We're the Military and Airpower Guys of Jonah Goldberg of National Review Online + a stray we found wandering around looking lost. All original material JHD, BHD, JR, WT, and KA 2003-2007 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/10/getting_to_the_fight_part_6.html Sun, 03 Aug 2008 17:18:02 Z Movable Type 4.12 en Copyright 2008 http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification Part 6 of Blake's Behind-the-Scenes look at the GWOT. Miscellany and Curiosities Been working my butt off again, literally. I’m having to tighten my belt to keep my pants up, which isn’t a bad thing considering that my doctor would like me to lose 40 pounds or so. A bit of an explanation seems in order here. The basic process for deploying unit equipment in theater is that we get the stuff off the ship, then move the stuff to the staging base. Some of the equipment is unpacked there in order for the deploying unit to conduct required training,... http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/10/getting_to_the_fight_part_6.html http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/10/getting_to_the_fight_part_6.html Mon, 10 Oct 2005 07:27:29 -0600 found this. I think we can lay this one down as solved... though I'll still get some more definitive info for CAPT H on US 90mm guns.]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/10/getting_to_the_fight_part_6.html#comment-32915 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/10/getting_to_the_fight_part_6.html#comment-32915 Thu, 13 Oct 2005 13:35:57 -0600 The vehicle in question is a M36B1. It is the M36 90mm turret mounted on an M4 an was a late war production and never really saw service. After the war, bunches of M36B1s were sent overseas. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/10/getting_to_the_fight_part_6.html#comment-32912 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/10/getting_to_the_fight_part_6.html#comment-32912 Thu, 13 Oct 2005 13:22:21 -0600 WRTO muzzle brakes, the one in the photo of the M26 that John provided a link to, along with the bore evacuator, look very similar to the set in my photos. I'm still inclined to identify the Polish prize as an M36, and the suggestion that it was originally an Iraqi trophy from the Iran-Iraq War makes a good deal of sense. I suppose that converting it into a flamethrower tank made sense to somebody at some point, too. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/10/getting_to_the_fight_part_6.html#comment-32857 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/10/getting_to_the_fight_part_6.html#comment-32857 Wed, 12 Oct 2005 13:56:05 -0600 Dear John, I guess I went a little too far, because I read that beautiful poem. It reminds me of the Revolutionary War! This is a wonderful post in itself! I wish I knew as much as you guys do. Then again, the Navy turned me down. :( Oh well. I can still pray for everyone else! Have a great day. :) http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/10/getting_to_the_fight_part_6.html#comment-32797 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/10/getting_to_the_fight_part_6.html#comment-32797 Tue, 11 Oct 2005 12:08:44 -0600 John, I saw the vehicles from Afghanistan while they were sitting at Campbell Army Airfield waiting for transport to Knox. (It was someone from 5th SFG that found them, I think.) They were clearly Renaults, and not the Ford model shown in your photo. Those SF guys *WILL* go looking for souveneirs, though, won't they. For a while the 5th SFG had a factory-new D-30 122mm howitzer sitting in one of their yards. (The color of the paint on new Russian hardware is kind of distincive.) Never did hear where they got that one. Fort Campbell recently decided to recover the Gun, Motor Carriage, M7 that's been lying for years off a trail somewhere between Oriental Village Road and Heavy Beast FLS/LZ. It's been there for years. I remember driving past it several times when I was still on active duty in the later 80's. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/10/getting_to_the_fight_part_6.html#comment-32783 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/10/getting_to_the_fight_part_6.html#comment-32783 Tue, 11 Oct 2005 03:43:46 -0600 Ford 3 Tonner owned by the Patton Museum at Fort Knox (which might even be one of the three I discovered abandoned in the woods behind the firing line of the known distance range at Fort McClellan, back in 1978. And here is a wartime M26 Pershing, a contemporary of the M36. ]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/10/getting_to_the_fight_part_6.html#comment-32780 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/10/getting_to_the_fight_part_6.html#comment-32780 Mon, 10 Oct 2005 22:54:02 -0600 Rich, that reminds me of a very bad story I heard from a senior official at Ga. Tech, in front of thousands of us, back in 1968. It seems that a fellow got himself a hunting licence, armed and equipped himself, and went out hunting. Well, what showed up as the first sizable large critter in his sight, but a young, good-looking, totally naked, cheerful friendly female human woman. The poor boy was taken aback, a bit, not expecting such a thing. However, he was not struck speechless. He asked her, "Are you game?" She nodded, grinning widely. . . . . . . . . . . . . . So, he shot her. