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Felix

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by Felix

  1. Best gunner I ever saw, bar none. Do you have any idea how hard it is to win a Battalion Gunnery Cup if you aren't the Battalion Commander? Those dudes are usually crewing a tank with the battalion master gunner on the gun, an E-6 driving and an E-5 loading.
  2. We each got to fire 5 rounds in AIT before we ever hit our units. Each man. Now these are training rounds, which is also what we shot in gunnery qualification and training. Training ammo is slightly tuned down from war shots. I don't remember the exact numbers but muzzle velocity for war shot Sabot was like 1400 meters per second, while training sabot was closer to 1200 mps but the projectiles were also aluminum instead of DU so the ballistics were very similar. When we fired war shots, which was far less often you could tell the difference. The training ammo is easier on the tanks.
  3. Tank primer #2 - Gunnery AKA The most fun you can have with your clothes on We trained on this all the time. It was our primary mission. Placing steel on target. I'm sure it's pretty much the same now, but we shot a full crew gunnery qualification at least once a year, sometimes twice depending on where you were deployed. This consists of multiple engagements both stationary and moving against armor, both moving and stationary, and infantry. We also spent at least an hour a week in simulators fine tuning our crew interaction, fire commands, etc. The M1 is so good at putting steel on target, you have to almost try to miss once you know what you are doing. We could hit targets out to 4000 meters, but most engagement was under 2000 meters. Training standards in my day were 6 seconds from target identification to target destruction while stationary and 8 seconds moving if I remember correctly, but most crews trained to a 4 or 6 second standard. By the early 90s we were no longer using daylight optics as our primary sights. Thermal was primary for all weather and light conditions because they were so effective. Vehicles GLOW in thermal sights in any weather, day or night, fog, smoke, hot, cold, desert, snow, forest, whatever. Troops are smaller but also stand out against background temp. A typical firing engagement against enemy armor would begin with the Tank Commander (TC, duh) using his TC override handle to point the gun to the target he's evaluated as the most immediate threat. For example a stationary tank is considered a greater threat than a moving tank. Obviously a tank is a greater threat than a BMP or troops. He would then issue his fire command to the gunner "Gunner, Sabot, Tank" is an example. Usually the preferred ammo is already loaded at the beginning of the engagement, but this assumes the gun is empty. Loader then loads announced ammo or simply takes the main gun off safe and declares "Up". Simultaneously the gunner announces "Identified" to let the TC know he has the target and lays the main gun on the target. If the target is stationary, he then announces "lasing" and the range comes up simultaneously on his sight and the TCs panel. If the target is moving he "drops the lead" by quickly releasing the control yoke as the computer uses turret movement and range to calculate lead. TC quickly determines if it's a valid range (sometimes if there is intervening terrain you can get a bad lase) and if he determines it's good announces "Fire". After lasing the fire control computer will use the range plus a bunch of other factors like temp, humidity, gun barrel temp, ammo temp, elevation changes, and a myriad of others to adjust the reticle and the gunner simply replaces it center of mass and announces "On the way" and pulls the trigger. Big boom follows, spent casing is ejected and breach stays open. On the 120 mm the casing is designed to burn up and all that comes back is the butt plate of casing with a longish metal rod so it's easy to get rid of. Loader then waits for next fire command to determine ammo needed and uses his knee to trigger a switch to open the ammo doors, pulls the required round, drops it butt down, rotates it over and rams into the breach which then closes. The above process repeats as needed. This doesn't cover machine gun engagements or other types of ammo or vehicles, but you get the idea. CSB when I was in Korea as a PFC, I was the driver on the tank the won the Battalion cup for gunnery. Our gunner was an absolute wizard. On our first moving engagement the main gun hydraulic cylinder blew so the gun just dropped to it's lowest elevation. Turret still worked so as the gunner lined up, the TC just put his foot on the breach and pushed it all the way down and as it slowly came back down (it was very well balanced) our gunner would fire as it came down onto the target. We hit 4 targets like that on the move with no stabilization or computer range adjustment. He used the back up sight with a graduated reticle and used the TCs estimated range. Shortest target we hit was at 1100 meters and longest was around 1350 m. I doubt seriously I could have done that with any amount of practice. TLDR, If the Ukrainian crews are as motivated as they seem, a brigade of NATO MBTs will absolutely roll through the Ruskies like crap through a goose, killing everything they see at ranges the Russians won't be able to comprehend.
  4. Little primer on tank maintenance from a former tanker. Battlefield maintenance is surprisingly easy due to the power pack being a self contained unit that can be pulled from the vehicle in a matter of minutes by trained mechanics. We could typically pull and replace a power pack in about an hour if we had to. The whole pack is then sent back to the maintenance depot and repaired there by specialist mechanics. In my day a typical battalion maintenance depot would have one additional power pack available for every 10 in operation with a constant rotation as they are repaired and cycled back into vehicles. Track replacement was similar with so called combat rolls available for operations where an entire track was delivered in roll, so that a tank could literally drive off of a bad or broken track onto a new one. You didn't really drive, you were pulled by an M-88 repair track. Suspension maintenance could and was mostly done by the crews themselves up to and including replacing torsion bars and road wheels. So drive train and suspension work is pretty simple even under bad conditions. We replaced power packs and track in the field all the time and unless conditions were really bad we usually didn't lose more than a couple of hours of operational time doing it. Turret maintenance