Our Dear Mrs Reynolds

The code will be…”on the road.” Yeah… September 10, 2007

So anyone who knows me knows about my obsession with tanks. Tanks are freaking awesome. I got to attend a live fire demonstration at the Fort Bragg this weekend.

This is the first time I have seen/heard/felt a tank fire in person. My fascination with them just grew by leaps and bounds.

We started the day out by meeting the retired general that had invited us (indirectly) in Raleigh to convoy to the base. There were lots of people there and some boy scouts. He gave us a little talk about what we would do and see and passed out directions to the range.

Everyone parked in one area and then we were bused to range in groups. Once at the range they give us all MREs for lunch. They really are not bad! And the pound cake is super yummy!

Then off we go to where the tanks are….they stop and tell us to put our ear plugs in…then give us all safety instructions. I can’t hear a damn thing because of the ear plugs and the guy is not speaking loudly to begin with. Good thing I am not an idiot and will, generally, not do dumb things like ‘hit any ammo I find with a hammer’ or ‘run out in front of a tank to see how fast it will stop’. I feel pretty sure I will not violate safety rules.

While waiting, my brother and the wee one go on a hunt for shells after finding a rather big one. My brother found a large collection of blanks. Then they decided to collect all the scrap metal they found around the place. I decided it made good art and we make a happy face in the sand with it. Haha at least we made the solders passing by giggle at the oddness that is us.

It is freaking hot out in the open in the sun ..waiting waiting waiting. Then I guess the solder that drew the short straw came over to ‘report’ to us. There is a fire down range, they have to put it out before they can start, it will likely be 20 minutes if the fire is not too bad. After he gets done with us he returns to his group and the watch tower makes a weird ‘wooooonk’ sound and the APCs that were near the tanks open and fully suited up men exit.

“OMG there were men in there the whole time, it must be like 120 degrees or more in there!” I am then reminded that it is NOT hot here compared to Iraq.

We were directed to enjoy the static display down the hill. Kids and adults were everywhere climbing all over the tanks. At this point it would have been fun to have come dressed as Tank Girl just so I could climb on one and shout “Pa PA PA POW”. Right after the wee one climbed into a tank we heard “PAPOW!” and people scurried back to the live fire area. After I made the wee one thank the soldiers at the static display we also scurried.

Tanks are freaking cool. Poor wee one was holding his ears, even with ear plugs those things are freaking loud. But he didn’t want to get farther away. We had a good view of the target too. It was awesome you could feel the ground rumble as the tank would jump forward to take a shot and then you would see a bright flash, a ball of fire, then the heat shimmer where the ball of fire had been while at the same time hearing the enormous baboom and feeling it hit you in the chest (all in less then 10 seconds). They also hit the target nearly every time and it was an impressive distance.

I think we watched 30 minutes of firing before another fire broke out and this time is was a bigger one and they called an end to the fire demo.