Some old TD-18 pics from my Army days.

[RonG]

The M79 was an APC,thanks for thinking of that,been too many years for me.It was in service when I got there mid 60's.Within a year we swapped them for the M113s.They were a little smaller having only one engine but had just as much room in them and were a little quicker as well.The M113's came through with the Chrysler 413 engines but the military was changing over to multifuel engines and I think the M113 ended up with a V6-53 detroit.We got the M60 tank about the same time as I remember.
Glad you enjoy the pics,I try to post once a week.Ron G

 

[RonG]

Lets get started with the APC that sunk in the river.

These pics are taken on the Miene river below Frankfurt where we built the pontoon bridge each year to cross the river for practice.The bridge company would show up with all the parts and the utility boat that was designed to push the bridge segments around during assembly and of course we got a crane from another engineering company in the area.We had our own compressor mounted on a deuce and a half assigned to our headquarters platoon and there will be plenty of pics of the bridge building to follow.
Today I will post a few of the APC (thanks Finish Blademan) to start with.The first pic is of the utility boat after he got word that the APC went down.I have never seen a bow wake that big on the utility boat before.LOL.
There will be more pics in the future but this will set the stage for them.Noone was hurt,the cause was that the vehicle had too much water in the sump which is supposed to be drained and probably the rules were to leave the sump pump running while swimming the machine which may have been overlooked.Ron G

 

[RonG]

Some more in the series of the APC in the river.

Here is the driver drying off and helping to guide his baby back to dry land.
The rest are self explanatory,the crane is getting in position for the days events,will start those pics next week.Notice the water draining in the second pic after they pulled the drain plug.Ron G

 

[RonG]

Some Pontoon Bridge Pics

Here are some of the pics of the pontoon bridge,as I said before they are not in any particular order so these are the completed bridge,I am sure that later there will be others of it under construction.
They stop the traffic on the river for us to do our thing so we have to work once we start to complete the job in our time allottment to free up the river for commercial traffic.We watch the barges go by until it is our turn.Ron G

 

[wingnut]

RAW power , and team work !! Ya gotta love it !
Thanks for sharing :drinkup

 

[RonG]

More of the Pontoon bridge,tanks crossing.

I gotta put in another barge pic,LashLander said it added to the story)
This one is of the hausfrau standing in the doorway of the wheel house on the stern,probably taking her beer break (wiretops in those days) and watching all the excitement on the bank there.
Anybody that wonders about LashLander,he has been working 7 twelves for quite a while now and there is no end in site for the forseeable future.
Enjoy.....Ron G

 

[RonG]

Pontoon Bridge Pics again

I am jumping ahead in the roster a little to give some continuity to the story here,hope I don't regret it later but I don't think that the board will allow me to post the same pic twice so I am going ahead with it anyway.
These pics are of our APCs crossing but you will notice that they are the new M113s instead of the M79s that we have seen up until now.The one that sunk was the older model.
These new ones had that big block Chrysler 413ci engine and pushed those M113s along very nicely,thank you).That exhaust grill turned a nice cherry red at night.......well,in the daylight too but we couldn't see it to marvel at but that engine would just sing to us gearheads.........yah,you could see us smiling!
Our squads driver was named Michalski and he was a Mopar nut before we found him so it goes without saying that Chrysler was well represented in his company.
I was watching the Gunny last night and he was demonstrating the M113 but pretended that it was the first of the series,he ignored the M79 altogether.
One of the other threads today mentioned the possibility of "front wheel drive" tracked vehicles,well,here is an example.The 105 Howitzer was also front sprocket driven.I have pics of them as well,might post them someday.Hope you like.Ron G

 

[RonG]

The crane went swimming.

