Some Videos for Your Amusement
Things in the heavy equipment are a tad sparse, but I’m sure there will be more to come.
The M1A1 Abrams tank in action at gunnery practice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ma9iw-EDiAE
Video courtesy Aire Source Military
And mortars, which come in all sizes and colors:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v772NNOTY8M
Video courtesy: Matsimus
And please don’t blow up SGT Hulka!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fjj4a3zB1ag
RIP Warren Oates. After leaving high school in 1945, he served two years in the USMC as an aircraft mechanic, before he went into acting for Sam Peckinpah.
Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work"
Sgt. Hulka-Stripes
Canadian Artillery Wakeup
giggle snort…been there, helped do this…Good Times. After Pvt Snuffy was awakened, he was allowed to bore brush all the 105 tubes.
Tanks…mobile Artillery!
Mortars…portable Artillery!
No SFC Hulkas in my Basic…Had our fair share of stripes goof off idiots tho. They usually got recycled.
Warren Oates…a good man and actor. Loved his work.
I watched the mortar flick but did not see any pestles. All kidding aside, I did take one of the courses that the Nat. Guard had and one of them was mortars. The kit came with a guide and a plastic plot board I think that it was called. Had a rough time but one of the guys I worked with was an Army Vet Mortarman and showed me how to use the plastic piece. The courses were called sub courses and I took a number of them between 75-77. Capt. Sherrow was also a member of the unit I was in. I remember sending Jonn a copy of my Guard DD214 when Sherrow was posted on the TAH site.
Used to mail home the parachutes from illumination rounds. Friend tossed a cat off the School stadium and it worked but the cat tore the thing to shreds upon landing.
I heard a similar story about a SF team rigging a parachute for their mascot, a spider monkey. Story was that the monkey was fine right up until the canopy opened, and as scared monkeys do, he started climbing.
Wow, that gun stabilizer on the M1 Abrams is something. The tank is moving and the main gun barrel just floats in the air. Damn.
Stabilization is definitely a gunners friend.
At the 1:39 mark on the video, I especially liked where the loader smacks his CVC on the hatch opening……been there, done that myownself a time or two. (smile)
https://youtu.be/ma9iw-EDiAE?t=94
Reminds me of the Star Wars movie were The Storm Trooper smacked his helmet on the passage way door frame on the Death Star.
(Wonder if dropped an “F-Bomb” like tankers do?)