Anti-Tank platoon back in the day

[Jeff82]

Yep, you're right...152mm. I go back to the Eaglehorse.org site to check statistics and anecdotes now and then. It's only been thirty-eight years since I left the unit...my memory should be better...

Great site you mentioned! Brought back some memories for me as I (and my family) lived in BK while stationed at Conn Barracks, Schweinfurt, '95-'99. I actually played an away JV football game at BK in '76 when I was there as a dependent.

[old grunt]

Great to see the old "quarter tons" again("Jeeps" for those of the HUMVEE generation!). They were a blast to drive!

[VB]

Great to see the old "quarter tons" again("Jeeps" for those of the HUMVEE generation!). They were a blast to drive!

[zanshin]

Mostly just got to ride on the back in my first tour with the 82nd. 2nd enlistment in the early 80s I was the CO's preferred driver even tho an E-5. Out at Ft. Carson with 1/12 INF, chains on all 4 tires, hauling ass out through the mud; climbing hills, sliding sideways coming down; trying to keep up with M1 tanks when we'd umpire on their training -- drove right into a ditch monster in the dark following their glow sticks on the antennas... those tanks rolled right across ones that buried us, nearly threw the CPT out of the jeep over the hood. Some of the best times I had in service were in a jeep.

[RAMKILR]

Loved playing "Rat Patrol" with the Jeeps! Really loved driving the Mules, too. But I think my favorite had to be the Gamma Goat - slower than shit, and small payload for how big it was, but swimming it was a blast!

[GERONIMO]

I loved driving the Mule and the Jeep and finally the M151. The M151 was a death trap on the highway untill they locked down the independent suspension in the rear end. Ever wonder why the M151 was never sold in salvage? I got the Expert Drivers badge driving those vehicles. Some great memories. AIRBORNE! GERONIMO!!

[zanshin]

Anybody ever take out the turn-stop bolts so it would turn tighter? They might have been only on A2s carrying the 106mm RR. A guy down in Florida with us flipped one because he had taken them out and tried to corner too hard. Kid in the passenger seat got the barrel of his M-16 stuck through his upper arm when it rolled over on him. Luckily it was the fleshy part just under the skin, no permanent damage, but it sure looked weird sticking out of it.

Another great memory was sling-loading gun jeeps under a slick, standing in the seats holding that big donut up over your head while a Huey crew chief tried to get the bird low enough to crush you.

[VB]

Loved playing "Rat Patrol" with the Jeeps! Really loved driving the Mules, too. But I think my favorite had to be the Gamma Goat - slower than shit, and small payload for how big it was, but swimming it was a blast!

I loved the Jeeps. Never got to play with the Mules, those were for the mortar crews. I loved the Goats too, I never took one on the water but I heard the swam like a rock.

[zanshin]

When we left our TOW jeeps in Vietnam, we came home to find they replaced them with TOWs on Mules. The beginning of the suck. Our entire mission as AT platoon changed with that. I read they got rid of them and went back to jeeps in '74, too late for me.

[VB]

When we left our TOW jeeps in Vietnam, we came home to find they replaced them with TOWs on Mules. The beginning of the suck. Our entire mission as AT platoon changed with that. I read they got rid of them and went back to jeeps in '74, too late for me.

Yup, they had the TOWs on Jeeps when I got to Devision, but they still had the 109s (?) on the some of the Jeeps too. I only saw those fired on the range once. The tracer rounds looked like a meteorite flying acorss the sky. Pretty cool.

[Jeff82]

(106mm- 105 actual, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M40_recoilless_rifle)

[zanshin]

Only thing I hated more than firing that big, noisy bastard was cleaning it for 3 day afterwards. Our gun room was inside the barracks, right across from Top's office, and we had to maneuver the things down the hall and out the door, then down the steps. All without screwing up the wax shine on the floor.

[VB]

(106mm- 105 actual, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M40_recoilless_rifle)

Yup, that's it.

[Sgt Rich]

Only thing I hated more than firing that big, noisy bastard was cleaning it for 3 day afterwards. Our gun room was inside the barracks, right across from Top's office, and we had to maneuver the things down the hall and out the door, then down the steps. All without screwing up the wax shine on the floor.

This illustrates the advantage of being part of Old Division, for one thing...

[zanshin]

You mean the old two-story Korean War era wooden barracks? We used to go over there and do riot training before deploying to DC for hippy crowd control and Florida for the '72 Republican National Convention. Then they turned part of it into CCF, Correctional Custody Facility, the low-speed soldier retraining camp you never wanted to get stuck in.