05-09-2014, 02:21 AM
stanc Wrote:Yeah, but I think the mad minute reached its zenith in the Vietnam War. My buddy was a tank crewman in that conflict, and told me that ammo kept getting supplied to their firebase at regular intervals, whether or not they actually needed more ammo. In part to prevent the ammo dump from getting to full and becoming a lucrative target for enemy sappers, the unit had frequent mad minutes to shoot up 7.62mm and .50 caliber machine gun ammo, and 90mm main gun rounds. They burned up beau coup "fifty" barrels during these blasting sessions, because of the oversize ammo cans they installed atop the turret. But, his favorite activity was to see how many 90mm rounds his tank could put downrange in 60 seconds. IIRC, his personal best was 17.
"Yeah, but..." If you say so. I guess it's not really relevant until it involves the USA, much later in history.