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 A TROOP'S REFLECTIONS ON THE M48Jim Good When I got to Viet Nam in December 1969, the M-48s in A 4/12 Cav were pretty well worn out. Most of them ran fairly dependably, but a lot of the important sub-systems were getting worn out. An example of this is one of the two times that I clearly had "gooks in my gunsite" while in Viet Nam. Fairly early on, probably still in December 1969, I was assigned as the gunner on one of the third platoon tanks. The ballistic drive on that particular tank was broken, and parts to repair it were unavailable, thus the main gun (90 mm cannon) was not particularly accurate at any range. We did have a secondary ballistic telescope sight, but it was not as accurate as the primary sight which allowed superelevation to be input from the computer to adjust for range and type of ammunition. Also, the intercom connection at the gunners position was not working, so I was basically just along for the ride while we were enroute. As we went cross country, the tank was noisy, and it rocked and rolled along from side to side and front to aft as we crossed rough terrain making communication with anyone else from the gunners seat nearly impossible. On the particular day that I recall, we were going to check out reports of people southeast of the Charlie 2 firebase. I was looking through the ballistic telescope, and saw an NVA soldier, wearing a khaki uniform and pith helmet. I was surprised that the TC hadn't given me a fire command, or engaged him with the .50 Cal machinegun, but being new in country I figured that maybe we were going to try to get closer before we fired. After a few minutes I lost sight of the NVA, and finally we stopped which allowed me to talk to the TC. I said "when are we going to fire them up?" He said "fire who up?" I told him about the uniformed NVA trooper that I had been watching, and it appears that no one else had seen him. I had been looking through the telescopic sight, so even though he was probably well over 1,000 meters away I could see him fairly clearly as we were approaching the area. After the TC found out about what I'd seen, he called the platoon leader on the radio and informed him of the presence of at least one NVA soldier in the area. Unfortunately, we were unable to locate him again, and there was no other contact with the enemy that day. We did find a small group of civilian women nearby, who were in a free fire zone. The women claimed to be gathering firewood or something, though we figured they were taking food to the local NVA/VC bad guys. The women were loaded into an APC, and removed from the area. While moving cross country in the PC, one of them either got "car sick" or was afraid she was being taken off to be shot. At any rate, she barfed all over the inside of the PC. Before we got back to Charlie 2, a helicopter landed and picked up the women to take them back to Quang Tri for questioning. Typical operation, end of the action for the day. The M-48 tanks were large, sturdy vehicles. They could take a beating from mines and be fairly quickly repaired. They were prone to throwing their tracks in muddy or hilly terrain, and replacing the track, or performing other maintenance was usually a heavy, tough, dirty job. Working on the M-48s was a pain in the ass. The Sheridans which came later were lighter, and easier to work on, though not as rugged as the M-48s. The main gun on the M-48 was more accurate than the 152 mm gun/launcher on the Sheridan (when the ballistic drive worked), however the 90 mm main gun didn't pack the same punch as the Sheridan. The M-48 was fairly good in the terrain along the DMZ where we operated. It probably wouldn't have been very good in dense jungle, but most of our AO was open terrain which the M-48 handled pretty well. They did occasionally get stuck, and when the 52 ton tank got stuck, it was sometimes a major problem to get them dug and pulled out to dry ground. Overall, they were good tanks for that era. From Coop's War Diary: 12 July 69 Still on screening mission, went out to pick up some grunts and A13 threw a track. We stayed behind to help; the rest moved on. About twenty minutes later they received a change of mission and return to LZ Nancy before moving on to Publeo, leaving my track and A13 behind. About 12:00 hrs made it back to LZ Nancy hooked up A12, A15, A31 and A39 and took off to catch up rest of Troop. It started raining again and the hills were beginning to get slippery. A13 threw another track - A12 and my track stayed with him; had to call A18 to help tow A 13 up the hill so other tracks went around us. It was dark by that time, we had A13 running; we had to locate our platoon during this process so we managed to slide down and turn sideways on the way to the bottom of this very steep hill ( the brakes would not slow us down enough - Jordan tried his best to kept it straight) after the rest of the tracks regroup at the bottom of the hill we continued on our way. As if sliding sideways in the dark to the bottom of a hill wasn't enough, a little later we slid off the side of a hill and threw a track. Brown came over and it took about an hour to throw the track back on, otherwise we would have had to sit there all night. |
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This site is in no way connected to, or sanctioned by, any official Army or Government entity. This is, and will be a work in progress; we apologize now for any errors and/or mistakes. Information for this site has been and will continue to be gathered from many different sources. It is intended as a place for fellow troopers, family and friends of A Troop 4th Squadron 12th Cavalry (Vietnam Era) to visit, seek contact with, gather information or some insight into the history, language and jargon of the people who were part of A Troop, then and now. A Troop 4/12 Cav (Vietnam Era) invites and encourages trooper's family members to participate in the troop's reunions, memorial services, remembrances of our fellow troopers who have passed on to Fiddler's Green, and to continue the camaraderie of the BROTHERHOOD....Long Live the Cav and its BROTHERHOOD!!
