By Larry Shaughnessy
October is when America's favorite color seems to be pink.
NFL football players don pink cleats and hang pink towels from their belts.
The wives of both major presidential candidates risk a fashion police citation by wearing the same shade of pink to the second debate. And the president himself is seen wearing a pink rubber bracelet.
Everywhere there are pink ribbons. In almost every case, this temporary change of hues is in recognition of October being Breast Cancer Awareness month, when public service organizations unite to promote breast cancer awareness, share information on the disease, and provide greater access to services.
But when the Army recently sent out pictures of a pink tank at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, saving woman from the disease was not the goal.
Fort Sill is one of the places where soldiers go to learn how to fire artillery at targets. When you are shooting a gun that fires a round the size of a cured ham, you don't shoot at paper targets, you shoot at three-dimensional targets.
The people who run the target range at Fort Sill recently changed the targets, removing what's left of old jeeps and humvees and moving in new ones, including an M60 tank painted a very vibrant shade of pink.
The M60 Patton tank was the workhorse of the U.S. Army's armored divisions in Vietnam until the deployment of the M1 Abrams, the tank currently in use today.
Fort Sill obtained two old M60s from Fort Knox, the home of the Army's tank training, for the target range.
When they arrived, one tank was painted pink, the other purple.
According to a news release from Army, the paint colors where used in previous training to help new soldiers know which tank to aim at.
At Fort Sill, where the tanks will be targeted by high-explosive artillery rounds, it won't matter what color they are. In a few months, there won't be much left to see.
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dont you think obama would have better things to worry about than what color to change the tanks??
It's funny all the depairing comments, yet we have the greatest military in the world. All the naysayers are from countries that have been embarrassed in the field, or are socialist nuts that hate their own country. Men and Women have done an awesome job defending this country, and if u dont like it, leave, Please!
I have read abve and say that d they can't believe in them because their bible says the world is only generaly depend on mans and womens What about the women attached to them so save womens and man.above contains are awesome ....
Oh, it has evaded everyone. The whole idea of painting a tank pink is to get the other side to laugh so hard or wonder so long that the pink tank has the time to blow them away. You may just die laughing. But dead is still dead.
Reminds me of the "pink" whale.
Bit the end off a submarine .... and sucked out all the sea men.
PINK is for all the daisies in the new army,and also for all the illegal aliens that somehow have infiltrated our military.Homeland security ? What a joke !
OMG. What an ignorant fool you just showed yourself to be. Obviously one of the small, loud group who thought we should keep "Don't Ask, Don't Tell". Are you not aware that there are just as many gays(65,000) in the military now as there were before? And the officer who trained and led General George Washingon's army at Valley Forge was gay also, along with Alexander the Great. Go troll some place else. We've got a country to protect.
You know what's gay? People running around, shouting and blathering about everything that's wrong with this country. How capitalism is dead, medicine is socialized, and muslims are infiltrating our government with illegal aliens making babies that you have to pay for. And then bemoaning the fact that if we had elected McCain and Palin, none of this would have been occurred. That's gay.
Glad to see all the racist, Bigots and republicans are still crying after a successful election. The only way to help a racist bigot out is to pretend to listen to them so they feel important. I am very sure this guy is white, and has a small submarine. He might reply, if not beating his wife and yelling at the tv is his most important role in life and yelling "they took our jobs".......
Enemy tanks on the battlefield might be the same model we're using/ have used, but there will be ways to differentiate–such as camouflage scheme, painted markings such as stars or half-moons on the turret, etc. Heck, since no two things can physically sit in the exact same place, compass directions could be used during this training. Imagine hearing over the radio something along the lines of "2 tanks in the open at grid 123789. North tank first." Perhaps more realistic training is too difficult for our infantry brethren, so that they must rely on something "easier"–like primary and secondary colors, to actually do something correctly? I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that Fort Campbell houses the brainiacs that thought this was a GFI.
& I will continue to view this as Fort Sill's efforts to support breast cancer awareness!!!
so now all we gotta do is convince the enemy to paint their military equipment pink so we dont shoot ourselves ???
dont the illegals in the army even know how to read so they can fire the gun ?
we all know fifty five 50 is a white racist wife beating bigot, oops I mean republican
At least when an Infantryman calls for fire, the rounds land within the designated area rather than your local KMART PARKING LOT!
