Vehicles

 Grandson Lucas has been asking me about military vehicles I was familiar with, so I thought it would be a good time to put together some links that he could review when he had questions. My military service spanned from 1973-1998, post-Vietnam and Cold War with one very exhilarating time during Desert Storm.  So, lets talk about some of the vehicles we used.  My list will be those that I am intimately familiar with.

Transport.

M151, Truck, Utility, 1/4 Ton. - This was the "Jeep" of my era. Ubiquitous to the Army, this little vehicle went everywhere. Fun to drive, rugged, dangerous.  The driver sat on the gasoline tank and the vehicle was known for rolling over in a turn.  Produced until 1988, it was supplanted by the HMMWV.

M998, HMMWV.  The Hummer.  Both beloved and despised by my generation, it serves the Army today. I was issued one in 1996 and kept it until I retired in 98.  Mine would run down the road at 55 mph and was as nimble as a mountain goat.   We never stuck it, although we took it into some sketchy places.  Mine was the soft-top with no armor.  Canvas doors and a radio. It got me where I needed to go, and always brought me home.

M39 series, 5 ton, 6x6 truck.  Also known as the M54, this beast was the prime mover for the Army the entire time I was in service. This thing hauled troops, food, medicine, ammo, and fuel. It was the primary hauler between the logistics base and the troops in the field.

Armored Vehicles

M113 Armored Personnel Carrier. If you were in the Army during Vietnam or the Cold War, you knew what these were. It carried a squad of infantry. They were everywhere. I spent many a miserable hour in these damned things. The suspension was terrible. The seats were uncomfortable and the back ramp would fall on you and kill you. 'Nuff said.  It beat walking.

M60 series tank.  My first tank was an M60A1.  I got it in 1975 when I was assigned to Charlie Company, 4th Battalion, 37th Armor at Fort Knox, KY. According to the log boo, that tank was built by the Chrysler Corporation in 1963. It had a 105mm rifled tube, no stabilization and a coincidence range finder. Everything on it was purely mechanical.  The night-vision was the old style infare that required a light source. I kept that tank for fourteen months when I moved from platoon leader to an XO slot in the 4th Brigade.

The last tank I took downrange was an M60A3.  This was a much-improved version, with better suspension, a laser range finder, GPS system, improved optics and true thermal night sights. The M60A3 was a great tank, one that I truly favored.

M577 Command Post Carrier.  This thing was a variant of the M113, designed to accommodate a tactical command post. Generally, you would find four of these in a battalion, one or each of the staff functions.  (Personnel, Intelligence, Operations and Logistics).  They would park together and form a command post.

M551 Armored Reconnaissance Vehicle.  The "Sheridan".  This thing was not a tank, but OhMyGod, it was a lot of fun. Nimble, fast, lightweight, it was just a joy to drive and command. It was designed around the Shillelagh missile system, which frankly never worked and was a bad idea from start to finish, but the vehicle was just a lot of fun to operate. The missiles never worked, but the gun would fire a HEP charge that was effective against bunkers and vehicles.  Of course, it had two machine guns, the 7.62 coax and the big 50 atop the turret. The vehicle was supposed to be "air-droppable" and sure enough, it was.  But only once. After it hit the ground, it became a machine gun emplacement.

We won't talk about the M1 Abrams, simply because I know little about it.  My last unit, 1/156 was an M1 unit, but I was a staff-rat and never took one downrange.  It's a great tank, but not one that I have any experience with.

Thursday Thoughts

 I have not been ignoring y'all, I just haven't found anything that piques my interest enough to write about.  This morning, though, I found an email from Jacob at Wideners.  They have done a deep dive on the .300 Blackout.  For those of you unaware, the .300 Blackout is a niche cartridge designed to run through a standard AR platform.  Some folks really like it.

For those interested, the link is here. It looks fairly interesting, and there is a lot of information there.

In other shooting mews, I'm having trouble with the Winchester 94 I mounted the red dot sight on.  Mainly, having trouble scheduling range time.  Life keeps getting in the way of range time.

