European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 20, 1980, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Continued from papa 13 ended he germans last Chance to decal inc allies i Europe. For his Feal. The Young colonel was personally com mended by the Saint of Armor himself. Gen. George  or. The Relief Effort suggests the Way Armor still likes to Sec itself As the descendant of the . Cavalry Riding to the Rescue. To promote the new tank the army has urged critics of the pm i to talk to the soldiers about the tank s performance. Meyer said at he Roll out ceremony that the soldiers out there who have used the tank Are satisfied with it and therefore i am  stiff sgt. Sletten j. Gomez is one of those sol Diers. You pm fell Gomez is Tanker by the Small plastic Container that dangles from his Paulet. It holds a pair of yellow earplug. Most of the men at fort Knox rarely Wear them and As a Rchull. Gunfire has made Many of them hard of hearing Gomez s unit h co 2nd so 6th armoured Cav lighting brigade is the first to be equipped with pm i s. The shoulder Patch of the 6th is a rearing Black  the lightning brigade s motto is forge  for about a year and a half Gomez and the other three Crew members of his tank Pilot vehicle six " have taken congressmen bureaucrats and members of the press for Joy rides at fort Knox. In late March 1 went to fort Knox to take a turn. In a great wave of heat and with the High whine of an air plane engine revving up Gomez and Bis men started the engine and set off Down a gravel Road. They scored hits with their first four rounds a feat that would have been difficult in the present m-60 tank which has very Little accuracy when firing on the move then they backed up or retrograde the tank at 27 Miles per hour double the m-60 s Speed in reverse and fired again scoring another hit. For my ride in the pm i i donned a football style Tanker s helmet with microphone climbed through a Hatch in the top of the Turret and plugged into the inter com through which the Crew communicates. The Turret extends Down into the body of the tank. It is a White steel compartment packed with a Jumble of equipment warning lights and gauges a voice scrambler the automatic halon fire extinguisher that puts out fires in a matter of seconds and a hot plate on which the Crew can boil water to warm their rations. The crewmen sit on folding slight backed scats that look like typists chairs. The compartment is not particularly cramped but the 24 hours or More that tankers sometime spend there might be a bit hard for the Novice to take. Inside the quiet hum of the engine is overwhelmed by inc Nois clanking of the tracks.  of the personnel in the a ent of a hit by an enemy Shell was a High priority in the pm a s design and tankers feel that the new Lank is far safer than the m -60. In the m-60, for instance Gomez said the ammo was arranged All around you. Here it is behind  he pointed to two sliding doors of aluminium Armor plate behind which the ammunition is stored wine cellar Fash Ion. The ammunition Case is fitted with a blow off panel designed to give Way upward in the event of a hit venting the blast away from the Crew. This feature too is an innovation. Survivability also depends on the Chobham Cypcar mor with which the vehicle is sheathed. Chobham Armor was developed by the British and the american version is according to the army n order of magnitude stronger than the Armor on p Lous tanks. Although its exact composition is classified the Armor is known to include an internal mesh Lami Nate like the material use in Bullet proof vests covered with steel and titanium. Inside the new Abrams tank. The Armor is most effective when struck at angles so the Structure of the pm a s Hull and Turret is angular rather than curved As in previous tanks. The pm i pre sents a Low target its Silhouette is just 93 inches As compared with 128 inches for the m-60. For first hit capability Speed and accuracy in firing the pm i relies on a digital computer for fire control and a Range finding laser the first Ever on a tank. Gomez put me in the gunner s seat to show off the system. Holding air plane style controls that the tankers Call Cadillac after their maker the Cadillac Gage company rested my forehead against the padded gunner s sight. The tank has two viewers a three Power Reticle and a id Power one. At Gomez s order i switched to the 10-Powcr. Instantly the landscape leapt into Sharp focus with clumps of grass a mile away Clear and distinct. A Rheostat in the optical system dims or brightens the image for maximum visibility. In the sight As v aimed the gun Bright red Cross hairs attended by a flock of aligning Marks Bounce toward a wooden target Down the Range. Gomez looking through the tank commander s sight which is identical to the gunners confirmed that the target was lined up. Lasc the weapon he ordered. The laser which calculates he distance to the target and feeds the information into the computer is activated by a trigger. Automatically the gun s Elevation is adjusted to hit its target. I squeezed another trigger. If the wooden target had been an enemy tank we would have just destroyed it Amile away. There is also a backup sighting system in Case the laser goes on the blink. We train equally hard on both of them Gomez said. The manual one is not As accurate but it works. The laser is a lot quicker. The thing is you want to get the first round off in a Battle because the one Bat gets the first round off is the one that s going to  the pm i also has a Thermal imaging system for night fighting. With the m-60, tankers must use a Searchlight or an invisible but traceable infrared beam to see at night. The Thermal system uses naturally available sources of heat to create a Black and White picture in the sight something like a photographic negative. The tank s Driver sits on a reclining chair facing a motorcycle style set of handles with twin throttles. With the Hatch open his head Sticks out. With the Lank buttoned Down the Driver eases Back Ward to a nearly prone position and looks through two thick windows a few inches High. The windows Are equipped with miniature Windshield wipers to carry away mud or dust. It s a dream to drive pfc. Marshall e. Johnson the Driver said. They say it will go 45, which is twice the Speed of the m-60, but you can hit 60 in it. In the m-60, if you left the ground you were sure to come Down with a couple of broken torsion bars. In the pm i you Don t even feel the  As i stood in inc commander s Hatch with the tank bouncing Cross country the Only roughness to the ride was a steady vibration on the soles. The new suspension system not Only provides creature Comfort but also makes firing on the move More accurate and cuts Down on Battle fatigue. Soviet tanks by contrast Are lighter lower to the ground rough Riding and More cramped so much so that soviet tankers must be no taller than 5 feet s inches. The pm i is much simpler to drive and fire than the m-60, and the army Hopes it will help to improve tank Crews performance. A study released by the army late last year for exam ple revealed that 25 percent of american tank Crews in Europe could not aim and fire their guns properly evidence that reinforces the persistent complaint that the american Volunteer army has been unable to attract and keep Quality personnel. In mid april a few weeks after my visit to fort Knox i saw Gomez again this time in Washington. The investigations subcommittee of the House armed services committee had called maj. Gen. Donald m. Babers the xm-1 program manager and army vice chief of staff Gen. John w. Pc secy or. For questioning on the xm-1. The congressmen showed less interest in survivability lasers or Thermal imaging than in the simple fact that the pm i was breaking Down More often than it should and t using too much fuel. In keeping with their ask the tankers promotional strategy the generals had brought Gomez and another tank sergeant from fort Knox to testify. T rep. Stratum began the hearing by blasting the Gener a is for deliberate Defiance of Congress in not proceed i ing quickly enough with a backup diesel engine. He re called previous boondoggles the Mbt-70, for example and the Sheridan a billion Dollar boo boo and charged that in the past. Congress has been bamboozled by Pentagon civilians and the army. You can t blame us for being  stratum called on Walton h. Schley jr., . Dep Uty director for procurement and systems acquisitions who repeated the criticisms included in his office s ear Lier report on the Lank. Poge 14 the stars and stripes planned systems interoperability with the West