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/10/getting_to_the_fight_part_6.html#comment-32779 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/10/getting_to_the_fight_part_6.html#comment-32779 Mon, 10 Oct 2005 21:19:49 -0600 John, do you have photos of other US 90mm guns, as the muzzle brake in Blake's photo does not look correct: it looks French. Ford 3-tonner???? Cheers http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/10/getting_to_the_fight_part_6.html#comment-32778 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/10/getting_to_the_fight_part_6.html#comment-32778 Mon, 10 Oct 2005 21:11:42 -0600 Dang! 18-wheelers? I do believe that's a 22-wheeler! http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/10/getting_to_the_fight_part_6.html#comment-32777 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/10/getting_to_the_fight_part_6.html#comment-32777 Mon, 10 Oct 2005 21:04:04 -0600 IIRC, I thought they were actually Ford 3-tonners, but I could be wrong (even *weirder* if they were). http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/10/getting_to_the_fight_part_6.html#comment-32767 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/10/getting_to_the_fight_part_6.html#comment-32767 Mon, 10 Oct 2005 14:33:16 -0600 What can one say? Third World armies have wierd equipment. Some of it put together from odd bits left lying around in scrap heaps. For example, the old Yemeni Army at one point had the same Emerson-built Vulcan turret that the US used on an M113 hull, but the Yemenis had mounted theirs on old Russian-made BTR-152 armored trucks. And a couple of years ago, an SF type in Afghanistan found a couple of WW1-era Renault light tanks in a scrap heap, and arranged to have them flown back to Fort Campbell and then trucked to the Patton Museum at Fort Knox. The curators there have some hope that from the two they can reconstruct one operable example. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/10/getting_to_the_fight_part_6.html#comment-32766 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/10/getting_to_the_fight_part_6.html#comment-32766 Mon, 10 Oct 2005 14:25:45 -0600 It's also *not* on the standard chassis, either, Blake. That threw me for a minute, kind of like seeing a bobblehead doll with Donovan McNabb's head on Sammy Sosa's body... http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/10/getting_to_the_fight_part_6.html#comment-32764 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/10/getting_to_the_fight_part_6.html#comment-32764 Mon, 10 Oct 2005 13:53:33 -0600 Having moused around the Web for a few minutes, I'm willing to buy the ID of the mystery vehicle as an M36. The muzzle brake and bore evacuator threw me off a bit, as most of the WW2 photos I remembered showed the early model M36's without either. This looked just like the cannon mounted on the M46, and I had assumed it was a retrofit rather than original equipment. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/10/getting_to_the_fight_part_6.html#comment-32762 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/10/getting_to_the_fight_part_6.html#comment-32762 Mon, 10 Oct 2005 13:47:03 -0600 Fully loaded truck? Naw; needs 10 rolls of concertina, a couple of tents, the company clerks desk and the mess gear from the truck that broke down ten miles out of base. Now that would be a loaded truck. Cute blond PFC with the 240: Long ago and far far away I was assigned to a group of people that had a few ladies assigned. We were issued M-1s, no not carbines. One of the very light weight ladies had to have someone behind her to brace her feet when she fired, otherwise she was pushed so far back down from the firing line she could not see the targets. Couldn't hit much but she was game. An Old Fogey http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/10/getting_to_the_fight_part_6.html#comment-32758 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2005/10/getting_to_the_fight_part_6.html#comment-32758 Mon, 10 Oct 2005 12:46:56 -0600