Later, when I got to Vietnam, I bounced from unit to unit and job to job for a while, as I'd arrived in-country during the Tet 1968 festivities. It was quite a welcome for a young troop, and they really didn't have to go to all that fuss just for me, but I tried to show my appreciation. Eventually, though, my paperwork caught up to me and I was to be sent off to a swell cav outfit called the *Blackhorse* that operated- surprise, surprise!- the M551 Sheridan. There were three ways out of that assignment: I could volunteer for duties as a tunnel rat, as they liked to get tank crewmen, who they figured were at least not claustrophobic and could handle working in the dark [as a tank is inside while buttoned up a lot of the time.] I could sign on as a door gunner on a Huey, as they liked getting tankers who knew how to keep the machineguns running and weren't inclined to fire short choppy little bursts. Or I could volunteer as a LRRP in one of the divisions, since I'd been through jump school, and I'd likely end up as far away from Sheridans as I wanted, and that was the route I took, though I did eventually hook back up with an M48 outfit later.
So most of my time with the Sheridan was spent with 'em in Germany instead of Vietnam, and I count that as one reason I came back home more or less in one piece. My opinion of the Sheridan is not a terribly fond one, and the aluminum *armor* on those things wouldn't stop a .50 round, let alone a B-40 or RPG-7 antitank rocket.
Most of the things are now either out of service or used as substitutes for enemy vehicles at the National Training Center [*sandbox*] at Ft Irwin, CA, though the 82nd Airborne still has 57, since nothing similar can be air-transported and air-dropped; the introduction of the C-17 aircraft, which can haul M1A1 tanks may change that [the M2/M3 Bradley can't be air-dropped; the integrated gunsight/computer mechanism won't take it] but there'll be few tears shed by me for final passing of the things. But some of those who've crewed in them have genuinely liked 'em.
Sheridan from H troop, 17th cav provides security for 59th Engineers land-clearing detail, near Hill 43/ Binh Son, in the 198th Infantry Brigade's operational area, circa 1970.
They tried to build it light, but then they tried to put the 120mm gun on some of the prototypes - kept warping the turret bearing during test firing.
I think thee are still several of them sitting up in Minneapolis.