Some old TD-18 pics from my Army days.

[King of Obsolete]

so once you left base, you lost track of your cat and truck. did a lot of machine stay over seas???

thansk
KoO
Published Author

 

[RonG]

Yes,I took over as the lowbed driver the last year of my tour so that I could break in a new dozer operator and somebody else took over the lowbed when I left.I did keep in touch with the new driver for a while who told me that they painted the tractor a new Olive Drab that was supposed to be a NATO color for a show that was upcoming.I didn't care for the new shade of green but I don't recall ever seeing another one like it.LOL
He did send me a pic of it,I think he was trying to Pi** me off because I had it looking pretty good while I drove it.I don't know how the military deterrmines rotation of equipment,I witnessed quite a lot of it while I was there,new tanks,personell carriers,tank retrievers and the list goes on.Our tax dollars at work!!!Ron G

 

[King of Obsolete]

yes that is the way is usually is, once you leave everything goes down hill. i like working with a bunch of guys that enjoy their equipment and the job they do. if you are not having fun, why be there, LOL

any more of those great BW photos i enjoy so much.

thansk
KoO
Published Author

 

[RonG]

I try to post about once a week.I cropped 150 more pics for this thread a while ago and last week was the beginning of the new batch so there will plenty more yet as long as there is an interest in them.I shot a couple of rolls of color,some of which will be on topic here and I will include them as they appear in the list of pictures.No warnings or disclaimers for the vision impaired.lol.Ron G

 

[stock]

keep them coming RonG love looking at that type of plant.

 

[RonG]

The Bailey Bridge at Hanau.

This is part of the training that did during our annual visit to Hanau.We bivouacked at the training area for 3 or 4 weeks each summer and that is where we would be staying while we built the pontoon bridge across the Meine river in Frankfort etc.
These pics are of the Bailey bridge but we did a lot on site there,there was a pond where we could swim the PCs as well as plenty of area to play with our other vehicles.As mentioned before each platoon had an M-48A1 tank and each of them got a blade fitted and at least one of them had a big searchlight installed but for the life of me I can't understand why that I did not get any pics of them after they got the blades on them.I think that I may have one in a company picture but I did not take it and it would be too big to post here I am afraid.
The next several pics will be of various activities while we were there in no particular order.Ron G

 

[King of Obsolete]

sorry my "real job" has caused me to fall behind in replying on this posts. once again great pictures and it was amazing what you guys did back then.

thansk
KoO
Published Author

 

[RonG]

Some pics of Hanau and our toys.

These pics are our personell carriers,preparing to go swimming etc.
We used to unload most of our valueables less they go in the drink due to some oversight on somebodies part,don't laugh,we sunk one in the Meine river while we were crossing it with the pontoon bridge one year.There will be pics of it in the series here.
The PCs were the M79s,we did not have the M113s yet.This might have been the first year that I went to Hanau,it seems like we had the M113s most of the time while I was there.Maybe it was because I liked them better with the Chrysler 413 barking at me while we were cruising along at 40+MPH).
The M79s had two 302ci GMC engines,six cylinder in line,one on each side behind panels with auto transmissions behind each one,very likely Allisons but I cannot say for sure.
I would say that in the pic of us unloading that it looks like me standing in the center on the ramp there.I have the negative so it had to be my camera that took the pic,I must have let my buddy Don Bird take the pic.
I think that that may be the chow truck in the second photo there.The third pic with the crane tells me that we may have been practicing our pontoon bridge building skills before we went to do the crossing in Frankfurt.
The woods to the right rear in the fourth pic would be the bivouac area where we set up camp while we were there in the field playing our games.I will answer any questions as I can remember them.Ron G

 

[digger242j]

I think that I may have one in a company picture but I did not take it and it would be too big to post here I am afraid.

Ron, you are aware that we had software installed that automatically resizes your pictures to the proper size as you post them, aren't you?

