The M551A1 Sheridan tank was delivered this past week, and it is on display at our Memorial Park at the west end of Emporium.
The tank has already had quite a few visitors and has brought back memories for some residents that served in the Army and were familiar with the M551A1.
I would like to share a story that was sent along to me from local resident Bobb Copp.
In 1973, Bob served in a unit that had these tanks.
Thank you for sharing!
"I served in the Army from June 1973 to June 1977 and from Oct 1973 to June 1977 in Germany in the 2nd Armored Cavalry. We had the Sheridan also.
While I was never assigned to a tank, My unit, and I assume the 11 ACR was the same, was combined arms. We had tanks, infantry M113 (6 men) tracked vehicles, and Infantry mortar tracked vehicle M109 (4 men) in each platoon, with 3 combat platoons per troop. We also had a support company of Main battle tanks and a company of Self propelled 155MM howitzers. These were not assigned to border duty. I was the TC (Track Commander) of a M109 mortar carrier. Everyone helped out during Tank gunnery no matter what so we knew a lot about all of the vehicles in our unit. My job (MOS) was 11C20 Infantry mortar. We spent more than 250 days a year in the field, either on the border (normally 30 days at a time, once for 3 months straight), Tank gunnery, Mortar gunnery, or running 30 day battle plans against various units from German, British, Australian, and US (Reforger) forces.
The Tank currently at the Big Flag Is an M551 Sheridan Named after Civil War General Sheridan. It's apparently from the 11th Armored Cav Which had Border Duty along some of the Soviet East German border. My unit, which was the 2nd Armored Cav, had border duty on some of the East German border and the Czech (CSSR) border. The tank was used in Vietnam to some extent with mixed reviews.
It's nomeclature is ARAAV which stands for Armored Reconnaissance Airborne Assault Vehicle.
In other words, it could be dropped by parachute. It is a light tank meaning not heavily armored.
The gun is a large 152MM - the largest mounted on a tank, let alone on a light tank.
The Sheridan weighed in at around 33,000# vs over 100,000# for main battle tanks.
Also, main battle tanks have a 105 MM barrel which is higher villosity.
The tank could fire conventional Anti-tank rounds, and a Missile called the Shillelagh (pronounced sha-lale-lee).
The Anti-tank rounds Called HEAT rounds (High Explosive Anti-Tank) when fired with the gun facing Forward would lift the front two road wheels off the ground. The missile caused almost no reaction when fired.
Of note, the rounds had a combustible case so when fired it burned up (mostly) in the gun tube.
The gun had an air "scavenging" system to blow unburnt casings out of the tube. The square box atop the rear of the gun tube is a housing for a laser range finder.
We did not get that modification until around late 1974 I believe. That is when we started test firing the missiles. The tank was equipped with Stabilized mode. Meaning that the tank could fire on the move and remain on target. The current Abrams main battle tank has a much more advanced system and is faster. The 8 short tubes on the outside of the main gun (4 on each side) are grenade launchers for defense of the tank. An M60 machine gun was mounted inside the turret and stuck out the little tube to the right of the main gun and could be used for offence or defense as needed. It had a 4-man crew consisting of the Tank Commander (TC) gunner, loader, and driver. The TC also had a M2 50 cal mounted on top under his control.
I notice this tank does not have a search light mount. Most, if not all, of ours did. Max speed was about 40 miles an hour, and the were built to "Swim" across water (not very effectively, and we never did it)."
This photo was taken during my last tank gunnery – we were the range safety vehicle, so I got this pic.
As told by Bobb Copp, Emporium, PA.
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