M1 Urban Legand

[King]

I‘ve heard this dropped a few times, Jim Davis in his first book and most recently over on the Deja forum‘s.

The story has a few different versions, the most common one I hear is that the U.S. offered us X number of Abrams during the Gulf War and all we had to do was supply the crews and pay a token fee. I‘ve also heard it relayed with Humvees and Bradley IFV‘s replacing the M1‘s.

 

[fortuncookie5084]

...don‘t forget about the 5 Globemasters and the 100 helicopters. All of that gear is high maintenance and expensive to keep working---two things we cannot afford. Whether it is true or not I do not know---but I‘ve heard the rumors (which are more and more of a fish story as they years go by).

 

[Yard Ape]

I‘ve heard the rumor, but it was Germany, not the US, and Leopard II‘s, not M-1s. The story goes that the Germans would replace all our Leo‘s 1 for 1, if we would "battle test" them in the gulf war. The reasoning behind this was that, at the time, they were constitutionaly prohibited from fielding thier own forces in the conflict.

Yard Ape

 

[rceme_rat]

To put a precise date on when the US offered the M1A1, find out when PMO TANK was shut down. The offer came while the PMO was still running. Gulf War seems possible; it may have been earlier.

My understanding was that they would provide all tanks that were waiting delivery to units, plus all tanks coming off production for 30 days. This would have been enough equip all reg force regts and the school. It wsn‘t for free, but at preferable rates.

Apparently, this was an attempt to short-circuit the selection process since Leo II was expected to be the winner (or possibly the Le Clerc (sp?) - which was the best ‘on paper‘ but wasn‘t in production).

I hadn‘t heard of any Leo II offer, but it wouldn‘t be surprising given the bidding scenario and the potential payoff.

Long before I left the reg force, which was awhile ago now!