Way to go "QUEEN OF BATTLE!"
Modern "Operation Petticoat."
In the Field Artillery to paint a target is to laze but not for the Infantry interputation maybe organizations don't understand the FA concept at Fort Sill to locate camouflage targets. The cost was approx $4000:) Do you think we need Infantryman to set the standard for the FA on the color of targets for a target insertion?
The pinacle of journalism ... not.
My instructor at Camp Pendleton said, "Hit the F$#king Tank"!!!
I didn't need which an additional incentive or a pink target; if I missed, he would kick my a$$.
Only about $6000.00 worth of taxpayers money to paint (no joke). At least they won't be pink and purple for long...
making of new Hollywood blockbuster??? story line WWII England at a US detention center. A group of US Army misfits and prisoners awaiting the death penalty for crimes they didn't commit are forced to work together and form a fighting unit. their mission is canceled and they are returned to prison, but they escape and they piece together a tank from stolen or"acquired" parts the only paint they find to protect it rusting is pink, they go around blowing up the wrong targets but in the end they save the day and are hero but because they are still wanted they disappear and the movie ends
Holly wood can pass it off as original hoping that no one will watch TCM on Saturday
You didn't see the old Cary Grant, Tony Curtis movie "Operation Petticoat"? Pink submarine in that one.
Gives a whole new meaning to 'sink the pink'...
~~ THAT'S GAY ARMY ~~
You just need to hire BETTER SOLDIERS.
Get off your fat ass and see how well you can do
Soldiers aren't hired, genius, they're recruited. Learn the difference.
No...No...They did it so the gunner can feel LOVE is in the air...
Good we practice on pink tanks because, you know, the Chinese will attack with tanks painted pink. har har
"According to a news release from Army, the paint colors where used in previous training to help new soldiers know which tank to aim at."
Seriously, thats pretty sad. How bout making them learn how to id a tank by model like it use to be?
How are they going to know which Patton to shoot at if they're both olive drab? They painted them both different shades to aid in telling the difference between the same model of tank....
It's sad when people do not edit articles before posting them online. "Where" =/= "were"
I agree. It also reads "woman", when it should be "women".
Oh wow, I just re-read the article and caught the misuse of 'where' which should have been 'were'. I also noticed the misuse of 'woman'. It's bad enough when most of the comments are full of misspellings, incorrect grammar and missing or improper use of punctuation but when an article writer does it, it's really bad. I take it there are no proofreaders?
The tank in question is used for target practice to assist troops in learning how to aim properly; the ability to identify the model of the tank is irrelevent in that context. That would be like requiring targets on every rifle range to accurately depict the uniforms of various foreign militaries. How does that assist in learning to accurately fire a weapon? Learning to identify enemy targets by their type is an entirely seperate aspect of training, and it is not being neglected by the modern military establishment, I assure you.
Right you are, the funny thing about these forums is most people who say anything about the military, have no experience in the military, and think winning at Call of Duty somehow relates to what kind of soldier they would be
-Former Artillery trooper.
Many countries use the same tanks. We've sold M-60s to other countries. In desert storm, both sides used Russian equipment especially tanks. You can't just pick a target because it's a certain type of tank if both sides are using it.
They're both the same kind of tank! What's wrong with "the tank on the left" or "the tank on the right"???
Learning the enemy's tanks is the right way but that's to much like right.
It must be so female gunners will know which tank to shoot out during training exercises....LOL! I just couldn't resist.
No female gunners in Field Artillery. Air Defense Artillery, yes, but they don't shoot at Tanks
I guess the army went all-out when repealing don't ask, don't tell.
P*ssy Riot tank scheme.
Seeing how all we're going to do is shoot at it and destroy it, I wonder how much this paint job set us back...
Having trained at Fort Sill in artillery with the old M109A1 Self propelled 155mm howitzer – I can tell you that a tank at range is hard to hit the first time-this color ought to help gunners get it the first time.This have changed so much since 1973 they may actually hit it dead on the first try.We did not have lasers back then-just spotting scopes and a 1 mil error at a down range target can mean a huge miss.1 direct hit with anything from a 105mm to 155 mm shell-goodbye tank-regardless of color.