Fr those of you, who like me, are not particularly interested in watching the clock, I am reminded that once again this weekend, we are going to do the whole "Fall Back" thing on Sunday morning. I don't recall when this foolishness started, but I would not be averse to seeing it end.  Pick one and stick with it, but don't make me change my clock twice a year.

Water Heater

 I built this shop during the winter of 16-17 and installed the kitchen during the spring f 2017.  I installed a small 4-gallon water heater under the sink so that we could wash dishes. I came in from the range yesterday and found that it was leaking.  Well, hell.

Went online to Lowe's and Stine's and didn't see anything there I liked.  Belle searched Amazon and found a small on-demand heater for less than $100.  Overnight shipping, it came in this morning. I snatched the old one out from under the sink, made a trip to the hardware store, came back and installed the new one. It's different, but it works.  Plug and play. The temperature of the water is dependent on how fast the flow.  Wide open, it's just over body temp, but if you throttle the flow down to a trickle, it gets hot enough that you don't want your hand under it.

We'll try this out and see how it works. There may be a learning curve, but if we don't like it, it is easy enough to snatch out of there.

About That Core-Lokt

 A commenter notes:

Ah, another person who finds that the tried and true Core-Lokt is still a very good round, and quite capable of taking care of any problem that the more modern, computer designed bullets can take care of.

I came to the Core-Lokt in 1974 when I bought my first centerfire rile. Up until then, I had been a shotgunner, hutting squirrels, rabbits, ducks and geese.  I came to deer hunting in college and decided that I needed a rifle, rather than shooting them with buckshot.  So, I saved my pennies and bought a Marlin Model 336 in .35 Remington.  Quite a purchase, it cost me ~$100, which represented a week's pay for a pore, starvin' college student who was living in his first apartment.

For ammo, I picked up a box o Remington's 200 grain ammo and never looked back.  I hand been reading all the literature and knew that deer run away when shot.  When I got my chance a month later at a middling buck, I was a bit surprised when he dropped straight down. He was Dead Right There, in the middle f the trail where I spotted him. I hunted with that rifle for the next 15 years and never had to track a deer.  They all flopped.

In 1991 I decided that I needed a new rifle.  While brewing the used gun racks, I found a Remington Model 7 in 7mm-08.  It had a Leupold scope and the tag said $400.  I bought it and the counter guy threw in a box of Remington's 140 grain load. (As I think about it, that rifle also represented a week's pay.) That rile shot that ammo like a laser beam, throwing those Core-Lokt bullets into the same hole with boring regularity. I made some great shots with that rifle.  I lost it during a financial crisis stemming from the Great Divorce. Truth be told, I mourned the loss of the rifle more than the loss of the woman.  Funny how that worked out.  I never bought another 7mm-08.  Too many old memories, I guess.

Don't get me wrong, I have used other bullets.  I'm a big fam of Sierra's whole line, and I like the Nosler Ballistic Tip.  I've used the Barned Triple-Shock  And, I have a load in .243 Winchester that uses the Hornady VLD.  Bullet technology is amazing these days.  But for sub-3000 fps and under 200 yards, it is hard to beat the Core-Lokt.  It just works.

Tuesday Tidbit

 Watching the news while sipping coffee, I notice that the French are continuing their ancient tradition of being overrun by foreign powers. One would think that they had learned their lesson during the first half of the 20th century, but from what I'm seeing, they learned nothing.

I, for one, am not interested in another French intervention.  Belle's father was in the Army during the first French invasion, and I had uncles who served during the second French occupation. They need to save themselves this time.

On a related note, I reckon that anyone who advocates for open borders should at least be morally consistent and leave their hones unlocked which they leave for the day. Consistency, like charity, starts at home.

Now, though, on a more local note, I need to spend some time studying ballistics charts. I need to review the ballistics of the .30 cal, 170 grain round nose Core-Lokt.  Fpr the record, the ballistic calculator I use is here..  You need to know the muzzle velocity, the ballistic coefficient of the bullet, and the sight height.

