Sgt Grit Marine Forums

Army to Transfer M1A1 Tanks to Marine Corps

Feb 05, 2007
BY J.D. Leipold

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Feb. 5, 2007) - The Army will transfer 80 M1A1 Abrams tanks over the next eight months to the Marine Corps to help them replace earlier models which the Army has already upgraded.

In an agreement between the two services, 25 M1A1s will be transferred to the Marine Corps by the end of March. The remaining 55 will be transferred as they become available during the fiscal year. The Marine Corps will fund all transfer costs from the Army's tank storage facility at the Sierra Army Depot in California.

This is not the first time Army G8, Force Development Division, has collaborated with the Marine Corps. Since 2004, the Army has transferred 144 M1A1s to the Marine Corps, which then modifies the Abrams' hulls and turrets for their unique operational requirements, such as forward deployments afloat via Marine expeditionary units.

According to Maj. Alphonso Gamble, G8, Abrams systems sync officer at the Pentagon, the transfer will not impact the Army's active and Reserve components.

"We have more than 750 older Abrams tanks. We keep these in reserve since we don't build new tanks, we only retrofit our older ones" Gamble said. "The Army modular heavy brigade combat team force structure we're moving to will consist of the Abrams M1A2 modified under the system enhancement program and the M1A1 rebuilt to like-new condition through the Abrams integrated management program."

Gamble said the Army is "just doing the right thing" by supporting its brothers-in-arms, and that both services benefit.

"The Army benefit to this is that we're both in the current fight in Operation Iraqi Freedom and by assisting the Marine Corps with upgraded tanks we're doing the right thing to protect their Marines as well as our Soldiers in current and future operations," Gamble said.

That is the most awesome weapons platform in the world.  Hands down.

We always get the hand-me-downs. But in this case, it's OKAY!

Did I ever tell you fellers what I was told when I tried to get socks and 30-round M-16 mags in Nam? (Yeah, I know, about 1000 times.) Anyway, I put in a request for the above items and was told the Army had all the socks and 30-rnd mags.

Did not wear sox or u-trou in Vietnam.  They caused jungle rot when you sweated and it did not dry.

Rog that...had ring worm & immersion foot...but we'uns wore socks to prevent blisters from long humps...which woulda made our foot probs even worse.

Oh, tanks. I thought this thread was about the civilian version of the M-14. Oh yeah, I guess that would have been an M1A without the extra "1".

Carry on.

"Hand me downs". . . "humm"!!!!!!. . . I seem to have heard that somewhere before,............................but then again, what else is new. . .

Yep.  Hand me downs w/ about 67 modifications that have to be made to meet Marine Specs.  The army won't put theirs in water over the road wheels (they'd rather wait for a bridging unit) but, with the fording kit attached, we will ford em into water about up to the turret roof.  (about 72 inches). 

Gy K

I made a delivery to the plant in Lima, OH where they rebuild them just before I retired. There was nothing on any freight bills or manifests that said what the plant was, so I drove up to the place with my trusty Ruger P90 sitting in it’s little house in a compartment under the dash and also in plain view. And here I was staring at a “No Firearms” allowed sigh with some sort of reference to a law and penalties.

It also seems they deemed it necessary to search all the trucks as they entered and exited the plant and it appeared my freedom of movement might be threatened before I could get outta there.

So having been trained to think on my feet, or seat as it happened to be this time, I grabbed my P90 and stuck it in my 12v refrigerator with my pickled bologna.

At this time I was only 63 years old and still pretty good looking, by most accounts anyway, and the young lady searching the trucks happened to look pretty good, so I thought what the hey, what’ve I got to loose?……and struck up a conversation with her. 

When she got to my cooler, I asked her if she would like some of my pickled bologna, and she looked at me and my obvious, although well kept advancing years, and got the dual meaning and laughed her pretty little butt off!

On the way out, she just said, “No, I don’t want any of your pickled bologna” and waved me through.

I never mentioned, of course, that I don’t have a prostate……..(Heavy sigh!)

Ya can't make sh!t like this up, guys!

 Oops sorry. I thought I was inMarine Only forum.

bunzo351:

 Oops sorry. I thought I was inMarine Only forum.

No sweat bro.  Your stories are good anywhere you post them!!!

Thats us...Hey diddle diddle straight up the middle...tell the army to get outta the way, Marine tanks are here.