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If you served on the M551A1 you enjoyed the fruits of our labors. My first test project at the Armor Board after DEROS was the Hughes LASER RF, the element that made an A1 of an M551. They would also get the TTS but that work was done after my time. Lots of gunnery on the LRF & it was a pretty...

The M114 was rapidly pulled from U.S. service in Vietnam and handed over to the ARVN, who didn't much appreciate them either. The front overhang of the hull in front of the track greatly limited it's cross-country mobility. It would be stopped by terrain that an M113 would easily take in stride...

One of the remarkable things about the toy industry during this period was how on top of developments they were, defense tech advance as it was. Of the numerous "green army men" toys introduced (in the often not green "ringhand" and "slothand" scale) with the new plastics was an MPC "tank" that...

No, Sir. The M60 never served in Vietnam. The very distinct variant of Combat Engineer Vehicle, the M728 saw some use, but it is quite a different beast. The USMC introduced the M48 when the first BLT arrived. The Army deployed them in increasing numbers, rapidly replacing any gassers with the...

In fact the first armor deployed by the U.S. forces was in 1965 with the coming of the USMC Battalion Landing Team, which included a tank section. When the administration approved the deployment of the BLT, they were not aware that tanks were organic to the unit. The USMC had been given no...

It is a reasonably good article. The main criticism I'd have concerns the "lunge" mines & some conflation of the term "fougasse" (which they really aren't). I've armed many a flame fougasse and examined others, like stone fougasses & the only thing they have in common with the Lunge device is...

By the time I made it to 2/17th Air Cav, 101st Abn. we were up to "H" models, I believe and AH-1G's with OH-6A LOH's, the trifecta of Air Cavalry in 1971. The Cobras were even getting air conditioning by then. One of the great "never say never" examples was the observation that UH-1H's were...

Patton was capable of any number of intemperate remarks that were in the press and in at least one case, pointedly refuted by BG J.H. "PeeWee" Collier, CG of Combat Command A. in 2AD CG Isaak D. White's report to SHAEF (Eisenhower) on a late war comparison of U.S. vs. German arms and equipment...

Good to know he can be met in the flesh. I always assumed he was a replicant given his skills. As serious as he is about his craft, he is refreshingly also a seemingly big kid who loves his job, something you don't often see in dedicated professionals. I still watch his Barrett .50BMG sequences...

In another life I performed a lot of technical service to medical laboratories around the U.S. This included government facilities like the Naval Hospital at Camp Pendleton when I was living in San Diego. In even the life before that I was with the U.S. Army in Vietnam, both Air and Armored...

We had several M113 ACAV's in 2/11th ACR equipped with the Mk19. Not useful in heavy bush but in more open areas....

We were still using the VSS-1 Xenon searchlights when i served. 😄

Correct, no M60 or A1 had the LRF's. It was integral to the A2 and the later A3 came out several years after I ETS'd. I never experienced TTS, only the PVS-1 Starlight Scope in VN.

The LRF comments are gratifying to hear. My first Test Project at the Armor & Engineer Board (Ft. Knox) was the add-on Hughes LRF which began in March or April of 1972. Lengthy project on which I fired many rounds. Relatively trouble free & an improvement on the choke reticle if the target was...

Thanks, I do have a certain amount of experience on select armor/cavalry/vietnam-cold war topics. The article's author has a great deal of influence in certain communities, which is why I commented, as it's worth of correction. His experience was apparently with the "three quarter" Cav, one of...

While I have the greatest respect for Dale Dye, there are a number of significant and misleading comments in his assessment. 1. The 152mm gun/launcher was most definitely not a smoothbore. It was rifled with a keyway cut at the 6 o'clock position that a key on the Shillelagh Missile ventral side...