Thread:SCORNFUL1/@comment-26288702-20171027133154/@comment-28358106-20171112173512

Lol, now THAT is a story. Man, what an amazing, rare experience that must've been. My adventure was just being allowed to tag along on weekend manoeuvres. I was 18, and temporarily issued a uniform, web gear, CVC (Tank crewman helmet) the whole woks. I spent two days hanging out with these guys, learning their procedures and stuff. My dad was the Battalion Command SM at the time, and I already knew about a lot of the vernacular. The guys were all my age, and not much older, so we hit it off pretty well.

I was posted as the loader on an M1A1 Abrams, which is that second cupola on the left of the turret. We went through safety briefings and the orders of the day, and they told me what to do and not to do and where to stand in the cupola so I wouldn't rack myself, get my foot chopped off when the turret turned, etc.

I got to help change a track link, which was actually awful work, because a single link weighs 100 pounds. We spent a couple of hours on that alone. Then we climbed in, got our CVCs linked up, and the engine of that tank fired up.

And holy shit. I knew that they were powered by jet engines, but to hear all that power being unleashed in that giant, armored beast...incredible.

And then, the commander, the 'old man' who was like 26, looked at me and grinned, and said, 'you wanna drive it?'

It was like climbing into a mech. All the switches and displays, the viewport and the new night vision screen...it was the most powerful feeling I've ever felt in my life. And the controls arealmost like a car, a steering wheel, two pedals and a shifter. And all the knobs and switches I was told not to touch, of course.