Stupid GI Tricks

[dragoon500ly]

During my 2nd enlistment, I was assigned as an instructor to the Armor School at Fort Knox, Kentucky. Teaching the young'ns all about the M-60A1 tank, this happened (thank gawd!) to another company on the tank range.

Some background for those who have never served on a tank.

The M-60A1 uses a ballistic computer, unlike the modern computer on the M-1, the M60's used a series of geared wheels and cams to input the correct adjustment to the gun tube. To operate, you grasped a t-handle and pushed/pulled to index the correct round. The primary reason for the elevation adjustment is that antitank rounds such as the APDS round are high speed, flat-trajectory rounds, whereas rounds such as HEAT or HEP are low speed, high-trajectory rounds. Herein lies our tale...

One young student gunner had finished his assigned rounds and while exiting the gunner's seat, snagged the handle of the computer and pulled the setting from APDS to HEP.

The new gunner, in his excitment, thought that he had checked the computer and had APDS indexed. The loader placed a APDS training round in the tube and the gunner prepared to fire at the 2,000 meter target. The instructor tank commander failed to notice that the gun tube was at a "unusually high" angle and ordered the gunner to "FIRE!"

On a nearby range, I was coaching trainees on the use of the M-85 machinegun and happened to observe the tracer of a main caliber round flying well over the berm and disappearing well down range.

Needless to say, Range Control had a MAJOR hissy fit and shut down all of the ranges while they investigated.

The training sabot impacted 13 miles downrange, striking a Range Control storage shed, penetrating the roof, several stacks of targets, the concrete slab, and burying itself 7 feet into the ground.

The trainee gunner received a major "arse-chewing". The instructor tank commander received an Article 15 from the Training Brigade Commander and went from Staff Sergeant, E-6 to Private, E-1 in about 2.5 seconds.