Gilligan's Island, Tanker Style!

[Lunatock]

"You do realise that Tanks don't float do you?".

YouTube - Gilligan's Island! Tanker style

[sappersgt]

"You do realise that Tanks don't float do you?".

YouTube - Gilligan's Island! Tanker style

Also, "That's the Lieutenants tank. No NCO would have put his tank there..." (ouch!)

[RustyBattleship]

"You do realise that Tanks don't float do you?".

YouTube - Gilligan's Island! Tanker style

YOWZER! Does THAT bring back memories.

The cook from Company B in our battalion wanted to learn how to drive a tank. So the crew put him through some manuevers with their M-41 Walker up at Camp Roberts. Then they "taught" him how to ford the Salinas River.

"Stay close to or run up onto the islands where the water is the shallowest."

Wrong.

"WE FOUND THE HOLE".

This gave the commander of the engineering battalion a chance to show off his fancy rigging assuming there were no tank retrievers or bigger tanks around (Roberts had hundreds of them but we had to pretend).

He backed two 5-ton wrecker trucks down the embankment, through the trees and onto a small island (actually just a sand bar). Then Sgt. Allen had to swim out (in just his skivvies) to run a light line underwater to one of the lifting padeyes on the front hull of the tank.

Then, with help from other swimmers, he had to haul out two big snatch blocks. Then they reaved manila lines through the snatch blocks. Then the manila lines were used to pull steel cables from the winches of the wreckers through the blocks and back to the wreckers. Therefore each wrecker had a two part purchase on the rigging.

It took relays of two full companies to pull those cables through. It was a hot day and we wanted to go swimming after gunnery practice. But not that way.

Then we had to position two M-41s in front of the wreckers (including mine) and use them as anchors with chains to prevent the wreckers from hauling themselves into the river.

We pulled the M-41 out just about sunset. I have the entire operation on 8mm film. Interestingly, the setting sun reflected off the headlight lenses and gave the impression that the lights were still on. We left it there overnight on the sandbar.

Roy Moore, my driver who drove M-4 Shermans in Korea, hooked onto each wrecker and driving our M-41 backwards pulled up each wrecker truck to the regular tank trail about 20 feet above the river.

The commander of the engineering battalion was trying to come up with another complicated recovery system to get the tank up onto high ground so the engine could be pulled and get thoroughly cleaned out (lube oil from the engine coated the entire insides).

Before he got there, however, an M-47 Patton was flagged down and it pulled the Walker right on up like it was nothing.

TO TOP IT ALL OFF, that day the Beatle Bailey comic strip came out where Beatle didn't want to tell Sgt. Snorkel where he hid his tank because he actually sunk it in the river. Needless to say, that strip was plastered all over the camp in every barracks and office.

Ah. The good old days.