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We did not have the TTS, but I was on the Hughes LASER Rangefinder Test Project at the Armor Board. My first test there after Vietnam, 1972. Test on the M551 and also used on the M60A2 (which I also tested). I was appalled to find that it took until the late '70's to get into service on M551's...

My office. I'm fussy about my ammo. And keep your HS/T gauge close at hand.

These were built largely upon M551 Sheridan components. Woe to the crew that tried to use the spade to entrench. These saw a lot of use in Northern "I" Corps. Mutually supporting hilltop FSB's, or with the M110 8" gun, which is the same vehicle, simply re-tubed. I recall securing movement of a...

I used to frequent that stretch of road & loved being overflown by the ones on short final just over the interstate. I happened to be in town on business in Grand Junction, Colorado once when one landed, I think it was unscheduled and made an overnight stay or two. The takeoff was announced for...

That was my life in the Rockies as well. In states where the speeds are elevated (including esp. California) a full face is a must for hard riding. June bugs aren't the worst thing you can hit with your face. Most of the rock I found on the roads was deposited during snow season and waiting to...

I don't know about him, but I was a road warrior for years in the Rocky Mtn. states and went through a lot of windshields and headlights. Those states generally used crushed stone/dirt on snowy roads, not salt. When the snows melt & at end of season there is a lot of this stuff to be thrown up...

Halftracks were at the top of the list of alternatives to full-tracked vehicles to be axed. The entire creation of the APC class of vehicles owes itself to the inadequacies of the halftrack, esp. crew exposure. They still found some use in Korea but they were already condemned. The Army had been...

Three of the five vehicles you mention are wheeled (and two of them essentially the same vehicle with different armament). Considerable effort was given to a conversion from wheels to tracks in the post-WWII environment due to mobility issues cross-country. Everything pretty much went to tracks...

FYI, the two most influential "reports" in the post-war history of American Armor was the ARCOVE report (1958) and the document it spawned, "Mobility, Firepower & Protection"1959 (hereafter "MFP"). ARCOVE was the final report of the Ad Hoc Commitee on Armament for Future Combat Vehicles. It was...

A dear, late friend of mine was on the team that completely restored the M50 then at Ft. Knox, Patton Museum, completed in 2006. It resided there until the Armor Center got BRAC'ed to Ft. Benning/Moore. It is in the historical Cavalry and Armor Collection to this day. He left me a trove of...

..or wedge a 6V53T in there as was done on the M113A3 (an M551 engine in an M113). But then, the M113 was shown to do anything an M114 could do, but do it better. This was all part of a plan to field two "Scout vehicles"...one Scout tank plus a Scout "car" (tracked or wheeled). What we got was...

Basically, a shoulder-fired "mitrailleuse". The typical arrangement allowing for both volley fire or sequential fire on the "crew served" version. The cases collect in the bottom and new "trays" of fresh ammo loaded after firing. This one in Bucharest, Romania could be fired both ways. Depending...

The M114 I like to say, is the only vehicle to ever make the small block Chevy look bad. We had one lurking at the Armor Board and used it as a range mule for setting and retrieving targets at MFO where there were decades of ordnance laying about.

Roger that.

The other significant aspect of that pic is that the vehicle was unable to extricate itself. Insufficient power from the Chevy engine, so the thing is well and truly stuck until recovered.

Interrupter gear for firing through the propeller. Imp. War Museum.

As I suspect you may know, the Hughes LRF was my first Test Project at the Armor Board after DEROS from Vietnam. Are you the familiar "Tumbleweed" from days past?

I believe I recognize the handwriting on that photo....is that you, Vic, or Mark with one of Vic's pictures? The login name also is familiar as being Mark's.

The captured K5 formerly at APG was moved, along with "Atomic Annie" to the TSF at Ft. Lee, now Ft. Gregg-Adams. Both are displayed indoors next to one another, now protected from the elements. APG repaint is from 2007, my photo(s). Ft. Gregg-Adams photos research trip from 2021.

The largest fielded. "Little David" was ~900mm. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_David