We worked the area between Tay Ninh and An Loc. H Company being a tank company was often broken down to Platoon level to guard Artillery fire bases or react units in trouble. If we stayed 3 weeks in a firebase it was a long time. I became aclimatised to the heat and only got fired at by an occasional mortar.

As the armorer I also did field repairs when I could. Changing out parts from combat lossed vehicles. Sometimes we just 'combat lossed" the whole track, and ordered another. This was both good and bad, The crew got back to Base Camp for a new one, this meant cold beer and showers. They also had to get the Tank back to the company, This was called the thunder run!

Once in the Base Camp the Crew modified the Tank or ACAV. Adding Little touches such as, extra weapons, extra 50Cal Coax, Modifying both interior and exterior. Taking on a combat load of ammo and such, they tried to find a convoy headed the way they were going. When this didn't work out, it came down to the thunder run. The premise was to move fast, you could run through the Kill zone of an ambush before they could do damage. I had been told by some of the ACAV drivers if you could also pass over a mine fast enough it's delay would cause it to explode behind you. I never saw that happen, but the idea of it made you feel better. ACAV drivers always caught the worst of it when a mine went off under their ass.

A torsion bar for an M48 road wheel weighs ninety pounds. To change one requires releasing the track tension, picking up the side of the tank with the M88 hoist, unbolting the road arm, driving the broken bar segment out with a sledge hammer, sliding the new bar in and reassembling the road wheel and track. A nasty, heavy job in an asphalt parking lot, but pure misery working in three feet of soft mud.

One guy in the Company found a new way to do it!!!! Instead of driving it out with a sledge,he would place a little bit of C-4 in the hole and set it off with a claymore Blasting cap. the road arm would pop out about 3 feet. Great! Then FNG (funny new guy) saw him do it and thought Wow, I can do this! so next time the problem came up he unscrewed the drive plug, filled it full of C-4, Stuffed in a claymore cap and yelled fire in the hold! When he squeezed the clacker the Torsion Bar came flying out,across the perimeter and strait into the Com_track. Rung it like a bell,The clerk, inside the track fell out of the back Hatch, holding his ears and screaming INCOMING,INCOMING.
As I remember they put the FNG on shit burning detail for 6 months...

Every track carried C-4, Primer cord and extra Claymore caps. Compliments of the Combat engineers who's ass we were constantly getting out trouble. Those guys acted like they were bullet proof! Often we used C-4 to cook with, To set it off required both pressure and fire. When you light it, it burns with a lot hotter flame then those stupid boonie cookies. that's what the guys called those blue sterno wafers they sent out to the field. It was relatively safe, As long as you didn't drop the pot.....