- Okay, the tank was scanning for a target,
rolling up and it'll fire just after it gets up on top.
(cannon blasts)
Whoo!
- It's probably the baddest thing in the battlefield.
- This vehicle is nothing but a 70-ton Jersey barrier
without a crew.
- The soldiers are what makes that weapon system lethal.
(lively country rock music)
- The third ID picked their top two tank crews
and sent them off to train for six weeks.
- Traverse right with the camera!
- [Lance] We met them in the final week
of their preparation.
- You get to play on the big boy platform.
- Yes.
This is the Super Bowl of tanks.
- The Sullivan Cup is a best tank crew competition.
- This was the competition before the competition.
(cannons blasting)
They were all gonna get something out of this experience,
but only one crew would get to represent the Third ID.
(inspiring rock music)
♫ Oh-ah-ah-oh
(gentle rock music)
- We flew to Jacksonville,
we picked up our rent-a-car,
and we took off for Georgia.
We'd be meeting two tank crews at Fort Stewart.
Already driving, we passed the time researching tank facts.
According to this, there's a maintenance challenge
or a maintenance heat.
So they have to do,
they replace an eight-block section of tank track.
- Tank history, tank movies.
- Now, in Fury,
they had their war name,
remember?
- Oh yeah, yeah.
- We're gonna have fun with it, you know.
- We were all pretty stoked for this story.
Now there all telltale signs that you're in Georgia.
There's tons of Spanish moss, there's historic cemeteries,
there's that good old feeling of southern charm.
There's the alligators.
(alligator growling)
But it was the tank crossing signs that let us know
we were in the right place.
I've always had an affection for tanks,
but it started when I was a young NCO in Korea.
This was actually 3/4 inch we were shooting on.
You know, the camera with the umbilical cord,
look at that.
Young Army Sergeant Lance Milsted driving an M60 tank.
I'm a tanker.
Does that qualify me as a tanker?
If not, I thought at least it would give me some street cred
with the tankers we were about to meet.
Time to meet some tankers.
(confident rock music)
Both crews were from Charlie company, 164 Armored.
Team Cannonarchy was made up of Smith,
Chappies,
Bates,
and McLane.
And team Count Trackula was made up of Fauntleroy,
Felton,
Corona,
and Martin.
Sergeant First Class Todd Poisson was responsible
for training them and deciding who gets to go to the Cup.
(cannon blasts)
What's your role with the team from Third ID this year?
- As the division Abrams Master Gunner,
I was given the rare and unique opportunity
to create a six-week train-up.
Everything tank-related, we spend a lot of time
in the motor pool and doing ammunition upload
and vehicle ID and land navigation;
I created a mounted land-nav course for them,
they did about 250 kilometers in one day;
did a couple of refuels on the move.
- For those who don't know what Sullivan Cup is,
I know this is the third time they've done it.
- Yup.
- Could you give us a description
of what the competition entails and what it's about?
- The Sullivan Cup is a best tank crew competition.
It's a crew-level event.
- You have to make that adjustment
in the middle of the engagement.
You know what I'm saying?
- So, tank crews are four people:
driver, loader, gunner, and tank commander.
And it's open to our allies,
but every active division sends their best tank crew
that has tanks, and the National Guard
and Marine Corps get to send their guys
and it's to see who the best of the best is.
- The first thing that really struck me, I was like,
"Man, they're like kids!"
(laughs) So young.
But we quickly got past the fact that they're so young
because they're so passionate and they're so professional,
and competent, and they really are engaged
in what they're doing and being excellent at it.
- I'm getting the chance to represent an entire division.
- Yeah, you're one of two teams they consider the best.
- Right, eight people.
And I'm one of them.
I'm really grateful for the opportunity.
It's really humbling.
(confident country rock music)
(cannon fires)
- Today's tanks are so high tech
that it's actually hard to miss.
So, as part of the train-up, the crews have to face
degraded modes of operation.
- Hey, traverse right with the camera.
(soldier speaks on radio)
- And it's really hard.
Sergeant First Class Roy Smith and his crew
were about to find out just how hard it is.
- [Todd] That's where a lot of gunners have difficulty.
When you have stabilization failure.
When you can only use your GAS,
your gunner's auxiliary sight, instead of the primary sight.
(cannon fires)
- Whoa, whoa!
- Whether your LRF is damaged and you have
to battle-sight ranges, manually input ranges,
and you have to figure out what those ranges are.
- You could see that round impact, that one.
- These are all skills that, back in World War II,
that was the norm.
I created an entire Table VI
of nothing but degraded engagements
and I took almost everything away from them.
So, I need you to move to the bullpen
where you will receive an AAR.
And, you guys are a crew, alright.
You guys are four parts of that killing machine.
