Home

George W Smith

Name    Smith George W
Rank    -
Units     
NOTE (Warr)

George was a platoon leader with me in Troop A, 1st Sqdn, 3rd ACR in 
1967-69.  In Baumholder, Germany the training area was large enough that
there was a Table VI tank range (moving - machineguns only), but there
was strict elevation limit to prevent .50 cal rounds from causing a bad
day in the surrounding neighborhoods.  In prep for Graf Tank Gunnery, one
of my first tasks was to safety that range.  George was the most memorable
of the runs.  Riding on the top of his M60-A1 turret that dark night I 
thought I had a perfect perch to sense his rounds, but when the first 
fifteen round burst was loosed I saw nothing at all through the IR binocs.
Being relatively green, I assumed I must have been looking off line and
wasn't too concerned.  Turned out, George could see nothing through
his FLIR sight either.  Undaunted, he loosed a second burst -- that one 
took me by surprise so I wasn't looking through the binoculars and I caught
the flight of the rounds in my peripheral vision -- straight up!  The linkage 
on the M85 had become disconnected.  Before my excited "Cease fire!" command 
got through to him, George was halfway through a third determined salvo.  
I cringed in my exposed position for the next five minutes or so, expecting 
a rain of heavy bullets.