M113

[GoHot229]

I was thinking back to when I first came back from Vietnam and remembering being stationed at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs. Returning Vets were always wondering what they were coming back to and especially what Duty Station they would get. Well of all the duty stations available in those days, Ft. Ord in California and Ft. Carson in Colorado were the top choices of duty. Well when I arrived it was good to see a fiew of my buddies that had left ahead of me by a couple of months or the ones that returned later, after my own return. There was lots of free time there at Ft. Carson and the hippie movement though into its last days was still present in 72 when I returned. So consequently all the exesses we liked so much were still present, for a while at least. Occasionally there were times when the Co. would spend a couple weeks out in the field doing exersises with our armor unit and others, sometimes war games. When I joined the Army, my MOS was 11D20 which was armor, but during my tour in the Republic of Vietnam, I became a Doorgunner in a unit that primarily inserted Rangers, Blues Platoons, LERPS and flew chase for downed aircraft. However when I came back to the states I was redeployed back into my original MOS. Being in the 4th of the 7th Armor we were practicing our war games during January, and if You have any idea of how cold it is during January in Colorado, then you can appreciate how cold we all were. After finishing our Games the Co. loaded up and it was back to the motorpool and hours of cleaning, which in the winter wasnt to bad because it was primarily snow and not dirt and mud. On the return trip there was a gully that we had to cross with whatever vhicle we happened to be assigned to. Across this gully was an elevated road,probably 20 to 30 foot above the gully bottom. And of course it was off camber on either of its shoulders and hard packed with ice. This made crossing very perrilous due to slippage, even in a M113 APC. I was driving my platoons unit and about fourth in the convoy of about 10-12 APC's out on that exersise, and when we aproached the gully we all were doing about 25 mph or there abouts, pretty much wanking it to get back to the barracks and motorpool and to WARMTH. Out of everyone ahead of me, the first APC made it across to the other side and into the imediate left hand curve of the road which skirted the gully, but the next two went right off the sides midway. I was on aproach at about 25 mph like I say and at the first slight decent of the gully road was just about full throttle on the road and sideways about a quarter turn from straight, on the govener and sideways and gingerly on the sticks with the gas floored, it was a sight to see, here was this 113 Flat Tracking it all the way across the gully and then catching tracton on the other side and slingshoting straight as an arrow down the road next to the gully in perfect form. Once across though and pulling up some on the road we had to wait for the rest of the convoy to make the transition as well and regroup, then continue the return trip. That manouver was not really skill, it was more luck and momentum than anything, but it looked about as COOL as was possable to be with the tracks rooster tail of snow and ice into the air and the perfect trajectory. There were times That come to mind of the fun we had in those days.