Author Topic: M15 Fort Bliss Tx early 80s  (Read 3562 times)

andy

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M15 Fort Bliss Tx early 80s
« on: August 19, 2014, 06:17:49 AM »
This is re posted here with permission of original poster with pic from another forum i have a thread going on

"What a great job you have done with that H-Track. I remember in the late 80's when I lived in Illinois, I chased down a story of halftracks sitting in an auto salvage/scrap yard in the farm town of Amboy Illinois. There was three of them plus some "meat wagons" from the Korean war era, saw them from the road through the chain link fence. Here is an antiaircraft variation most people have never seen. This belonged to the 1st ADA Training Brigade at Ft. Bliss TX. I was in that unit in 82-83, some of us would drive it to ceremony's on post. Since I was in the motorpool I got to do some of the preventative maintenance on it. The story is that it came home from the South Korean Army and sat in the state of Maine for a long time, it was restored at Ft. Bliss after it was purchased from private ownership. That turret could rotate, 40mm gun that was magazine fed and operated by a crew of three."
1943 M4A1 (restored to M2A1)

steve-0

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Re: M15 Fort Bliss Tx early 80s
« Reply #1 on: August 20, 2014, 12:35:37 AM »
thanks for posting.

second only to the m16 the m15 is my favorite halftrack.
out of all the halftacks i have picked up i have never got a hold of an m15, even just a frame.
i did find the turret armor for one but i sold it.

i have heard it called a garbage can on the back of a halftrack but i like it.

Dinadin

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Re: M15 Fort Bliss Tx early 80s
« Reply #2 on: August 20, 2014, 08:50:20 PM »
I heard a story from a D-day veteran he was on a M16 halftrack during the landing.  When they got to shore they were pinned down by a bunker, until a M15 made it to shore.  The M15 unloaded on the bunker and took it out.

My first halftrack was a M15A1.  Mike Keller was starting his restoration when I got mine and he tried to convince me to restore mine back to like he was doing, but I didn't have the resources.  Unfortunately I eventually sold it, but I still love the M15.

I have read that they would have two M16s teamed with two M15s.  I also heard they would lure enemy planes in with the .50s, making them think they were safely out the range of the .50s.  Then they would open up with the 37mm, which had a longer range.
Rich

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke

Schafer's Folly - Halftrack Restoration