WE got to see a C130 Hercules with a GE Gatling gun blast targets to bits on 4th of July-quite a show. Fort Sill can be a hot place to train in July.A nice post-built during the Civil War-it has quite the history.
The gunner and AG are secondary to the No.1 in direct fire, as he is responcible for not only Left and right deflexion but also sight to crest... true enought the Ag yellss set.. set.. set and the Gunner Yells fire but that all depends on speed of loading, one over one under (with a curtesy hop) or a direct hit. The latter of which is most readily accomplished while unfortunatelly under direct fire. and as for me, I've single-handedly hand slammed HE down the tube of a M-198 (TOWED) until I plum lost count. and scored pretty damn Respectable scores at direct fire exercises When on range in both the US and BRD. For H.E.A.T. I still get Excited when I hear a Copperhead go down range being pushed By Charge *SupweX Red Bag... I believe I'm not the only EX-GunBunny Here though am I?
Looks FABULOUSSSS
Something tells me that unless we go to war with San Francisco, the gunners will be firing at tanks with a slightly more effective camouflage scheme.
Kuwait was the final relevant tank battle for the United States (it was phenomenal). The strategies of Hitler and Patton are now a thing of history. Tanks are still being produced more for political/economic reasons rather than strategic interests.
Armor may be a thing of the past (although I disagree 100%) but artillery is in no way a thing of the past! FIRE MISSION!
Maybe Heinz Guderian or Erwin Rommel, but not Hitler – he was never a military leader (regardless of what he thought).
Heinz Guderian, Patton, Erich von Manstein and Rommel were the father's of tank combat. Hitler stone the blitzkrieg as their own plan. As for tanks battles in themselves. Just because they're irrelevant at the moment doesn't mean that'll last. There will be an inevitable major war. Nor will America be the only nation in that war talented with their tanks.
@Hitler Knew Nothing...
There will never be any relevant tank battles for the US again. Certainly not at the level of Rommel and Patton. Any country that has tanks capable of being more than target practice for the M1 Abrams likely has nukes. We will never be having a tank battle with someone with nukes because that would imply an invasion/ground war with someone who could wipe us off the map. WW2 style tank battles are gone like a calvary charge.
Don't ask, don't tell.
That's hilarious!!
Hey Larry Shaughnessy – Don't depend on the spell check function when proofing your article. "According to a news release from Army, the paint colors where used in previous training to help new soldiers know which tank to aim at." I think you meant, "...the paint colors were used in..." Here's a hint: actually read the words before submitting it for posting on the website!
Not to mention the fact that he seemed to forget the word "the" in front of Army in that same sentence you quoted...
(sigh)...
Apparently "all Larry's base are belong to us"....
Someone set him up the bomb
For great justice!
One time Spell Check tried to change the last name of my boss's boss to Buttocks in an email I was sending to the corporate office. While I wouldn't call that entirely inaccurate, I probably wouldn't still be working there had that one gone through.
I recall a corporate email that went out about a meeting date, then another soon followed to correct for a new meeting time. The person apologized for the 'incontinence'.
Heil grammer!!!!!
This chit happens when you put gays in the military.
Question: What's long and hard and full of sea men? Answer: A submarine.
I figured it was to celebrate BoBo's new limp wrist military
Scott
Ahhh,...what humor... You're a real winner there Scott...
Oh, wait,...I'm sorry,...I meant weiner...
I am so sick of the disrespect shown the president...His name is President Obama and you are the only obobo on this thread.
Poor little Obozo, can't take a little criticism.
are we going to war with Candy Land?
I absolutely thought this would be a "War on cancer!" thing.
They had all this leftover paint when they painted that submarine pink.
.
Wasn't there a sub painted pink in WWII, I think Cary Grant was the captain.
Spoken above like a true mindless Tea Partier. This is how these Tea Partiers think. Nothing serious on their minds at all.
Sorry but I think Tea Parties are for little girls to have with thier imaginary friends, you got the wrong guy I'm support the president all the way.
George, maybe you're too young but Opertaion Peticoat was one of my favorite movies growing up. Do you even know who Cary Grant was?
