They were pretty good vehicles. They still had problems keeping up with Abrams and Bradleys, but were not too slow. Was nice to have a warm, dry place to hang out in during crappy weather. The targeting head was good as it had a G/VLLD inside, pretty accurate.
Me too. When my M981 broke down at the NTC, my CO valued FA support and kicked the XO out of his Bradley, giving it to me to use. We strapped the G/VLLD to the top of the turret in front of the BC position and I had the first BFIST (Bradley Fires Integration Support Team), long before the M7A2 BFIST was fielded.
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When I first arrived in Baumholder the TO&E for the M60A1 tank companies had two extra tanks in the Company HQ. One of course was for the CO and the other was for the XO.
But since the XO was of course in charge of the Company Trains (Mess/Maint/Supply), he always wound up using a different vehicle, leaving that other tank as somewhat of a spare…OR for the use of the FO.
Turns out one night in the O Club my Bn Commander and one of the Tank Bn Commanders got in to a discussion about the skill level of FA vs Armor Second Lieutenants. We already KNOW that FA guys are WAY better map readers than INF/AR guys, but my Bn Cdr allowed that ANY idiot could hit a target that you are LOOKING at, but it took skill to hit one that was MILES away from the guns. (Never mind that of course I still had to “observe” it.)
So a bet was made that OUR junior 2LT (me) could learn how to qualify a tank on the gunnery range WAY faster than their guy could learn how to call for and adjust fire.
We won the bet. I’m not saying that the fact that my DAD was a career tanker had anything to do with it but… 
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