A bittersweet honor to be sure, but an honor nonetheless. The vast majority of my career was as a gunner, which I was very good at, to the point where I lost my tank commander slot because the battalion executive officer took me as his gunner. Army, serving in every position loader, driver, gunner, and briefly, commander. I would go on to serve nearly 10 more years on tanks during my time in the U.S. But the view when unbuttoned, which means the tank hatch is open, is very good. The other seats, not so much, I would find out later. The driver's seat is amazingly comfortable. It jumped at the twist of your wrist, and turned nimbly at the slightest input of the t-bar steering column. I remember that the tank didn't feel at all cumbersome or slow. I didn't even have a car driver's license yet but here I was about to drive a 60 ton tank around a carefully planned course. It was in the summer of 1995 when I, an 18 year old recruit, first drove an M1 Abrams tank.Īugust in Fort Knox, Kentucky, was oppressive to say the least, but I don't recall any of that.
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