Gunnery

When you fire a tank, you have to be sure you're not directly behind the main gun. As countless sergeants will tell you, when the recoil pushes the breach back, you better know where your elbows and knees are, or else you might get them shattered.

But that said, shooting at wooden pop up targets is pretty thrilling. Downrange are plywood cutouts designed to look like troops or personnel carriers (PCs) or tanks. Some of them move, but most are stationary. And with a little heating tape put on, they have a heat signature that thermal sights can pick up.

And voila.

The hardest part of firing is not pulling the trigger or getting a bead on the target, but remembering the fire command you (as a tank commander or TC) are supposed to call out. Something along the lines of "Gunner Sabot Tank Driver Move out" ... which tells the crew what ammo to use, who's acquiring the target, and what the target is.

After getting a range, verifying the hostility of the target, and the loader's "up" (signifying that if the breach would recoil, it won't hit him) the round goes "on the way" and hopefully splinters some wood far away.

After all this, sitting in the shack up by range control getting counseled on how we performed, the building shook with every shot ... even when the tanks were over a mile down range.

This is what I signed up for. Now if only they let us run over a few cars ...