...post pictures from the American Heritage Museum.
The museum should be open now, I've not heard anything to the contrary. Then again, I haven't actually gone in search of that news. It's lazy I am.
Had a good night's sleep before going to work yesterday, as in Friday. Felt like a Monday and a Friday all in one. Believe me, I was sorely tempted to take Friday off, but I'm saving my vacation time for later, for other things than just sleeping in on a Friday.
Work was alright, accomplished a couple of things, had a bunch of email, most of it nonsense. Someone thought it was important to send it to me, I thought it was important enough to delete. What some people think is noteworthy puzzles me.
Anyhoo, as Beans might say, I'm still slacking...
And proud of it.
Carry on, tell me what you think you saw in the pictures above.
I'm still getting over the shock of leaving sunny, warm, and dusty and returning to gray, chilly, and drizzly.
At least it's greening up here in rather nice fashion.
We've got that going for us I suppose.
May the Fourth be with you...
That 88 could be emplaced in two and a half minutes from what I read, one deadly hunk of metal there. Nice shot of the M1 rounds also. Lots of green around here which is nice to see, it's like switching to color TV from black and white. Onions and potatoes going in this weekend. Time to prep that lawnmower (ugh).
ReplyDeleteOur lawn has been mowed twice already, grass is growing fast!
Delete"Our lawn has been mowed twice already" Yeah. I think I could have said that back in January! Slacker...
DeleteWell I could've mowed in January, just had to wait for the snow to melt.
Delete;)
The first two photos have a huge sky flashlight in the background.
ReplyDeleteThere are large carbon arc searchlights for sale, and here is some general information. (some links aren't working)
http://www.victorysearchlights.com/searchlight3.htm
You could tell your wife you are buying a security light, (true) and use the searchlight's 800 million candlepower to light up the parking area behind your yard. And possibly cause nearby objects to burst into flame.
Good photos and good post. Thank you.
Bonus nerd reference from "The Fifth Element." (I still lack the confidence to try italics)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnvBpLWTQig
Yup, an actual searchlight, I though it was pretty cool!
Delete"Aziz, LIGHT!"
Lol. Good on you Sarge!! By going in on Friday, and cleaning out your mailbox, you will be way ahead come Monday! Besides, best way to reset the bio-clock is to stay up and resume normal schedule. I hate jet lag! It always takes me a week to get back on track. Probably because I don't sleep well anyplace but at home.
ReplyDeleteWe have had a ridiculous amount of rain in the past week, every step ya take off of concrete around here squishes. The weather dude said in the past week we had had 2 hours of sunshine! The rest of the time it had been some variation ranging from misty to monsoon. Eagerly awaiting 2 days with some sunshine. But, thing have been greening up. I am afraid if we get a day of sunshine the grass is going to leap out of the ground!
Very nice pics!! Wonder why on the top of the 2 rounds on the ends, they are not rounded like the middle one? Is it the same round, just not completed in the manufacturing process? Are they completed, but designed that way to promote better penetration into different materials or different levels of hardness? Hmmm...
The types of tank ammunition shown in the picture are (l to r):
Delete- High Explosive Anti-Tank Multipurpose Tracer (HEAT-MP-T)
- High-Explosive Plastic Tracer (HEP-T)
- Armor-Piercing, Fin-Stabilized, Discarding Sabot-Tracer (APFSDS-T)
All have specific roles. The HEAT round can be used against any target, soft vehicles (trucks, cars, etc), personnel, and tanks. As the name suggests, it's a multipurpose round.
The HEP-T round, known in other countries as a HESH (High Explosive Squash Head) round is effective against buildings and armored vehicles. I'm not well-read on the exact details of this round but according to Wikipedia: HESH rounds are thin metal shells filled with plastic explosive and a delayed-action base fuze. The plastic explosive is "squashed" against the surface of the target on impact and spreads out to form a disc or "pat" of explosive. The base fuze detonates the explosive milliseconds later, creating a shock wave that, owing to its large surface area and direct contact with the target, is transmitted through the material.
The APFSDS-T round is the designated tank killer, very effective. The long pointy end on the round in the picture is actually a dart, much smaller than the bore of the cannon. Packaged in this way it develops a very high velocity and will slice through armor rather nicely. It's what you use to punch a hole in an enemy tank. Not very useful against personnel or soft vehicles.
Very cool that what I surmised was in the right ball park. All 3 sound effective, but that HEP-T one sounds like it would really do maximum damage due to the shock wave. Shock waves are definitely not friendly to soft items, like human bodies.
DeleteTanks, sir! Now I am more educated!!
Ya really need to write a book, just saying...
The book will happen. Just finding the time is the issue. But I need to make that happen.
DeleteSuz,
DeleteTo expand on what our host so sorely brushed over, the third round is a saboted round. That is, the actual projectile sits in a plastic or metal sabot (shoe) that falls away when the round leaves the barrel. Which imparts higher velocity to the actual projectile. In the case of the third round, quite a lot of velocity.
The falling parts of the sabot are not very friendly to soft objects around the tank, like soldiers or trucks or animals or anything non-armored.
Yeesh. Sarge is really slacking....
TMI
DeleteMost important...the armored vehicle behind the three rounds is an M551A1 Sheridan Airborne Assault/Armored Reconnaissance Vehicle.
DeleteWhy yes, yes it is.
DeleteGood eye, LTC F!
Here's the wiki page for the rightmost round.
Deletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M829
Basically, take a giant dart made out of DEPLETED URANIUM (for a few reasons: it's the densest suitable metal in town, and it has the ability to be "self-sharpening" - when it hits something hard, it fractures in such a way that the tip remains pointy. Oh, and also, it's pyrophoric, which means the chunks will spontaneously burst into flame in air, say, the inside of an enemy tank) and fire it at ONE MILE PER SECOND. (This is really fast. Twice as fast as a fairly peppy rifle bullet, give or take.) Bad things happen to the recipient. (And the target is now mildly radioactive. Lucky them.)
I'd beg to differ with the Sarge -- I'd bet it would be VERY effective on an infantryman (if you managed to hit him).
I was speaking of general tactical usefulness, one does not waste an APFSDS-T round on personnel.
DeleteI know, I was being silly.
Delete(There was a section of a Chieftain video where he talked about the counterintuitive way said rounds behave in a crosswind. They actually deflect *upwind* because the crosswind pushes on the tail fins, which pushes the nose of the projectile towards the wind. )
I like silly.
DeleteInteresting bit about the wind pushing on the tail fins, I never thought of that but it makes sense.
Have a good weekend!
ReplyDeleteSorry you weren’t here to see the wildflowers and how green it can get.
Well, the Central Valley is what it is. A certain charm to all those grapes, almonds, and other crops.
DeleteI was thinking of the foothills.
DeleteThe valley's more desertlike.
I mentioned to my daughter that I'd like to get up into those hills someday. Go further up and see the sequoias as well.
DeleteMuch of California is very beautiful from what I've seen.
Someone thought it was important to send it to me, I thought it was important enough to delete.
ReplyDeleteDING DING DING!!!
WINNER of the "Internet Quote of the Month"!
:)
Delete