@Patton, here's a few hints:
1) you just attacked someone who's on your side
2) giving the other side the finger doesn't change anyone's minds in your favor. In fact as an undecided, seeing crap like your posting makes me want to vote the other way
Perhaps you should work a bit on your own thinking...
@houston Yes,,,, co-staring Tony Curtis.
lol... I think George is too young to remember Operation Petticoat (GREAT movie...one of my favorites, right up there with Charade). It's a shame that the younger generation jumps at the chance to spout inflammatory nonsense on message boards without bothering to at least Google it first.
aye there was one matey
They never seemed to be able to fix that number 1 engine. But hey, she still managed to sink a truck.
I'd thank those idiots in the military not to put my name on those cursed tanks or any other killing machine they may have! I'm proud of my last name just as my ancestors were going back to medieval England. Besides, I hate all these senseless wars that we're currently engaged in as they're about politics and greed and not based on moral principles as was WW2!!!
I truly cannot blame you George for feeling that way! I'd be madder that a hornet if some jerk put my name on those killing machines!
Please shut up.
Idiots in the military huh? I'd take the intelligence of a ground pounder over yours any day...
BRAINWASHED ground pounders..get it right!
~Blessed Be to all~
Who wants to bet that George was playing Call of Duty on his other computer as he posted this?
Who wants to bet that he could actually get into the military to serve anyway? What ever he says means nothing.
WW2 was for politics and greed, too. It is true USA was not on the worst side, but it ended up doing many of the worst things, in particular making civilians primary targets.
You're just lucky I was sick as hell.
I'm Canadian and by no means a military history buff but I don't think the the M-60 was every used in Vietnam.... could be wrong.
ever*
It totally was used in Vietnam as well as Desert Storm and other small wars.
You sound like my wife. She says something as if it's fact and then add, "but I don't know".
My husband says this of me and to me too.
You lack reading comprehension.
M48 was used in Vietnam, not the M60. If this article wasn't from a reliable source, I'd swear that pink tank is an M48, not an M60. The turret lost looks 'wrong' to me.
I think you may be right. the turret shape does seem off, and the leading edge of the glacis appears to be straight, whereas if I recall correctly it was curved on the M60. To be fair, the M60 and the M48 were pretty similar, and both called Patton. Shame to use it as a target when I'd have a lot more fun with it out on my folks' land, though.
It's definately an M60A3 with the turret reversed. The giveaway is the three return rollers for the tracks. The M48 had 5.
dont ask dont tell. PINK really atleast you could have said it was for breast cancer.
The M-60 Tank did not serve in Vietnam. The M-48 was in Vietnam while the M-60 was in Europe to defend against the then Soviet Union. This may not sound like much difference but there is.
The M60 AVLB and the M728 Combat Engineer Vehicle (M60 tank mounting a short-tubed main gun) were variants of the M60 deployed to South Vietnam. So technically, yes, they were used in Vietnam.
If they'd done that though, they'd have gotten a lot of angry flak when they started shelling the $@#$ out of it.
Guys and Gals alike have a common goal: save the ta-ta's!!
I heart b00bies!
What about the women attached to them? Aren't they what we're trying to save here(not in the article, of course because it's a red herring)? What if you have to get a mastectomy, eh?
A woman without boobs is a dairy cow without udders... useless.
Who on earth cares why a tank is painted pink? At any rate, one can kill just many people in a green tank as well as a pink one! This post here is quite stupid, to say the least!!!
maybe im just high and read your post wrong or youre just stupid
"This post here is quite stupid, to say the least!!!" The one made by a guy named Patrick? Yes, quite stupid.
Did you read the article? The pink tank will be shooting at no one. It will be shot at. Yes it was used to shoot during training, but then again, it was not trying to kill anyone.
I agree wholeheartedly. Your post WAS stupid.
Welcome to the pussified American Army, courtesy of the WORST president in the history of the entire planet.
Send OBAMA back to Africa!
Vote for GOD's choice, MITT ROMNEY!
Your a putz so do us a favor and keep watching faux news and them Vi agra commercials which is made just for you.
I like how people say "us" and "we" and can't say I because they all alone.
Well I will use the word I as the original poster use the racial comment of back to Africa. I do find it amazing a person can make those comments and support a person running for president who was one step above a draft dodger with the concinious object and ran to Paris on his daddies money while his comrads went to war.
