Engineer Memoirs _____________________________________________________________________
Then he asked, not understanding, "Well, what tank do you use when you go to the training
areas?" The sergeant was a little perplexed with this. See, the Soviets have one tank at home
and a different tank in the training area. The sergeant says, "No, I take my tank. This tank."
It had a strap of MILES devices on the turret. You could see that was there. So, we
explained. "No, that's the tank he maintains with his crew in the motor pool; that's the one
he brings out here to the local training area; it is the one we put on a train and take to
Grafenwhr for live fire. So, he and his crew know how to shoot their tank; they know how
to maneuver the tank. It's theirs."
Now, the tank commander was an HispanicAmerican, and the Soviet Chief of Staff moved
over to the next man, and there was a black gunner. He asked how long he'd been there.
"Five years," was the answer. He moved on down to the next soldier and talked with him,
and he'd been a year and a half on the crew. The loader had been there about seven months.
So, we had a rather cohesive crew there, recognizing their swap outs.
Q:
It must have been interesting to observe them and see what they were interested in.
Major General Kem (left) escorted Major General Fursin, Chief of
Staff of the Group of Soviet Forces Germany, on a visit to
Grafenwhr in 1989 during the CINC to CINC visit.
428
Previous Page
