29 Palms: Heavy Metal

In 1978 the Soviets had their new T-72 tank.  In our S-2 shop, we didn’t know too much about it. In the Marine Corps Reserve, we still had our old M60 tanks produced in the early 1960s.  Twenty-nine Palms is where I first saw ours in numbers because that’s where tankers go to have fun.  I’ve seen these guys drive around firing at targets all day long.  Fire streaks out of the barrel and if they miss, there’s a bright ricochet when the shell hits the ground.  I didn’t see any old hulks used as targets like I did at mortar ranges.  Tires are used instead.  The guy in the picture isn’t having any fun because his tank was out of gas. (Can you believe it?)  He told me all he needed as a funnel and he’d be on his way, so I got him one at supply with my ID card.  The M-60 is big and hot and they had no AC.  I don’t see how those guys in armor stand it; the surface temperature then was 144 degrees.  When I went through weapons orientation at Ft. Hauchuca, Arizona our intelligence class got to crawl inside one of these beasts.  I remember they were reasonably cozy and the turret could be easily cranked manually if the power went out.

My job was with regimental intelligence – S2.  Operations (S3) dealt with American equipment and I have to admit Soviet equipment was my specialty.  CAX78 and exercises like it balances out the theoretical training of books and the class room.  My lowly rank excluded me from training at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, but still I read, especially one primary source account of real war by Chaim Herzog, an ex-Israeli intelligence officer.  He wrote the War of Atonement in 1975.  As I mentioned in a previous post, the Israelis advised us at 29 Palms.  I only saw them mixing with the officers.  Herzog’s account of their war five years earlier jived with all my intelligence training: advancing to lines of departure, diplomatic moves, rehearsals to crossing the Suez, Sadat recording brag sessions of Israeli generals from their previous victories, advancing to the attack on Israel in the morning with the sun blinding Jewish defense.  Then there was Task Force Zvika soundly clobbering Arab units.

The last photo is one taken in front of a 155mm Self Propelled (SP) howitzer.  These are the ones the Marines used before the 198mm came into service with a significant increase in stand-off range.  For those who do not know, the difference between a gun and howitzer is one of angle.  A “gun” fires directly at a target; a “howitzer” fires up at an angle.  Of course you have exceptions, most notably the German 88 which did both - best artillery piece of WWII.  The barrel of the 155mm rests at eight feet, my reach.  A 50 caliber machine guns protects against infantry.  In a day or so we were to stage our gear for the move to Outpost Crampton up in the mountains where it was 20 degrees cooler.  That’s where the combined arms were to be tested in the valley below the outpost.  I soon found out that these exercises are dangerous and people can get killed.