Military Officer - August 2007 - (Page 14)

yourviews MILIT ARY JUNE 2007 $4.50 THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF MOAA | ONE POWERFUL VOICE® W W W. M O A A . O R G Editor’s note: You’re right, some OFFICER Heavy Duty The tank revolutionized ground combat. What’ll it do next? 64 “There is another tank-like vehicle that needs to be mentioned … the tank destroyer.” —Lt. Col. R.W. Herman, AUS-Ret. models of the M-48 were retroﬁtted to accommodate diesel engines. However, the M-48 originally was designed with a gasoline engine. The M-60 was the ﬁrst American tank designed from the beginning to operate with a diesel-fueled engine. Not All for One I eagerly anticipated reading what our military’s medical leadership had to say about a uniﬁed medical command and how it might or might not improve health care delivery [“Uniﬁed Medical Command,” June 2007]. I was disappointed. Their jargon and gibberish about efﬁciencies, economies, and optimal this and that offered nothing about effects on patients. Why you chose to print those selected comments by Lt. Gen. James Roudebush, [Air Force] surgeon general, eludes me completely. The best I can do to highlight this beneﬁciary’s reaction to the piece, and General Roudebush’s remarks in particular, is paraphrase one of the cavemen of TV advertising fame: “I have a comment; uh what?!” —Lt. Col. J.C. Walmsley, USAF-Ret. Egg Harbor Township, N.J. “Uniﬁed Medical Command” was timed well after an outstanding feature story about the Army Veterinary Corps [“A Breed Apart,” April 2007]. Because the Veterinary Corps performs all DoD veterinary-related services worldwide, it has been “purple-suited” for many years. Army vets and vet techs are stationed with and support all the other services, and they have learned to speak the language and be color-blind to assure mission success. Sometime in the early 1990s, a joint agency called AFMRDA, the June_cover.indd 1 ﬁeld artillery battalions when they went to triangular divisions. My unit was formed from the ONE FOR ALL CRITICAL CONDITIONS HEALTH SECTION Do we need a unified Congress and MOAA ad- MOAA helps you get medical command? 72 dress Walter Reed 33 the best care 55 Pennsylvania National Guard’s 28th Infantry Tanks for the Memories Division, hence it became the 628th I assume you’ve already been notiTank Destroyer Battalion. ﬁed by any number of Army vetThere were hundreds of tank erans about this, but the Sheridan destroyer battalions formed, and Armored Reconnaissance/Airborne every infantry and every armored Assault Vehicle is designated M-551, division in Europe had one battalion not M-55, as noted in “Heavy Duty” attached to it. … The tank destroy(June 2007). ers were deactivated after World —Lt. Col. E. Stoffregen III, USAFR War II, the theory being that a tank Maxwell AFB, Ala. could do as good a job as a tank destroyer could. There is another tank-like vehicle —Lt. Col. R.W. Herman, AUS-Ret. that needs to be mentioned because Folsom, Calif. of its place and importance in World War II. That would be the tank On page 69 of the June 2007 issue destroyer. The vehicles used were … a caption for an M-60 tank demany, beginning with towed guns scribes it as “America’s ﬁrst dieseland ending up with the M-18 Hellfueled tank.” While the M-60 may cat armored vehicle with a 76 mm have been the ﬁrst tank built with antitank gun. The most popular one a diesel power plant as its basic enwould be the M-10 30-ton tracked gine, the M-48A2C was America’s vehicle with a 3-inch gun and a .50ﬁrst active tank ﬁelded with a diesel caliber machine gun. engine. The M-48A2C saw extenThe tank destroyer battalions sive action in Vietnam. were formed using cadres from the —James Burns, USA-Ret. National Guard divisions’ fourth via e-mail 5/4/07 5:49:21 PM 14 MILITARY OFFICER AUGUST 2007 http://WWW.MOAA.ORG

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Military Officer - August 2007 Contents From the Editor From the President Your Views MOAA Directory Rapid Fire Washington Scene Financial Forum Ask the Doctor Chapter Activities Cover Story: No Longer in Reserve A Different Path Weird Science Charge? Pages of History Faces of MOAA Member Books Information Exchange Advertising Index MOAA Calendar MOAA Scholarship Donors Sounding Taps MOAA Member Services Encore

Military Officer - August 2007

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