Joe is to be my tank commander and driving instructor.
Richie Clyne greets us warmly anyway, gives us a quick tour of the collection, and sends us to the restoration shops to meet Joe Dickie, the man in charge of making museum pieces out of decrepit hulks.
When the day arrives, George Lepp, the photographer assigned to the project, gets the experience off to a good start by draining a thousand quarters from an Imperial Palace slot machine. Clyne has enjoyed a few joy rides himself-including one foray during which he inadvertently stood this 31-ton behemoth on its nose-so he wasn't at all surprised by my telephone call requesting a turn in the driver's seat. Better sense prevailed, and Brock instead called our Ann Arbor offices to make this golden opportunity known to the C/D editorial staff. He negotiated a quick ride in it as a pleasant diversion from the crap tables, and he enjoyed the experience so much that he briefly considered calling the local army recruiter for an appointment. On a recent visit to Las Vegas, while touring the restoration shops of the Imperial Palace Hotel's auto collection (C/D, January 1985) with administrator Richie Clyne, Yates came upon the retired war horse on these pages. But until recently, the M-4 General Sherman medium tank and I had never crossed paths.īrock Yates is the man who changed all that. Once, as C/D's technical editor, I had a ride in a brand-new Chrysler-built M-1 turbine tank.
My short and undistinguished military career during the Vietnam conflict (C/D, November 1971) did give me the opportunity to try out an M-113 armored personnel carrier. I've always wondered what manner of warmonger was clanking around with our moniker. Many historians consider him to be the greatest of the Civil War generals and quite deserving of the honor of having an important army tank carry his name. Fortunately, the rest of the country holds the warrior who made my surname famous in somewhat higher regard. General William Tecumseh Sherman is disparagingly remembered in Atlanta as the inventor of hot urban renewal.
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