugust 27, 2020, 4:36 AM
At Fort Knox (Home of Armor) in the screaming hot summer of 1974 my unit was marching past a tank range to who knows where when they let off a volley of several shots in a row. Whoa. I felt it in my marrow. If you haven’t heard a tank in person you don’t know what you’re missing. BIG sound.
A year or so later I was in Wildflecken and I could hear the tanks and howitzers out on the distant ranges and wondered what it was all about. Sometimes I would commandeer an unused Jeep and head out to the ranges on a weekend and sit on a distant hill and watch the tanks and howitzers for hours. Smoke a bowl, sip some suds, and watch those larger than life mechanical dinosaurs of the 20th century bellowing their anger, their fury, their smoke, flames, and ordinance. I could almost see the high arced “bullets” flying through the air at targets a mile away. First, the barrel would fly backwards and the whole tank would rock to the rear, then a couple seconds later the sound would roll across the terrain to my ears. There was almost a sonic wind attached to the sound that would rattle the finest hairs on the arms and face. I likes me sum BIG guns. Outdated? Hardly. Only the unfamiliar could utter such a thing. “Clank clank, I’m a tank.”
FirecaptAugust 27, 2020, 7:00 AM
No worries on the Coronavirus in the stands, the vodka vapors will keep them away.
LoverniosAugust 27, 2020, 7:31 AM
Back in 72-75 I was part of HHB 3rd Armored Division Artillery. Spent a lot of time af Grafenvoehr, FRD the US Army Training Area. Huge installation used to train armored and artillery units. Several of the brigade commanders, including Col. Floyd C. Adams Jr. of Div Arty, must have been bored, so they decided to have a tank competition. Each officer would be a “tank commander” for a day and follow a course engaging multiple targets.
Now, Col. Adams was a very flamboyant character. Always wore a red ascot and tank boots which had bucket instead of laces. So he had me and another soldier, an excellent artist, custom paint his tank. First the whole tank was cleaned and repainted. Then we painted a huge fireball on each side of the turret with the logo, “A-Team”. This tank had a bulldozer blade in front which we painted bright red with a silver eagle emblazoned in the middle. Col. Adams was a bird colonel and red is the color of Artillery.
He was determined to win this battle, so he had us go out to the tank range and map out the course, completed with target locations and distance from the firing positions. I never learned who won, but I suppose it wasn’t Col, Adams. But he did have the best custom tank!
Yep tanks are so yesterday. However I suspect it would be prudent to be prepared to fight either yesterday’s or tomorrow’s war. The way things are interconnected in the civilization, a vital lynchpin failure in the power network or the information exchange net, etc., and all at once it’s 1910 all over again.
mmackAugust 27, 2020, 8:27 AM
Lovernios,
Great story! I can just imagine an M-48 or M-60 with a giant fireball painted on each side of the turret and an Arrest-me Red tank dozer blade.
“You boys CAN get this paint off the tank, right?” 😆
Almost as good as the cheesecake girls the USMC painted on the tanks they used in the PTO in WW2, or the Soviet tank crews painting “SMASH THE FACIST VIPERS!” and related FUs to Hitler and the Nazis on their tank turrets in WW2.
Casey KlahnAugust 27, 2020, 8:44 AM
Tank officers are like the fukn mafia. They want to be the pointy end, but they can’t overcome the fact that they aren’t infantry. OTOH, infantry guys love and need tanks, and arty. badly.
I chuckled when my old NG brigade reflagged from mech Inf to Armor, then deployed to Iraq, and went back to fukn walking everywhere. Including the arty. Every swinging dick was infantry-tasked. My dark heart was filled with the schadenfreude.
Ghost, the story goes of a cocky L.T. who decided to approach the line of tanks conducting live fire. Two main guns cracked off at the same time, and crushed his head with the concussion. I did my time as a PVT, of course. I manned a lonesome target bunker at the desert tank range (Yakima). It was hot, as usual, and we propped the door open. BAM! A round hit at a bit of a deflection angle, and sprayed rocks in the door like bullets. Never saw 2 privates run to close a steel door so fast.
