Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!att!cbnews!cbnews!military From: fmrco!curt@uunet.UU.NET (Curt Fennell) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: Dr. Tsipis and the M1 Message-ID: <1990Nov2.202816.29403@cbnews.att.com> Date: 2 Nov 90 20:28:16 GMT References: <1990Nov1.025300.12582@cbnews.att.com> Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker) Organization: Fidelity Investment, Boston, MA 02109 Lines: 52 Approved: military@att.att.com From: fmrco!curt@uunet.UU.NET (Curt Fennell) In article <1990Nov1.025300.12582@cbnews.att.com> MEDELMA@CMS.CC.WAYNE.EDU (Michael Edelman) writes: >Some of the purported problems have been exaggerations, or ideas based >on faulty understanding of tanks, or just out-and-out fabrications, not >unlike the rumor that a recently-canceled ground defense system "locked >onto a lavatory fan". (Remember that one?) > There seem to be a number of fallacies about the M1 that are still being perpetuated that either were never true or were corrected during development. I don't know anything about Dr. Tsipis, but the original problems that the M1's turbine engine had with dust and dirt ingestion have been fixed since 1982, at least. Of the officers I know that were sent to M1 units, all of them were very impressed with the M1's ability and none of them ever mentioned any serious maintenance problems. >One story that was often repeated was that M1 tank drivers had a high >incidence of falling asleep due to the comfortable reclining driver's >seat. This seems to have come from somewhere between zero and 1 incident... It's true that the drivers seat in an M1 is very easy to fall asleep in; and it's also true that the average tank crewman will always catch a few Z's whenever he can ( I've fallen asleep in the gunners' seat of a moving M60!). BUT, I've never seen any accident reports, nor heard anything to indicate that there have been a lot of M1 drivers falling asleep while driving. I'm sure that all M1 drivers sleep in their seats when the tank is not moving - that's about all they have to do when the tank is stopped anyway. (the loaders get most of the dirty outside-the-tank jobs). > --mike edelman medelma@cms.cc.wayne.edu On a side note, when I was a tank platoon commander, I always left the tank park with all of my tanks working. However, in any training exercise that lasted longer than 3 days in the field, I think I only made it back to the tank park with all 5 of my tanks once. And my tanks were the old reliable M60A1's. Tanks break. They throw track; torsion bars break; transmissions leak oil and final drives don't 'drive'. That's just a part of being a tanker. So even when we beat the infantry units back to the rear areas, because we were riding and they were walking, my men usually got back to the barracks long after the average grunt because they had to take care of their tanks first. -- ================================================================= Curt Fennell |Fidelity Investments | fmrco!curt@uunet.uu.net |82 Devonshire St. (I40C) | (617) 570-2614 |Boston, MA 02109 |