Having had a chance to evaluate most modern tanks in service as of 2002 the German Leopard 2A6, the British FV4034 Challenger 2, The French LeClerc, and a substantial number of old Soviet and current Russian tanks, I can say that the M1 Abrams series, especially in its current iterations, earns its place at, or sharing the top, of the tank food chain. Girona is pictured front right holding a M240 machine gun. Glenn Girona with his platoon in Baghdad in the summer of 2003. It was from the gunners seat that I departed out of Friedberg Germany and entered into central Baghdad under the crossed swords of the ironically named Victory Arch in 2003 as part of the 1st Battalion 37th Armored Regiment (37th Armor), also known as 1-37 Armor Task Force "Bandits." To be honest, driving the tank is not typically a very difficult task, in fact many units assign the newest member of the crew to drive, meaning the next man to eventually move into the gunners seat is in the turret with the tank commander and gunner to prepare for his (or "her" now, but tank crews were male only during the time I served) promotion to the aptly named "Gunners Hole." A bittersweet honor to be sure, but an honor nonetheless. The vast majority of my career was as a gunner, which I was very good at, to the point where I lost my tank commander slot because the battalion executive officer took me as his gunner. Army, serving in every position loader, driver, gunner, and briefly, commander. I would go on to serve nearly 10 more years on tanks during my time in the U.S. But the view when unbuttoned, which means the tank hatch is open, is very good. The other seats, not so much, I would find out later. The driver's seat is amazingly comfortable. It jumped at the twist of your wrist, and turned nimbly at the slightest input of the t-bar steering column. I remember that the tank didn't feel at all cumbersome or slow. I didn't even have a car driver's license yet but here I was about to drive a 60 ton tank around a carefully planned course. It was in the summer of 1995 when I, an 18 year old recruit, first drove an M1 Abrams tank.Īugust in Fort Knox, Kentucky, was oppressive to say the least, but I don't recall any of that.
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