- It's tough, wasn't it?
- [Lance] With a full up firing system,
Sergeant Smith's crew would have aced that run.
But with degraded mode, it's another story.
- One, as you guys know, we don't get to train degraded mode
nearly enough, at least in my opinion,
and two, this is also to get you guys ready
for when you go out to Benning,
that whatever they throw at you out there
won't be anywhere near as difficult as what we had here.
- That was a very good technique.
And I could see your round, you did that whip.
That's important.
Saturate the target.
Put lead on that target.
- [Lance] They qualified two out of six engagements.
What does it take to get you guys ready?
- We need to be physically fit.
(breathing rapidly) (bluesy country guitar music)
A regular PT test has nothing on those tanker PT tests.
I score 300s, and I do not max out this tanker PT test.
- Part of the Sullivan Cup is to have these physical tests
of strength and agility that relate to the tank.
- Place it neatly on the thing, don't just throw it.
Get set.
Go.
- The test is based on the 1974
armor crewman proficiency test.
Talk about a smoke session.
(panting)
- It took actual things that you do as a tanker
and you have a time limit
to achieve each of these five tasks in,
and it's very challenging.
It's physically grueling.
You can score 300 on an army PT test
and not necessarily be a good loader.
Because you don't challenge muscle groups
that you would normally use as a loader,
doing the APFT.
- Whoo!
- [Todd] I hope it's here to stay.
I really do, 'cause I think it is an amazing,
amazing test, physical test.
- Poisson lined up the full arsenal of tools
to prepare the team, even some high-tech video games.
It's actually called the close combat tactical trainer.
- Some of the good things about it is,
unlike another simulator that we use,
this one the whole crew can get in.
They have the driver, actually you can see the driver
in there right now.
Take a look in there, I mean, excuse me.
This is exactly how it's gonna look
when you're inside the actual tank.
- As much as I really wanted to drive a tank,
this was as close as I'd get.
So this, you'd actually look in with your eyeball.
- [Justin] Right.
- [Lance] Still pretty cool.
So where is the trigger?
- [Justin] That would be this one right here.
- Oh, the top one?
- Yep.
(simulator clanks heavily)
- Got it.
Okay.
This is quite the video game (chuckles).
My time as a tank gunner was up.
- Prepare to defend.
- [Lance] The team had their own mission.
- Carry heat, report red comm one.
- Heat battle carried and report red comm one, over.
- [Soldier] Up.
- Ultimately, these crews and everything we do
is in the name of lethality.
It's how fast can we put steel on target.
(soldier speaks on radio)
- This was the crew's final bit of practice
before their last day on the range.
(soldier speaks on radio)
- [Lance] Yeah, I remember Sergeant Smith talking
and he said this vehicle's nothing
but a 70-ton Jersey barrier, without a crew.
- Tank is a tank.
You put the crew in there and then you have
a weapons system, and the soldiers
are what makes that weapons system lethal.
- Alright now, without slipping the scales
on the GAS boresight knob--
- But it goes back to seeing excellence.
These guys are gonna take all this training away
and they're gonna take what they have picked up here
through the training and mentorship,
and they're gonna take that and they're gonna give it back.
- We'll be downrange here in a second.
- Team Count Trackula's on deck for their last degraded run.
It's their last chance to impress.
(tank rumbles)
- It's a lost art, it's definitely a lost art
you need to practice a lot, and a lot of tank crews
don't get the opportunity to practice it,
to really get proficient at it like they should be.
(tank rumbling)
- You know something Justin, I sense a lot of passion
when you talk about this.
- Just given the opportunity to even get a shot to prove it
is such a big deal to me.
- The tank was scanning for a target, it's rolling up
and it'll fire just after it gets up on top.
(cannon booms)
Whoo! (laughs)
You may get picked to go, you may not.
You may go, you may win, you may not.
You're still gonna take something away from this experience,
I bet. - Yeah.
- Just getting ready, preparing for the shot,
to get a shot to go to the Sullivan Cup,
I have learned probably more in these last few weeks
than any other training exercise I've done, combined.
- So, we'd only been down here for three days,
but they'd been doing this for six weeks
and they still didn't know who was gonna go to the Cup.
But I'll tell you, they gave it their best shot.
- [Justin] It's a win-win-win situation.
I'm either gonna go back the force
with a whole lot of knowledge,
I'ma go to the Sullivan Cup with a lot of knowledge
and an opportunity to perform at the Sullivan Cup,
or I'm going to the Sullivan Cup with a lot of knowledge
and I win the Sullivan Cup.
This is one of the best opportunities I've ever had
as an army crewman, in my career.
- [Lance] And that's what the Sullivan Cup is about.
(powerful rock music)
(inspiring rock music)
♫ Oh-ah-ah-oh