Thanks for all the great pictures too. I love looking at this kind of stuff. :drinkup

 

[Finish Blademan]

Ron,I really enjoyed your pics and thank you for your service.I was stationed in Ansbach for a while at Bismarck Kaserne.It was a small place with Katterbach Kaserne across the road from us.I loved Germany,beautiful place,beautiful women and good beer.
Thanks again for sharing your pics.
Gene

 

[RonG]

Big Picture

I am going to try to post that company pic with the M48 with the blade on it.
The reason I was apprehensive about it was that the pic,as scanned was 127mb but I resized it and we will see how it turns out.Of course that was in the .tif format and I saved it at 50% in .jpg.The issue really is that the pic was a panoramic shot and to maintain the aspect ratio the pic would be so small that you couldn't see anything worth looking at.If it does not work I will crop it at some point so the tank will show up so we can see it.
Since I have a post started I will add some color pics that have not been cropped so you will have to excuse the borders etc. but these were taken leaning out of my barracks window,in fact probably my cubicle but these were some of the regiment returning from a field trip which we were also a part of I am sure,we just got back before they did.
Notice the M88 tank retriever pulling two broken personell carriers like nothing.
I better get this posted before I run out of time here........I had to search for these pics that were good enough to post.

 

[MrKomatsu]

if you can hold a grade useing that dozer than you are truly an operator.....

 

[RonG]

Some pics of our M79s out swimming.

These are still more of the training area at Hanau,there are always many things going on at once depending on which squad you are in dictates what you do that day.Next week you will see pics of our M48A1s raising hell putting them through their paces there.Ron G

 

[RonG]

Here are the tanks,at least one of them anyway.

Each platoon had one tank assigned and the crew were tank guys,they had the armored MOS,whatever that was for a tank crew,assigned to an Engineer company.I regret to this day not getting any pics of the tanks after the blades were installed and I cannot account for none showing up in other pics that I took by accident even but here they are,just pretend that they had blades on them.They looked similar to the blades on the M88 in the previous pics,the tank retriever that was pulling the two PCs going by our barracks while returning from the field maneuvers.
The spotlights were equipped to send semaphore,that is they had the baffles in them to enable interrupting the beam,flashing the code.Needless to say,they were bright.Hope you can find these interesting.Ron G

 

[dsgsr]

GEE RonG, I think I've seen that company picture somewhere before

David

 

[RonG]

Yes,it has lasted pretty well over the years.You have seen it more than I have I am sure.Now we can all see it.Ron G

 

[RonG]

Odds and Ends,next week will be better)

These are self explanatory pretty much.Next week starts the river crossing with the pontoon bridge on the Miene river.There are several different scenerios there that are memorable to me,pulling out the PC that sunk and pics of the crane that ended up in the river presumably because they started it with no air to apply the brakes.
Spring brakes had not been implemented in those days and you actually had to have some forethought about where you parked and "what if" was always on your mind.
The proper procedure when parking is to pull the fuel shutoff out and leave it out in the event that you parked the equipment in gear in case it rolled it would not start unattended.That was in the days before spring energized parking brakes.I don't know if any trucks use mechanical engine shutoffs anymore,I think most shut off with the ignition switch.
The exception in the old days was if the vehicle was parked outside in freezing weather then you had to leave the shutoff in the "on"mode because the shutoff cable would freeze and you could not start it up when it was time to go. Enough nonsense,exitement next week.Ron G

 

[Finish Blademan]

Ron,great pics.I like that one of the 113 with water pouring up in the air while she fords the river.
The m48 pics are cool as well....

 

[RonG]

Thanks for the kind words,those are M79s,we had not gotten the 113s yet.Soon I will have pics of the one we had to fish out of the river,you will see the drain plugs gushing water out of it.Ron G

 

[Finish Blademan]

AHHH, The 79 was the first version of the 113? or APC in the early days. I never was on a 113, our four deuce mortars used them as gun tracks to carry those big tubes.
Looking forward to the next pics.
Gene