That photo reminds me of a story. Way back in the day (mid 1986) my fire team was over-watching a river crossing exercise at a small lake on Fort Riley, Kansas.
The engineers were using a pontoon bridge to move M60 tanks across the lake. I was manning an machine gun, providing security, when another soldier starts slapping my leg. I look back and the tank crew and the pontoon bridge crew were diving into the water and swimming like mad men. Shortly after that, the bridge and tank flipped over and the tank sank to the bottom of the lake.
Everyone was ok, but I will never forget that sight.
It was actually depressing to see the words “way back in the day” and 1986 in the same sentence. I was in my 9th year of US Army service and was transferring from Ft Monmouth to Wiesbaden, GM.
Way back in the Day!!