Uhm..... you can't park there...
View attachment 8414212
Been there, done that. Wish I had photos of it.
We sunk an M1 at Ft Hood in 1984. C 1/8 1st Cav.
Shortly after getting our shiny new M1 tanks we were tasked to be OPFOR and attack a unit being graded on the defense. The smoke tracks laid a nice thick screen, and we charged through it like the Soviets to wipe them out. Lol. Naturally, we weren't supposed to win, so we had to do it again.
This time the smoke tracks did an extra thick smoke screen... and we once again came charging through the dense clouds ready to destroy. Difference is, I was over it, so I didn't even try. Sitting on the gunner's seat, I just rested my head to the side by placing my CVC on the ballistic computer, closing my eyes, and trying to get a nap. Suddenly water was coming in from the turret ring... then the mantlet... "Damn this is a deep hole!" I thought. Then... water (a lot) was coming in from the TC's hatch behind me! WTF over?
Turns out, neither Rich (our driver) or the LT could see anything in the extra thick smoke screen... and while barreling through it at 45 mph... we had skipped out to the middle of a pond... and sank. The water was coming in so fast and hard I couldn't move. It had pinned me up against the cadillac's, and sight. The LT tried to climb out probably 3 or 4 time being sucked back in each time before he finally got out. I had to catch a breath, and wait for the turret to fill up. Once standing on the turret roof (knee deep in swampy pond water) we realized that Rich (our driver) hadn't made it out. I had to go back in and manually crank the main gun (that was directly over the driver hatch) out of the way. I ran out of breath and had to go down a second time. When I came up after that second time... he was up, standing on the front slope.
Two engineer D9s working together pulled us out.
Fun-ass shit there boys & girls... but nobody got hurt.
They deemed it the LTs fault for going so fast through the limited visibility. (which was the battle plan)
Tank was a total loss, and he lost 1/2 pay for 6 months.