So I challenge this person to explain how a non fighter is to lead the US Armed forces.... I know he can hide behind the desk and send everyone else to fight... but does he deserve it.... I think not!
It's spelled You're.
Actually God's choice would have been Ron Paul and not that lying sack Romney, but I completely agree with you about Obama.
" God's choice would have been Ron Paul " What, a Randite atheist? God's dumb.
Why should we all vote for Mytt Robmey? He plans to murder just as many, if not more people than Killer O'Bama did and now doing! What a sorry choice for the Presidency! This is a national disgrace!!!
Well put, Patrick. Just look at all these other posts here done by these Tea Partying retards. It's enough to make even a billie goat want to puke!!!
Grow up man!
Sorry ROMNEY2012, my choice is for all to vote for Donald Trump. Thanks for trying to get my word out but let me handle it from here.
"Pussified"? There is no such word in the English language. By the way, real men wear whatever color they want to and totally disinterested in what other people choose wear.. The only difference between men and women is in the genes. Everything else is the confused fantasy of a teenage brain.
Girly man
Agreed. Obama is a disgrace to the Office. He isn't a President, but he plays one on TV.
Actually, if there were a GOD we wouldn't need a PRESIDENT. Everyone would just get along and we wouldn't have to divide ourselves up into country's to protect ourselves.
Saving the ta-ta's is everyone's business. I'm sure both candidates are all for early detection and prevention.
Yep, "ta ta" cancer already receives far more federal research dollars than all of the cancers that primarily afflict men COMBINED and it kills fewer people. Save the nuts would be just as worthy of a goal, but NO politicians, corporations, actors, athletes, singers, etc. care one bit about men's health. Men who suffer from cancer do not have special laws to protect them, unlike females who have received numerous health privileges over the last two decades. Misandry rules.
I'm glad we have people like you, Romney2012, to keep mainstream America up-to-date on the sort of primitive, mouth-breathing clod that makes up the GOP base. The party likes to put on a civilized face, but it's guys like you – barely coherent, obviously under-educated, racist, and willfully ignorant – which comprise the Republican faithful. Thanks for reminding us.
You must have made Joseph Smith proud.
Hey, Ro-Money - What's the goin rate for GoPie-Creepies like YOU ? ?
Assuming there is a "god", he is more than capable of terminating anyone he doesn't want. The fact that he must be pretty tolerant, maybe doesn't care- about what is going on is that you still breath.
I may be wrong, but I really doubt that Obama chose any training tank colors. He had nothing to do with this decision.
Lets see:
Supports a whacko who believes he'll get his own planet when he dies... Check!
Believes the president was born in another country and isn't a citizen, and that no one in any office of government ever verified his citizenship despite having birth certificates published... Check!
Brings "god" into politics and only supports people who believe in the same imaginary friend... Check!
Due to the evidence provided above, it is safe to draw the conclusion that you are a backwoods inbred troll that no only has no understanding of how the US government, or the real world in general, operate, but is also responsible for the steady decline of the United States, and humanity in general.
Have a nice day.
Geez, people... Please stop feeding this *very* obvious troll.
This from a teaOPer who obviouisly could not be accepted into the military. It's way too hard for a 1d10t like you to get in.
Thanks ROMNEY2012, a post like that likely cost Mitt thousands of votes – please post more ignorance, let's make sure that Mitt retires and is never heard from again after he loses this election!
I didn't think the pink was for Breast Awareness (I think most male solders are already aware of them). I thought it was simply the tanks designated for use by the newly trained female tank personnel.
"the paint colors where used in previous training to help new soldiers know which tank to aim at."
As long as we can convince our enemies to do the same, we're OK.
I must have missed something in this article, because I failed to find the news-worthy part of it. Maybe the writer submitted this to CNN as a 'body of work' to see if he could get hired as a reporter???
I support healthy breasts!
I knew this would happen when they started letting women serve in the military.
At least everybody knows where to go on the base for the latest Mary Kay products.
So what? This is irrelevant and poorly written.
the M60 was not the work horse tank in Vietnam, that was the m48.............yawn........
Correct
The M60-based M60 AVLB (Armored Vehicle Launch Bridge) and the M728 Combat Engineer Vehicle were the only variants of the M60 deployed to South Vietnam.
