XBradTC

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XBradTC

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M60A3

The last M60A3s in the active inventory of the Army were at Fort Carson, CO. Indeed, in early 1992, I was quite surprised to see them on post. Within a few months of my arrival, the tanks of the divisional cavalry squadron were retired and replaced with M1A1s, making the regular Army an all M1…

The last M60A3s in the active inventory of the Army were at Fort Carson, CO. Indeed, in early 1992, I was quite surprised to see them on post. Within a few months of my arrival, the tanks of the divisional cavalry squadron were retired and replaced with M1A1s, making the regular Army an all M1 fleet.

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Responses to “M60A3”

  1. .5mt

    Dang now, that was excellent. Do the Juice still have any I. Inventory?

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  2. ron snyder

    Good video. Struck me once more that in the service a 20 year old Sgt. is entrusted with a $5 Million tank -in the civilian world many companies require reams of paperwork and multiple levels of supervision for a 20 year old to spend $500.
    I had not realized that the driver was isolated from the rest of the tank crew. No sure how much I would like that.

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  3. McThag

    My first assigned tank was an M60A3 (TTS). Arrived that the unit, 2-37 Armor, did one road march out on the German roads, spent the next month scouring them clean to turn in for brand new M1(IP)’s and a unit name change to 3-34 Armor.
    Two years later, we were exchanging the M1(IP) for M1A1(HA).
    It’s weird to look back and see how many such transitions there were. M3A1 SMG to an M16A1 then M16A2. M1911 to M9… M85 to M2HB. Our ’60’s already had the M240 so I never dealt with an M219 or M73 (but man did you hear about them from the old-timers; some of those guys might have been THIRTY YEARS OLD!).

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  4. ChrisP

    Back in the early ’70s, Yakima firing center was awash in M60s from Ft Lewis. They turned the desert into dust that would get into everything!
    We’d go over there to do some long-range arty and they were everywhere. Was fun to watch them shoot & scoot though…

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  5. Eric the OC Tanker

    Shoot, my first tank was a M60A1 Rise AOS (IR elbow)2.5Kw searchlight. M10 ballistic computer (electro-mechanical) coincidence rangefinder, M85 .50 cal commanders weapon, M73/M219 coax, M3/A1 grease gun, and a case of MCI’s (C-Rats). first MOS was 11E10R8

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  6. Casey

    Eric, I’ve seen more than one photo of an M60 with a searchlight mounted on the turret, and now I can ask: why?

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  7. XBradTC

    Casey, the baseline M60, the M60A1, M60A2 and early M60A3 lacked the TTS, or Tank Thermal Sight. Up to that time, the most effective night system was the whopping xenon searchlight, which had quite a bit of range. It was something to see, with the lights snapping on and off.
    Once the TTS came into service on the A3s, obviously, the searchlights were no longer needed.

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