US Army NTC: VISMOD (some serious modeling...)

I visited fort irwin in july of 1987.Also called the dust bowl by some locals we met.I saw some of the coolest stuff there.I even saw a nasa m-113 from the china lake wepon test center there .Also I would like to say it was the hotest place on earth...

I was in the 1-34 AR Scout Platoon out of Ft. Filey during your time at NTC. I'm sure our paths have crossed.
NTC is a great place to train and to check out Soviet equipment.
Scouts Out!
Pat

The "Dust Bowl"...hehe...

During the time I was there, they've made some improvements down there. However, even then it seemed like a pretty harsh place to have to stay in. We used to drive past there and sometimes "taunt" the rotating units. In fact, there would be times our early morning company runs would take us down past the Dust Bowl - those were always fun.

As far as the heat - there were days it would get over 120 degrees. However it wasn't too bad since it was a dry heat. The only bad part was having to work on the Sheridans - the outside of the vehicles would get awfully warm. Much less the insides.

Pat, I'm sure we did cross paths at some point.
As scouts, regardless of which side, those rotations kept us busy. If the mission was three days, we'd be out there all three days trying to remain undetected by each other. The offensive missions were the most fun - infiltrating through enemy lines at 3am. I don't know how we managed sometimes, between the Bradleys and the M1's and their thermals - but we did! One reason we managed so well was our knowledge of the terrain. We went places that many thought were impassable. In fact, there were quite a few times when people would be driving along a trail and would drive right past us and never see us. Usually they were so focused on the area in front and the low ground, never once looking at the higher ground (where we were) which they probably thought was impossible to park a HMMVW or a Sheridan.

One thing I learned from that place is how tough and rugged those vehicles are. We pushed our vehicles to their limits. Going places where I would have never imagined vehicles could have went. I have a lot of admiration for the people who "blazed" some of those trails. There were some trails on some of the hills/mountains where the crew would disembark (for safety), except for the driver, in case the vehicle rolled over. Also, keep in mind, we did most of driving at night, driving miles over rough terrain for anywhere from 2-8 hours wearing NVG's.

Scouts Out!!

Nice article Bayonet Recon, brings back memories of my days with the Opfor.

Hooah !

Tank Commander

QUOTE: Originally posted by markiii Nice article Bayonet Recon, brings back memories of my days with the Opfor. Hooah ! Tank Commander

Thanks.

When were you out there? Back in the 1/52-Infantry & 1/63-Armor days or after they became 11th ACR? I arrived a couple of years before it became 11th ACR. Every now and then when I revisit the NTC site and read up on what's happening out there, it's amazing how much has changed. I'd love to revisit that place some day for old time's sake and just to see all the improvements.

BTW, did you ever experience any of the earthquakes out there? We knew that we were in the middle of some major fault lines.

I remember this one time we were in the motor pool standing in front of one of the Sheridans. There were two guys inside the turret when one hit. One of the guys inside yelled out, "Stop rocking the vehicle." All of us standing outside started laughing. Besides, it would have taken quite a few people to rock the vehicle.