To sharpen my point, Russians have no idea which end of the tank the rounds come out of. Note their molasses slow approach to Berlin. The Swedes beat their asses. Seriously, Russian soldiery is nothing to look up to. Borodino was about their finest moment, and only because they happened to have a genius in charge. Once.
In the big war, the Krauts showed them and pretty much everybody, in detail, how war is done. After all, they did write the book on that shit. Americans, in particular Patton, learned the tricks, and bested them, but that was no small thing.
Personal note. My dad said that when they rushed the Po River (first and fastest, without orders, and with their fists up the Brits’ collective asses), the Germans had to swim. The banks were lined up with gleaming officers’ boots, and Mark IVs and Vs with topped-off gas tanks. He crossed the river under direct-fire 88mm air bursts. Tank warfare is fully capable of eating your shit, and they do enjoy it.
Real World Address for Donations, Mash Notes and Hate Mail
Gerard Van der Leun
1692 MANGROVE AVE
APT 379
Chico, Ca 95926
Green Pants Interior by Klahn
Who Am I? by Carl Sandburg
My head knocks against the stars.
My feet are on the hilltops.
My finger-tips are in the valleys and shores of universal life.
Down in the sounding foam of primal things I reach my hands and play with pebbles of destiny.
I have been to hell and back many times.
I know all about heaven, for I have talked with God.
I dabble in the blood and guts of the terrible.
I know the passionate seizure of beauty
And the marvelous rebellion of man at all signs reading “Keep Off.”
My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive in the universe.
Duty, Beauty, Liberty, Country, Honor, Family, Faith — Plus a few simple easy to follow rules for guys
Men saw the stars at the edge of the sea
They thought great thoughts about liberty
Poets wrote down words that did fit
Writers wrote books
Thinkers thought about it
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
Many’s the road I have walked upon
Many’s the hour between dusk and dawn
Many’s the time
Many’s the mile
I see it all now
Through the eyes of a child
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
And close your eyes
Leave it all for a while
Leave the world
And your worries behind
You will build on whatever is real
And wake up each day
To a new waking dream
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Change, change come over
Change come over
Talkin’ about a change
Change, change
Change come over, now
Change, change, change come over
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
Gerard Van der Leun
Comments on this entry are closed.
F*ck the NBA!
In the name of diversity and inclusion, we should have entered the BIPOC Abrams battle tank, aka the “Stacey,” in the tank biathlon. Put the fear of God in those Rooskies, she would.
Gerard,
Thanks for sticking the shiv in sir. ☹️ As a longtime Indianapolis 500 attendee I was fed up with the stringing along from IMS, Indianapolis Mayor Hog’s Ass, and Indiana Governor How Dumb. Because racing inches apart at 220+ MPH is A-OK if you have The Mask to avoid the Corona. But all the fans will get sick and die. 🤦🏻♂️
Tanks are so yesterday.
Cut the com’s and they are just target practice.
When was the last tank war ? (that wasn’t decided beforehand).
This is, after all, the satellite age.
We are already at the point where nobody will even let their jets takeoff, and they still get disabled while in their bunkers.
Not even a fair fight.
Now the question is, just how hard are we going to beat down the bully.
uk(us), my compliments. You might as well say that maneuver war is so yesterday.
Of course, that’d be signing your surrender document ahead of time, too. Once you ignore war’s tenets, a great big handful of war’s substance rises up and bites you on the ass.
Sure, tanks are herrings in a technological sea, as is the carrier. But, the fat lady hasn’t quit sung land warfare away. As you said, “cut the coms…” When the computers go down, it’s all fun and games again, and infantry, armor and artillery are a nations best friend.
Russian tanks suck ass. That’s why this vid is s funny.
At Fort Knox (Home of Armor) in the screaming hot summer of 1974 my unit was marching past a tank range to who knows where when they let off a volley of several shots in a row. Whoa. I felt it in my marrow. If you haven’t heard a tank in person you don’t know what you’re missing. BIG sound.