is a different story, but most of that is electronic or hydraulic in nature. Computers could be replaced and calibrated in a matter of hours, but then required bore sighting and test firing. No biggie and standard stuff for all crews. Hydraulic issues or turret stabilization issues would generally require depot level maintenance but with good PM were pretty rare. Battle damage, of course, is a different animal but a well established maintenance unit can do wonders and can do it fast and not too far in the rear. Also something I haven't seen discussed. The Abrams is a multifuel vehicle. They use JP now but in my day we ran them on diesel. Smoke generators, holla! Pour raw diesel into the exhaust and you can make some serious smoke. I'm not sure how much tuning is required but we were trained that in a pinch you could put just about any fuel in that bitch and she'd run. I'll try to answer questions, but my last model was the M1A1. I saw a demo M1A2 before I got out but they weren't deployed yet.
  5. I logged on just to comment on that. Happened right in front of the ref. Clearly a dangerous play, he undercut him well after he was in the air and instead they get advantage? That ref should be permanently banned after the game. There is no excuse for that.
  6. Gee that looked really tough from 3 feet away.
  7. It's not his best one for sure. He seemed pretty chill but I suspect that's his general "schmoozing donors" face.
  8. Oh I get it. Let's just say that the conversation involved someone very, very high in Belmont. A guy in a burnt orange suit if you will. I was keeping my poor ass head down just hoping for a future invite.
  9. I don't know anything but I was at the game last night as a guest of a BMD and was privy to a conversation in the Germania club that jibes with what Derka said. I'm no longer optimistic that we'll be able to keep him. As most have said, the over riding factor is what's best for The University. That being said, I trust Del Conte to make the best hire possible and it won't be Terry.
  10. It makes me giggle every time I see a Ramjet masterpiece. I can just picture him sitting there putting on the finishing touches to the primary focus and then sitting back and contemplating the best place to put Bert.
  11. What does the Building Inspections department have to do with fentanyl? You mean cities have different departments that do different things? Fascinating.
  12. Fantastic! I love David Harbour in just about anything. I laughed at so many of the tropes being skewered. Good music too.
  13. Violent Night with David Harbour as disgruntled Santa finding his Christmas spirit during a hostage situation. I laughed a lot.
  14. I'll regret this later, I'm sure. Agree with this wholeheartedly. One of the main reasons I moved away from the church (LCMS) was the fundamental silly simplicity of thought. It all boils down to "The Bible is the literal Truth of everything" which is patently ridiculous. Nobody every wants to discuss why Sin is bad. Sin is bad because it leads us from God. An act is not bad on it's face unless it leads us away from God. That still leaves plenty of opportunities to sin without having to make a stupid list and include a bunch of things that EVERYONE does. Our human nature leads us to sin, not because it causes us to do human things, but because we do them in selfish and hurtful ways. I won't even go into the absolute goofiness of having to believe the outlandish shit in the Bible actually happened for it to count. Jonah doesn't have to be an historical event for the story to work. Nor does the flood or any of the other "miracles". Whether any of these things really happened or not doesn't change the moral of the stories. It's easy for me to understand the point of a parable or an allegory without having to make the ridiculous jump to "Bible says it happened so it did." Pretty much anything in the Bible that was oral tradition, should be treated as morality fable. It still works the same way and you don't have to lie to yourself about how it actually happened that way. The idea that God couldn't inspire these stories to point the direction versus actually performing the miracles, diminishes God, it doesn't strengthen him. Then Jesus came along and said this is the New Testament and clarified that God is Love and therefor to come to God you must love one another as God loves us. The sacrifice of the Lamb is a beautiful thing in itself, and you don't need to get bogged down in the minutia of Law and literal ism to understand how to come to God. It's impossible for me to reconcile how two adult human beings in a loving relationship can be a bad thing in that context. Yes, our humanity makes us sinful in the context that God is the perfect embodiment of Love. We fail at being that every day and can only try our best, but to actively judge and ostracize another person for those same failings is insane. Any belief that required me to ignore what I know to be true, and dumb it down to "God gave us this book 2000 years ago and every word is true, and if you don't believe that then you can't come to God" should be offensive to God himself, if he made us in his image. It requires us to reject objective reality for no damned reason at all except someone too stupid to understand what it's really saying says so. More importantly, it actually leads us away from God which is the greatest sin of all.
  15. This old tanker is green with envy. Every tanker dreams of that breakthrough and rolling up on rear echelon troops. Team Spirit 89 in Korea during an attack exercise, my battalion command spotted a weak point with a low draw that was only defended by a small infantry force because the opfor seemed to think tanks couldn't get in and out of the low ground. We could and rolled the whole battalion with a supporting mobile infantry company through there. We came out of nowhere and burst out of a small forest onto a battery of ROK towed artillery that was 5 klicks behind the lines and watching those cannon cockers shit themselves as we shot the shit out of them (MILES gear) was one of my best days in uniform. They pretty much stopped the whole operation at that point and reset for the next day. That was a good after action review session.
  16. Felix

    Top Gun 2

    I got my bullwhip hung in a tree trying to swing and I pulled so hard to get it loose that I turned my back as it came free and went full Django on my own back. Giant welt and the pain brought me to my knees.
  17. 1.82 in so far in Manchaca.
  18. Orange Shirt got some accidental titty.
  19. You guys take Recency Bias to an art form.
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