Shorty after our unit transitioned to the M1 Main Battle Tank, I was assigned as the Range NCO for the upcoming qualification. An officer was also assigned as the Range OIC; he was mostly there to take the credit for what I and my guys did right, or to blame us for what went wrong. The monkey, as they say, was on my back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Running a shooting range is one thing, running a tank range is an entirely different animal. First, the range is vast; the zero target is 1200 meters down range and the tanks move down range while engaging the targets, which can be as far away as 1800 meters. Second, not only are all the targets of the pop-up variety, some move. And finally, for the M1\u2019s thermal sight to work, what you\u2019re shooting at must be warmer than its surroundings. The fiber targets had heating elements in them that delivered a signature just like a Russian tank. For those heating elements to work, they had to be powered. We used gasoline generators, placed near the target activation device or on the rail sled with the target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I had a good group of range personnel working with me that I\u2019d hand-picked and was rather proud of what we had accomplished. On the evening before qualification, the Squadron Training Officer stopped by for an inspection. We were mostly ready, and I was prepping my tank crew when he arrived. (Not only did I have to run the range, my crew and I had to qualify just like all the others.) The captain, or maybe major \u2013 my memory fails me now \u2013 walked by the Range OIC after returning his salute without saying a word. I was on the deck of my tank and when he stepped up, he said, \u201cSergeant, are you building this range or playing tank commander?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I told him we were ready, and then he and I went off on an inspection. We went through the various tents used for staging and debriefing, and into the tower to check communications and target function. Then we jumped in a jeep and headed down range to look at the targets. On the way, the officer, which by the way was a squared away dude who I respected, made a few minor suggestions concerning things I should correct. When we arrived at the first target he nosed around a bit and then asked how I was going to fuel the generators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I did not have an answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the Training Officer left the range, it was already dark and his last words were, \u201cSergeant, I don\u2019t give a damn how you do it, but you need to sort out the fuel situation for those generators.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fort Pickett, Virginia is a maneuver training center for the National Guard. It encompasses 41,000 acres. I had only a few hours to put together about 30 gallons of fuel that could be staged down range to help keep my tank targets hot. If those generators were not running all day and the following night, I did not have a tank range and embarrassment would be the least of my worries. I didn\u2019t have a lot of options. I grabbed a hard-working Cav Scout on my range detail and told him to meet me with a jeep at 2300 hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition to our Cavalry Squadron, there were several other units using Fort Picket at that time. We started with friendly forces and commenced to procuring every Jerry we could find that had fuel in it. (Surprisingly, many were empty.) We\u2019d just find a vehicle and take the can. By about 0200 we had six of them and returned to our range and placed them in locations down range to make refueling the generators convenient. The Cav Scout asked me about stealing the cans and I explained that in the Army, equipment relocation was sometimes part of the job. When we were done it was so late I just crashed on the deck of my tank; the Training Officer was supposed to return at 0600 for a final walk-through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When he arrived he found me in the tower with my OIC. He left his entourage of brass at the tower’s base and climbed in. \u201cLieutenant, will you give Sergeant Mann and I a moment?\u201d He said, motioning for the silver bar to slide out of the tower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the Lieutenant was leaving, several thoughts were going through my head, and the only response of any wit and reason I was prepared to deliver was, \u201cAdapt, overcome, and improvise.\u201d After all, my orders had been prefaced with, \u201c\u2026I don\u2019t give a damn how you do it\u2026.\u201d Apparently, word on post had gotten out that there was a fuel thief on the loose, but ultimately I didn\u2019t need to say anything witty. I could tell the Training Officer wanted to smile but was doing his best to maintain his usual stern appearance. He said, \u201cI understand you sorted your fuel situation. If you get caught, you\u2019re on your own.\u201d And he turned and left the tower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The MPs dropped by the range during the day, apparently an investigation was underway. No one ever said a word to me, and the dastardly deed was never spoken of again. The next time I saw the Squadron Training Officer he was congratulating my crew and I as Top Gun. It\u2019s easy to perform well on a tank range when you have a stellar crew – a crew you also hand-picked for your range detail – and when you\u2019re the ones who set the range up and know where all the targets are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
*Names and identities have been withheld to protect the guilty – and innocent.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Shorty after our unit transitioned to the M1 Main Battle Tank, I was assigned as the Range NCO for the upcoming qualification. An officer was also assigned as the Range OIC; he was mostly there to take the credit for what I and my guys did right, or to blame us for what went wrong. The monkey, as they say, was on …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17191,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2579,2821,2500],"tags":[3037,3038,3036,3039,3040],"class_list":["post-17188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorial","category-empty-cases-exclusive","category-shooting","tag-army","tag-m1-tank","tag-shooting-range","tag-stealing-gas","tag-tank-range"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/SG2.png?fit=1000%2C590&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5hujZ-4te","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7205,"url":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/hunter-school\/","url_meta":{"origin":17188,"position":0},"title":"Hunter School","author":"gunwriter","date":"June 23, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Most hunters do not practice enough or receive proper training when it comes to shooting. On the other hand, shooting schools are full of students who want to learn how to shoot an AR 15 at imagined bad guy targets at close range or a precision rifle at long range.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "DEFENSE"","block_context":{"text":"DEFENSE","link":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/category\/defense\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Magpul1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Magpul1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Magpul1.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Magpul1.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Magpul1.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12684,"url":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/a-deer-target-for-rifle-hunters\/","url_meta":{"origin":17188,"position":1},"title":"A Deer Target for Rifle Hunters","author":"gunwriter","date":"November 22, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Rifle hunters are lazy and often careless with their practice. They spend too much time at the shooting bench, shooting groups at little square or circular targets. Deer season arrives and they miss that big buck, because they did not know where to aim, because they had never seen anything\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "HUNTING"","block_context":{"text":"HUNTING","link":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/category\/hunt\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Target-1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Target-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Target-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Target-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Target-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Target-1.jpg?resize=1050%2C600 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Target-1.jpg?resize=1400%2C800 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7109,"url":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/maximum-practical-range\/","url_meta":{"origin":17188,"position":2},"title":"Maximum Practical Range","author":"gunwriter","date":"June 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"We here a lot of talk about maximum effective range but how effective are most shooters at the distant ranges where a rifle is capable of being effective? I've connected with very small targets at ranges beyond 1000 yards. 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I'll be putting it through its paces for an article in Shooting Illustrated magazine but I'll also be posting videos here on how the target works. Set up was easy and we completed the process\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "DEFENSE"","block_context":{"text":"DEFENSE","link":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/category\/defense\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"MGM Attack","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/MGM-Attack-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13023,"url":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wild-ear-hear-better-shoot-safer\/","url_meta":{"origin":17188,"position":4},"title":"Wild Ear – Hear Better \/ Shoot Safer","author":"gunwriter","date":"February 29, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Never again while hunting will I have to hear my young son or daughter ask, \u201cDad, did you hear that?\u201d and have no idea what they are talking about. I grew up shooting and hunting and gun safety was pounded into my head. However, so was the noise from high-powered\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "DEFENSE"","block_context":{"text":"DEFENSE","link":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/category\/defense\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"WE-1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/WE-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/WE-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/WE-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/WE-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7210,"url":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/not-something-you-see-everyday\/","url_meta":{"origin":17188,"position":5},"title":"Not something you see everyday.","author":"gunwriter","date":"June 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"At least not something you see everyday at a hunting rifle course. 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