A year or so later I was in Wildflecken and I could hear the tanks and howitzers out on the distant ranges and wondered what it was all about. Sometimes I would commandeer an unused Jeep and head out to the ranges on a weekend and sit on a distant hill and watch the tanks and howitzers for hours. Smoke a bowl, sip some suds, and watch those larger than life mechanical dinosaurs of the 20th century bellowing their anger, their fury, their smoke, flames, and ordinance. I could almost see the high arced “bullets” flying through the air at targets a mile away. First, the barrel would fly backwards and the whole tank would rock to the rear, then a couple seconds later the sound would roll across the terrain to my ears. There was almost a sonic wind attached to the sound that would rattle the finest hairs on the arms and face. I likes me sum BIG guns. Outdated? Hardly. Only the unfamiliar could utter such a thing. “Clank clank, I’m a tank.”
No worries on the Coronavirus in the stands, the vodka vapors will keep them away.
Back in 72-75 I was part of HHB 3rd Armored Division Artillery. Spent a lot of time af Grafenvoehr, FRD the US Army Training Area. Huge installation used to train armored and artillery units. Several of the brigade commanders, including Col. Floyd C. Adams Jr. of Div Arty, must have been bored, so they decided to have a tank competition. Each officer would be a “tank commander” for a day and follow a course engaging multiple targets.
Now, Col. Adams was a very flamboyant character. Always wore a red ascot and tank boots which had bucket instead of laces. So he had me and another soldier, an excellent artist, custom paint his tank. First the whole tank was cleaned and repainted. Then we painted a huge fireball on each side of the turret with the logo, “A-Team”. This tank had a bulldozer blade in front which we painted bright red with a silver eagle emblazoned in the middle. Col. Adams was a bird colonel and red is the color of Artillery.
He was determined to win this battle, so he had us go out to the tank range and map out the course, completed with target locations and distance from the firing positions. I never learned who won, but I suppose it wasn’t Col, Adams. But he did have the best custom tank!
Yep tanks are so yesterday. However I suspect it would be prudent to be prepared to fight either yesterday’s or tomorrow’s war. The way things are interconnected in the civilization, a vital lynchpin failure in the power network or the information exchange net, etc., and all at once it’s 1910 all over again.
Lovernios,
Great story! I can just imagine an M-48 or M-60 with a giant fireball painted on each side of the turret and an Arrest-me Red tank dozer blade.
“You boys CAN get this paint off the tank, right?” 😆
Almost as good as the cheesecake girls the USMC painted on the tanks they used in the PTO in WW2, or the Soviet tank crews painting “SMASH THE FACIST VIPERS!” and related FUs to Hitler and the Nazis on their tank turrets in WW2.
Tank officers are like the fukn mafia. They want to be the pointy end, but they can’t overcome the fact that they aren’t infantry. OTOH, infantry guys love and need tanks, and arty. badly.
I chuckled when my old NG brigade reflagged from mech Inf to Armor, then deployed to Iraq, and went back to fukn walking everywhere. Including the arty. Every swinging dick was infantry-tasked. My dark heart was filled with the schadenfreude.
Ghost, the story goes of a cocky L.T. who decided to approach the line of tanks conducting live fire. Two main guns cracked off at the same time, and crushed his head with the concussion. I did my time as a PVT, of course. I manned a lonesome target bunker at the desert tank range (Yakima). It was hot, as usual, and we propped the door open. BAM! A round hit at a bit of a deflection angle, and sprayed rocks in the door like bullets. Never saw 2 privates run to close a steel door so fast.
To sharpen my point, Russians have no idea which end of the tank the rounds come out of. Note their molasses slow approach to Berlin. The Swedes beat their asses. Seriously, Russian soldiery is nothing to look up to. Borodino was about their finest moment, and only because they happened to have a genius in charge. Once.
In the big war, the Krauts showed them and pretty much everybody, in detail, how war is done. After all, they did write the book on that shit. Americans, in particular Patton, learned the tricks, and bested them, but that was no small thing.
Personal note. My dad said that when they rushed the Po River (first and fastest, without orders, and with their fists up the Brits’ collective asses), the Germans had to swim. The banks were lined up with gleaming officers’ boots, and Mark IVs and Vs with topped-off gas tanks. He crossed the river under direct-fire 88mm air bursts. Tank warfare is fully capable of eating your shit, and they do enjoy it.