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Have You Ever Gone For A Walk And Found A Tank?


Brig
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Maybe bring a shovel next time and start digging. Maybe the rest is buried underneath! :lol:

I did probe around thinking the same thing, maybe it was emplaced in a fighting position. No dice, but rumor has it the body is somewhere without a turret.

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That would be very cool mounted on the roof of your house. Since your still single Brig, you'd get away with it. Seeing that I'm married it would just move from the woods you found it in... to the woods I own by my house. :(

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It's a late production, 105mm Howitzer armed turret as fitted to both the M4 and M4A3 Medium Tanks, as well as both versions equipped with HVSS.

 

There are lots of interesting things residing in the weeds of most impact areas, but I'd be real careful exploring them. EOD can only deal with what happened to be above ground when they did thier UXO sweep. You never know what might surface and when.

We find UXO a few times a year...all old, the area was an impact area in the 50's but is now regular training grounds. Mortars, mines, fuzes, grenades have all been found. The camp has two old grenade areas and the old flamethrower range. We did unearth half of a grenade that must have had a limited blast a couple weeks ago while digging fighting positions near the old flamethrower/grenade range

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That would be very cool mounted on the roof of your house. Since your still single Brig, you'd get away with it. Seeing that I'm married it would just move from the woods you found it in... to the woods I own by my house. :(

I've been married for 6 and a half years

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Ooops, so, do you have a woods next door? :)

I've been rebuilding a Wrangler...maybe I can use this as the body

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I once went for a walk and came home in a Ford Windstar that I bought on the way! My wife told me I was crazy! :wacko::D

 

You would think after being married for 40+ years she would have figured that out sooner! ;)

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Brig, Is that the one on Mainside CLNC or over on Geiger?? We use to find all kinds of interesting stuff on base. I have personally found two Type 92 Japanese howitzers on CLNC in the Lyman Rd. area, an M-5 light tank out by Courthouse Bay, a Mighty Mite that somebody stole off the impact area (probably wanted to restore it as it was only slightly damaged) and I use to know where your Sherman hull was until 2nd Tanks moved it.

 

Lots of cool stuff in the woods.

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This was near Geiger, between the K-Ranges and Devil Dog

 

I've heard about the Japanese Howitzers, as well

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Yep, one of the Japanese howitzers is now on display at 10th Marines Regimental HQ and the other is still in the woods to my knowledge. Last I heard on the M-4 hull was 2nd Tanks had drug it off to one of FSSG's lots and were making plans for some sort of restoration....but that was a while ago and my contact there PCS'd to the 'Stumps.

 

The M-5 WAS out by Falcon in the deep woods but I haven't been able to verify that recently.

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Hulks in actual impact areas are usually so full of holes-including tanks that identification can be difficult.

Dumbest thing you can do is to go digging about in one of these areas.

I used to ride a dirt bike around Ft Bragg and came on some of these ranges and got up close to have a look.

The ground was absolutely covered in bits and pieces of vehicles, shrapnel and a LOT of unexploded stuff.

I never ventured back there.

We were firing MGs one day when something detonated about 20 feet in front of us-a long buried something got hit and went off.

Do not go back there, do not dig anywhere.

Your life has to mean something to you.

if you want to do something, report the thing and perhaps somebody will come out and retrieve it for something.

Or they might come out and retrieve what is left of you.

Get serious these are not playgrounds.

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Only the Mighty Might jeep I spoke of was in an impact area....the rest were undamaged with the exception of time and the elements. There was a lot of crap around after WW2 and Korea that were stuck out in the boonies as static training aids...ie, assault the tank, take out the pillbox, attack the artillery battery, etc,etc,....

 

I have been retired since 1995 and a lot of the stuff was put out there for training by the Marines who trained me. I remember them from the late 70's and was surprised that in the years since that they weren't removed. The M-4 was recovered in the early 2000's and I had trained as a 106mm recoiless rifleman dry firing on it for hours on end way back in the old days. ;)

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Hulks in actual impact areas are usually so full of holes-including tanks that identification can be difficult.

Dumbest thing you can do is to go digging about in one of these areas.

I used to ride a dirt bike around Ft Bragg and came on some of these ranges and got up close to have a look.

The ground was absolutely covered in bits and pieces of vehicles, shrapnel and a LOT of unexploded stuff.

I never ventured back there.

We were firing MGs one day when something detonated about 20 feet in front of us-a long buried something got hit and went off.

Do not go back there, do not dig anywhere.

Your life has to mean something to you.

if you want to do something, report the thing and perhaps somebody will come out and retrieve it for something.

Or they might come out and retrieve what is left of you.

Get serious these are not playgrounds.

This hasn't been an impact area since the 1950's, it was swept and converted into training areas that we come within 50m of daily on multiple sides. Occasionally we do unearth an old piece, but it's few and far between. EOD takes care of UXO when unearthed, this mortar did not contain explosives

 

I am familiar with the area, I wouldn't go walking into an active impact area.

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Got a call from my cousin last night. He found an M4A3 out in the woods... of Guam! Pretty cool. It was either KO'd in WWII, or used for AT practice. Had a few holes in it, about 2" diameter.

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You guys will enjoy this (check out the gallery link at the bottom showing all the vehicles found):

 

http://www.armorfortheages.com/Volunteers/GhostsOfFortKnox/GhostsOfFortKnox.html

 

I used to be a volunteer with this group - a great bunch, but the group has fell apart alot in the past few years - mostly because the tanks left Knox and the new museum administration isn't as volunteer/reenactor friendly.

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