Quote:
Originally Posted by dragoon500ly
That's something that has been bothering me about the stories out of Desert Storm/Iraq and combat loss M1s...
SOP for the 2nd ACR was that each tank would carry certain additional ordnance; 4 anti-tank mines, 4 claymore mines and 12 hand grenades, 4 of which are thermite grenades according to my old journal.
If we were required to abandon a tank, you manually opened the turret ammo rack, and pulled several rounds out and left them on the turret floor, you then pulled the AT mines out and dropped one in the driver's compartment, one in the gunner's seat, one on top of the radio and one in the engine compartment. Last thing the tank commander did as he left the vehicle was to arm and drop a thermite grenade into the driver's compartment, the turret and the engine compartment...between the thermite, the AT mines and the main gun rounds, there would have been very little left to salvage.
And then you hear stories of crews just leaving the tank...WTF, over!?!?!
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Yeah I was wondering the same thing too. What was more shocking were some of the photos of M1s that had been 'disabled' then 'stripped'. You could still see it was M1. Being a former paratrooper, I even knew that there use to be SOP in place that would leave just a hulk of worthless scrap once everything was said and done. I total agree WTF.
Now with that said and realizing that some of these vehicle if not most were later recovered and dispose of properly. It was still one hell of gamble since our supplies lines were at best paper thin.
I think it was just another thing where priorities went askew. Remember the price tag of said M1. Why make it unrecoverable, there was a high likely hood that we would recover it and then send it to the depot to be resurrected. Then they wonder why when something has to be done it isn't done properly....