If grunts can call us DATs, we can call them crunchies!
Indeed!
In any case, there's tons of love between tankers and grunts. Show me a grunt who dislikes tankers, and I'll show you a grunt who's never been to combat (and vice versa!).
Seriously. We may make good bullet magnets, but we're
bulletproof bullet magnets.
Infantry keeps the little guys from getting to close to us, and we keep the bigger things away from them. Works nicely. Now, we're always ribbing each other, but hey, it's friendly, right?
Amusingly enough, all the crunchies who were giving us flak (do you know much pogey bait one can carry in the bustle rack? I think we had something like 75 pounds of goodies one time. I felt like Santa Claus! That, and the smoke grenade launchers can easily fit beer/soda cans.) for various stuff were certainly not too happy when it was snowing outside. They kept asking if we'd turn the engine on and allow them to bask in the exhaust. Alas, the commander wouldn't have any of that, so the grunts were grumpy.
Now, cooking in the exhaust is fun. Just hold the MRE packets with the big asbestos glove and suspend them in the exhaust for a few seconds. They get nice and toasty warm.
I was at Fort Knox in 2004, Marine Corps Detachment, for our 12 week armor crewman course during the summer...hot and humid! Still though, I agree with you, tank school was lots of fun!
Yeah it was. I remember munching on an MRE at the picnic tables at the gunnery course before they started firing for the day. The muzzle blast from the main gun is...impressive. I nearly fell off the bench.
Did you guys get to run through the M1A2 simulators? After 15 weeks of seeing a female, hearing a sultry computer voice announce "Warning...engine oil level low...[a few minutes pass]...warning, engine fire" was...interesting. I preferred the A1s simply because they had less to break.
Some days, I miss that life...but now that I'm finishing up college and dating a wonderful girl, I have no complaints at all. I have nothing but the highest respect for those who voluntarily enlist during wartime.
Now, I just want to know what the PX on an army base had so many "Marine Corps Tanker" t-shirts and whatnot. They looked better than the ones that said "army" on them, as they had a totally different design. I was tempted to pick one up, cross out "Marine Corps" and write "Army", but I figured that might be construed as some sort of slight against the Marine.