Here are the pics of the FWD carrier backed into the river to get these out of the way.I mentioned earlier about the hazards of parking your rig in a safe attitude and exploring the "what ifs" mentally knowing that certain criteria have to be met before departure whether it be you or someone else at the wheel.
These were the days before spring brakes that set if you lost air pressure and the mechanical parking brakes were only reliable on nearly level ground holding an empty truck if they were in proper adjustment.They might have been a little better than that under ideal conditions but I always considered that they would fail if I counted on them not to.They were only a brake band on a small drum on the driveshaft exposed to the elements and there was always a U joint close by to throw grease at it so in theory they were great but in practice they left something to be desired in my book.
I don't know what actually happened that landed this rig in the drink but I would be willing to bet that it was because the brakes were not aired up or the handbrake failed.I was on site but I was not watching when it happened.Ron G

 

[RonG]

Five ton dump trucks driving by my barracks.WooHoooo

Here just happens to be a few pics of our dump trucks hauling gravel past our barracks.These buildings were right on the fence line and provided an opportunity to see what rad was doing as well as watching our own stuff clearing the roads as it went by since it often took both lanes to get anywhere.
Notice how the trucks had a driver and a shotgun..........ahhhhhh.....the life,huh?As I said before,these pics were not really scanned in any particular order,I scanned them as they showed themselves in my negative folder which is similar to a three ring notebook.
I bought the notebook after many rolls of film had been developed so they were added as they came out of the box.LOL.Ron G

 

[RonG]

More pics of the APC getting rescued.

These pics have got to be interesting if only because you can only see it here.LOL.
I still enjoy looking and I have seen them many times.I still have some variety ahead of us,military life was seldom mundane especially when you had a camera.Ron G

 

[Lashlander]

Thanks for the pictures Ron. Different times back then for sure. I'm wondering if that tower is the only thing holding the bridge from heading down river. I assume it has deadmen buried in the ground? Also how does that reel on wheels figure into the mix? Does the river have a concrete curb?
Not real happy about the Crane either. An APC is understandable but the poor Crane?? LOL!
I find these old pics fascinating. Thanks for posting them up.

 

[RonG]

Nice to see you posting again Lashlander.If you look closely at the reel and imagine that I am sitting on the dozer to take the picture you will detect the cable threaded over the top of the tower that hooks to my drawbar.There is a similar installation across the river.
I wished that I had been looking at that crane when it went in but I had some other things going on I guess.Is your work slacking off so that you can be around more now?
Keep in touch with us.Ron G

 

[Lashlander]

Thanks for the reply Ron. I've got a couple days off. Our Barge departed for Skagway yesterday so have to fly in and meet it when it arrives. I'll be there for two to three months. Hope to be done by Christmas. Then have a rebuild to do for the Coast Guard here in town.

 

[RonG]

I hope you can find time to post some more pics.Nobody else contributes the type of pics that you take for granted.Just getting those shots from the plane puts you in a league of your own.Be safe and keep in touch.Ron G

 

[NormanSheffield]

Nice pics

 

[RonG]

I finally found a power supply for my computer and have it back online again.I didn't back up the pics that I cropped for this thread on any of my other computers so was dead in the water for a spell there.
The next series of pics will be showing the logistics involved when uncle sam wants to play war games but I guess that there was plenty of money around in that era and keeping the troops ready for "what if" is what the military is all about,right?
This particular deployment........was that a word back then?.......was for "Operation WinterShield" and it was on the other side of the country and considered too far to drive the tracked vehicles in peacetime at least so we had a railroad siding on our base at Downs Barracks and just loaded everything onto the flat cars and took off.I remember being on the train over night so it was quite a ride.Germany is not that big but that is what it took anyway.So........here are some pics of that ordeal,in no particular order,as usual.Enjoy.That last pic was taken inside of an APC looking forward while we were underway.Ron G

 

[Grader4me]

Ron, I really enjoy looking at your collection of pictures! Keep them coming!

 

[King of Obsolete]

yes i like the colours too.

just joking, remember i'm colour blind, LOL.

thansk
KoO
Published Author

 

[RonG]

More of the loading up the flatcars for Wintersheild.

Thanks for the replies showing your appreciation guys.
I made at least two of these Wintersheild gigs,there was Wintersheild I and II and maybe III but I was present at two of them at least.My buddy Don Bird is on my dozer in the first pic,he was a logger from the west coast and taught me a lot about operating.It was old stuff to him but I ate it up.
Here are a few more pics to help put you on site there.Ron G

 

[stock]

Ron,
given the opportunity would you revisit that army time again? Again my thanks for reminding me how old I am,I do need it every now and then you know.