This article was a waste of digital ink
I agree. As was this sentence. And this one.
How come the cannon-fodder aren't wearing pink camos?
"...saving woman from the disease was not the goal."
It should be saving women, not woman.
Yeah, and it matters SO much....
Hey, what are you doing out of the kitche?!?! Make me a sandwich!!
Also ...
According to a news release from Army, the paint colors where used in previous training to help new soldiers know which tank to aim at.
should be "were" used in previous training
Remember to stay in school kids.
That is one huge cotton candy machine.
Funny, I thought this was a psychological tactic to make enemies think the tank, and it's occupants, were soft until BOOM! No more enemies.
That's awesome. One pink and one purple to teach the "redlegs" what to shoot at. Should be really beneficial when we go to war with Hello Kitty or My Little Pony...
Hey now, Rainbow Dash can kick some serious flank.
That gave me a laugh when I needed one.
Thx
Bronies Brigade.
Ah you people do realize that at the ranges artillery is fire at pink and purple are some of the few colors that don't become become completely indistinct. Its the opposite of the reason why tanks are painted camouflage patterns – in an actual shooting fight you want to vanish but on the range you need to be able to see what you're shooting at so you don't obliterate the wrong one.
The sheer amount of ignorance that the right-leaning posters have here though is rather telling. I bet some DNA tests would show a whole more Neanderthal gene in the GOP than any other group. Too stupid and too slow to adapt so they end up going extinct as a species.
I bet it doesn't. And besides, how do you know the "Neanderthals" were more primitive than us. Sounds like a bunch of uninformed bigotry to me. But then again, Libs are known to be some of the worst hypocritical bigots there are.
Everyone knows that Republicans don't believe in Neanderthals. They can't believe in them because their bible says the world is only 6000 years old! And if you think that is insane, they are actively trying to elect a guy who believes that Jesus died, then came back to life and flew to North America so he could hide some golden plates for some yahoo to find about 1800 years later.
Then when said yahoo found the plates, he promptly (and conveniently) lost them. The best part is how Joesph Smith was shot in the back while trying to jump out of a window to escape an angry mob that was coming for him after he illegally declared martial law. At least Jesus accepted his fate. Joesph Smith tried to run away like a little girl.
I was on a pink submarine once.
I got high writing a yellow one...
Operation Petticoat, a vicious action assuredly.
Your wife's on one right now
This is what happens when Don't Ask, Don't Tell gets rescinded in the Artillery Training Classes. What they should have done was paint one a pale pink and the other a lilac, instead of the bright Pink and Purple used. Very good reasoning for this – the colors are very close to each other and would be a better training exercise in proper target recognition.
Don't ask don't tell? I don't understand the connection. If anything, pink makes guys think of breasts.
.......and the pink moose knuckle
The whole point to painting them different colors was so that they didn't look the same, my fine feathered friend. That's just kind of dumb to suggest they paint them to look the same when that defeats the whole point of the exercise.
Pink and lilac would sooooooo clash...
Lots of joking in the paint shop I'm sure.
great news 5 usa soldier got gunned down today in afghanistan bom bom bom bom bom through 5 flat faces.
I can only hope that the worst fate imaginable will bless you and your family with it's gift. You don't deserve the air you breathe. You will be judged by your Allah. Btw learn to spell, it will make you look more intelligent!
Wah, wah, wah, wah........*sniff*
All done crying now?
Cool, when some natural disaster or other horrible event happens in the Middle East, I will remember your comment and write my political leaders demanding that we provide no food aid, no medical aid, no refugee aid, no nothing. Have a nice day!
Oh, yes! – your "leaders" are going to listen to YOU, yessiree!
Such delusion.
You tell 'em, saeed.
While don't you go sodomize saeed, I am confident you would both like it... I can assure you the USA is not cheering when they have to take down one of your countrymen.
Yeah, you're such a humanist. Typical ignorant hypocrite.
Another PAKI Tard, Saeed gives all the reason, you don't trust Paki muslims. Ungrateful skunks. Arabs are different. Period.
Don't you have an elephant to pray to at the moment while wiping your @ss with your bare hand before preparing food for your 17 kids?