(16) A fond farewell to the M1A1 Abrams

Hello all! I bet you were starting to wonder if I had abandoned my blog. Not so, but I have been keeping busy enough that I've not had much time to blog. I'll make an honest effort to make time to blog, as I've gotten the hint from Google Analytics that my blog visitor activity has been suffering.

Today I want to let you in on what's been happening at my job. As you may or may not know, I am an Electronics Mechanic at the Unit Training Equipment Site (UTES) maintenance shop at Camp Atterbury. We house and maintain hundreds of military vehicles ranging from John Deere backhoes to the almighty M1 Abrams tank. Most of the equipment belongs to the Indiana Army National Guard, and a good bit from Ohio National Guard and other areas.

Ohio Army National Guard is sending their 27 M1A1 Abrams tanks down to Alabama for complete overhaul and reconditioning. Our job this week has been to move them from our compound to rail cars at the nearby railyard. There is a good bit of risk and danger involved in a move this big, requiring a great amount of coordination and caution. These tanks have not been serviced in 2 years due to the funding being cut off in anticipation of the rebuild, and the lack of use by Ohio as they underwent a reorganization of combat structure.

Monday and tuesday were spent inspecting and performing minor repairs to the tanks in preparation for the move. We had to produce as many driveable tanks as possible, and identify any tanks that would have to be towed. After figuring these numbers, we assigned a number of drivers for the mission, ground guides, towbar crew, hazmat response team, communications coordination team, and worked with the post military police for escort and security throughout the movement.

Wednesday was the execution of the mission for the first 17 tanks. It was a bit chilly in the morning with a temp of 37, requiring us to jumpstart several of the tanks. We staged the vehicles, met up with our escorts and moved them out. The movement went smoothly, but we ran into an issue at the gate to the railyard. The gate was supposed to have been open for us, but it was still chained and locked. We contacted the Department of Natural Resources to have it unlocked, but they apparently did not have the correct key. After about 30 minutes of waiting, we were concerned that the M1 tanks on the side of the road idling may run out of fuel. We had someone from our shop bring us the master key, also known as bolt cutters. Once we had cut the locks off, we were in business. We then began to load the tanks onto the rail cars. This was a very difficult task, as the tank tracks overlapped the width of the car by about 6 inches on each side, so we had to slowly and precisely move them onto the cars. The ground guides took great care inching the tanks along the cars, one at a time. We got them all loaded, and the tow bar crew recovered the tow bars and hardware from the tanks that were towed.

Thursday was a repeat of Wednesday for the final 10 tanks. Things went a bit smoother, as there was no hold up at the gate. No catastrophic breakdowns, but we did have one tank that was losing track link components early in the trip. We were a bit concerned that it might throw the track off completely, but luckily it did not.
We got the final 10 tanks loaded on the rail cars, and our mission was successfully complete. Best wishes to these Desert Storm Veteran tanks as they are rejuvinated and sent on for another many years serving our country. The M1 Abrams is such a fascinating fighting vehicle, and a real force to be reckoned with.

Until next time...