Hello all. New to this forum. Wish I found it years ago. I’m casting out a net in hopes i can contact one of the senior members, @MAKI. I saw his work in an archived site on the M163 Vulcan. I was beyond amazed at the detail. I served in the 2nd ID and 24th ID in the service as a Vulcan crew member.
I am hoping against hope someone, anyone, can help me contact him on the forums. I am seeking advice and input on this model as I have one and a pile of photoetch and resin conversions.
Hi Dan. I was in the 2nd ID from 88 to 89 then Fort Stewart from 89 to 90 in the 24th ID. It’s been over 30 years so I’m trying to remember if I was in B or C company. I’ll check some of my old paperwork that’s stashed away in a dark hole somewhere and let you know. Interestingly, enough found out that I was immortalize on the web from the desert training when we were shipped off to Fort Irwin. I found several photos online some of my old company members a couple photos of my track getting nailed by a Sheridan that was dressed up like a T-72.
I was in 3-69AR so maybe your unit supported us at some point in the field?
I remember being at NTC in Nov-Dec '88 (right after I got there) and a F16 or A10 passed over our company and I think it took out nearly half the company. We had ADA, a stinger crew, and by the time they got organized, the plane was long gone.
Never understood why a competent ADA system is such a hard thing for the Army.
Why can’t they put something like this on a Bradley chassis and stick with it?
I know there is some system on the Bradley, but I understand that the ADA MOS was gutted during the Iraqi war.
Hopefully the Army has something high speed-low drag now.
They totally got rid of the 20mm M61 as an ADA weapon and came up with the M6 Linebacker for mobile ADA, along with the Humvee-mounted Avenger System. Then the Linebacker got canned, in favor of the M-SHORAD system mounted on the Stryker.
The current war in Ukraine is showing that a gun system is quite handy for taking down drones. Missiles are not very effective there with the slow and small drones.
The US Army is considering bringing back the Linebacker as the Linebacker 2. It has new systems on the turret to track and defeat drones, along w/the same rapid-fire 30mm chain gun as an Apache.
Yes! Those two photos are my track after knocked out by a T-72! There’s other photos as well and one of a bunch of guys sitting with their backs against a track. Part of my unit.
I was at NTC in August. 115 outside and 140 in the tack. If that wasn’t bad enough was in MOP 3 most of time. My TC had me purposely drive in front of a light tank to get us knocked out so we could go to the marshaling point and sit under a camo net ( only shade for 70 miles in any direction ) and strip out of MOP
T-72! There’s other photos as well and one of a bunch of guys sitting with their backs against a track. Part of my unit.
I was at NTC in August. 115 outside and 140 in the tack. If that wasn’t bad enough was in MOP 3 most of time. My TC had me purposely drive in front of a light tank to get us knocked out so we could go to the marshaling point and sit under a camo net ( only shade for 70 miles in any direction ) and strip out of MOP