The Marine Corps has gotten rid of our tanks. The idea is that we will be fighting on islands in the Pacific and that we are light infantry. Tanks are too heavy.
I think that was a mistake. We fought major land wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, and who knows where we will fight again? Tanks may be needed. The Marine Corps Hymn says: "We have fought in every clime and place" .
I propose that the Marine Corps reconstruct our reserve tank units. Low cost insurance for an unknown future. And the units can have two functions - as a tank unit and as an infantry unit if tanks are not needed. And a disclaimer - I don't know much about tanks, other than they are large and loud and I want them on my side and not the other guys side.
The Russian Ukraine War has been a labratory for tanks in modern war. It has been a mixed bag - tanks have been shown to be very vulnerable to smart munitions. And yet the Russians and Ukrainians continue to use them and want more tanks. The Russians are taking their old moth balled tanks and using them. So they must have value.
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The article below illustrates how well Marine Reserve tanks did in the Iraq war. This is what a friend and I remember from a brief thirty plus years ago, and one should not trust an old memory, but the friend and I think we have written it accurately.
One half of MWCS-48 was mobilized for the war, and some of us went to Norway or North Carolina, but only Bob Dart went to the Gulf. He needs to write his story down. Here is what Bob and I remember of the brief, written thirty years afterwards, so we don't want to be tested on these memories.
The young Marine Captain told us they were mobilized and arrived in the Gulf. They had the old M-60A1 Tanks, not the more modern M-60A3 Tanks. Some Marine Corps units received loaner M-1 tanks from the US Army. The M-1 was new and very much more powerful.
Before the war the British publication Janes Fighting Ships said that the Marine M-60's could not stand up to the more modern and lethal T-72 tanks used by Iraq. They said the Marine M-60 tanks would be badly defeated by the Iraqi tanks.
The Captain told us that the active duty command put them on the front line with their M-60's and told them to try to get through the first minefield. "You will probably get blown up", they were told, "and if you do, the active duty Tank Battalion with M-1's will come through and save the day."
But in the attack the Marine Reserve Tanks only lost the tread on one tank, so drove on to the second minefield, and took no losses in the second minefield. The Captain said the Iraqi minefield was ineptly constructed and that the wind had blown the sand away so they could avoid the mines. And the minefield was not covered by fire.
The Ground Commander told them to keep going. It would have been time consuming and complex for the active duty Marine tanks to pass past the Reserve M-60's. The Captain's story was that his Reserve Company led the fight all the way up to the road that led to Kuwait, then turned east towards Kuwait. He told us they met retreating tanks and vehicles and sometimes killed them with shots 100 yards away. I believe he claimed 35 tanks and 60 soft skinned vehicles. Something like that although like many old sea stories the number may have grown over time.
I asked him now many of his troops had been tankers on active duty? Only four, he said, one of who was the Captain.
I asked the old grizzled Gunny Sgt what he had done on active duty. "Do I have to tell you, Sir" he said. "Yes," I laughed, surprised that he was shy about what he did on active duty.
"I was a cook. In the Navy", he said.
Pretty impressive for the Marine Reserve to train an outstanding tank company from a bunch of different MOS Marines. And Navy cooks!
Excellent brief. This is the way Bob and I remember it, although my sea stories sometimes get exaggerated.
I can't believe that they have not written it up. Can't find it anywhere. It was a great story.
There is a great story written by a Reserve Tank outfit that fought very well with M-1 Tanks. They had very little time to transition from the M-60's to the M-1's but obviously did it very well.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1991-12-16-9104230141-story.html
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Sgt Major Tomaeno Rest in Peace had a great story about tanks. He mobilized with 2/24, the Chicago Marine Infantry Battalion. His son was mobilized with him and they were soon in Iraq for the war.
Sgt Major Tomaeno saw a Marine on an Iraqi tank, and yelled "Get off of that tank. You don't know what you are doing. You will get hurt."
The Marine replied, "Son, I do know what I am doing. I am trying to get this running so we can use it."
Sgt Major Tomaeno noted that there were few Marines in Iraq that could call him son. But the grizzled old Warrant Officer was one of them.
The Warrant Officer said, "The last time I was on one of these tanks was in Korea. But this is the last time. After this I am going to retire."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane%27s_Fighting_Ships
https://history.army.mil/books/www/www8.htm
https://www.wearethemighty.com/articles/how-the-marines-ripped-through-the-iraqis-in-operation-desert-storm
https://www.usmcu.edu/Research/Marine-Corps-History-Division/Research-Tools-Facts-and-Figures/Chronologies-of-the-Marine-Corps/Persian-Gulf-1990-1991/
https://www.wearethemighty.com/articles/how-the-marines-ripped-through-the-iraqis-in-operation-desert-storm