Sunday Reflections

 We buried Bill yesterday. It was a pretty good crowd.  Bill was a man o many parts, all o them good, steadfast parts.  He was an Eagle Scout, a basketball coach, a competitive shooter, a retired educator. His widow asked the shooting club to wear our regalia and serve as "honorary pallbearers".  Of course, we were honored to do so.

I am a decrepit old man.  A lifelong smoker with a body wrecked by years of service on armored vehicles, along with the attendant bad habits that characterizes cavalry service. Yet, when it came time to bear the pall, there were not six o his healthy friends who could lift a casket. I was pressed into service as a pall bearer.

Later that afternoon, stirring a roux, I was struck by the irony that I have recently carried three healthy men to their grave. I'm not complaining, you understand, simply stuck by the irony that "healthy" friends are dyeing off. The last two did it right.  They had a good day, enjoyed a pleasant evening, kissed their wives good night, then rolled over and went to sleep. No lingering, no drama, just went to sleep. That is the way to do it.

I hope, when my time comes, that is the way I'll go.  I also hope that I have enough chain-smoking, semi-alcoholic friends to carry me to the hearse.  Those "healthy" folks can't seem to carry the burden.

Resource Officers

 In the post below, where I said that every school should have a dedicated Resource Officer, one commenter made a common mistake.  

 If a bank can pay one or more individuals to be present during business hours, a public school with resources vastly more precious should be under protections as well.

The public school system should not pay one red cent for Resource Officers.  The funding should come 100% from the police agency.  There are several good reasons for this.

First, school administrators have no idea what cops do for a living, and frankly, most of what a Resource Officer does is sit on his ass. The good ones are moving most of the time, learning the school and keeping watch.  Wandering through the parking lots, or judging the fencing around the perimeter.  But, there is a lot of sitting on your ass.  Administrators hate this and will try to put the Resource Officer on duties that are not related to law enforcement.

Second, administrators hate bad press.  When a cop does his job, it generates reports.  Administrators don't like it when the cop assigned to the school actually makes an arrest in the building or on the school grounds. They think it reflects poorly on the school.

The Resource Officer needs the authority to make arrests in accordance with the law.  I worked in a high school and my basic yardstick was that if any other person could be arrested for the crime at Wal Mart, they could also be arrested for the same crime at the school. I did not arrest for every school yard tussle, but I had broad discretion to do so. The students knew this, and so did the faculty.

My assignment was in a high school.  I normally wrote 110 reports each year, and made 25-30 arrests per year.  Sometimes the principal like it, sometimes he didn't.  I always worked well with my principals, but they knew that I worked WITH then, not FOR them.

Third, cops cost more than teachers, at least locally. If the administrators had the option of hiring an additional cop, or an additional teacher, what might they do? We estimated that it cost the Sheriff's Office $75K per year to put an officer in a school. At that time, they could get a new teacher, fresh out of college, for about $45K per year.

Our Sheriff was smart about funding.  He asked the people for a 1-cemt sales tax to fund the Resource Officers. The voters approved it in a parish-wide ballot.  The school administrators didn't want it.  They were aghast at the idea. But the voters approved it and the school-house folks knew better than to resist. 

Casual Violence

 The news is buzzing with reports of a school shooting in Band, Oregon yesterday.  Three students and a teacher are dead, along with the suspected shooter.  This is a tragedy, but one that might have been amplified if not for the courageous action of a community member.  According to CNN:

A community member who saw the teenager entering Silver Rail Elementary School at about 1 p.m. followed him in before engaging him in gunfire, killing him before responding officers arrived, Krantz said.

Well Done, community member.  What we have here is a "good guy with a gun".  My thoughts and prayers are with the victims, along with deep respect to that "community member". Without that intervention, this could hae been much worse.

I spent the last 15 years f my career as a School Resource Officer.  It is my considered opinion that every school in the nation needs at least one Resource Officer, trained in this very demanding specialty of law enforcement.