Tank, 90-MM Gun, M48A1 Patton 48

Serial Number: 8775 Registration Number: 09A2399

During the extremely wet month of August 2023, Abrams Company, 4th Battalion “Burt’s
Knights”, USABOT (United States Army Brotherhood of Tankers) started our second project of
the year and the eighteenth public tank monument project completed in New England in nine
years. This project brought us “Down East” to the great state of Maine. This is our first project in
the state, and it is one that we’ve been wanting to get to for a long time. Augusta’s Fitzgerald-
Cummings American Legion Post 2 holds a rare piece U.S. Armor history that has survived
intact in its designed 1952 configuration. As the very first design of what came to be termed the
American Main Battle Tank, American Legion Post 2’s public tank monument is also special in
that the tank had served in the state of Maine’s Army National Guard. The Medium Tank
Battalions (Patton) of the Twentieth Armor, Maine Army National Guard that can trace their unit
history to the Massachusetts Militia’s Cumberland Regiment. The Cumberland Regiment served
under General Washington in the Continental Army during our Nation’s founding struggle and
that unit carried on into the Civil War as Colonel Joshua Chamberlain’s 20th Infantry Regiment,
Maine Volunteers that saved the Union Army’s left flank, bayonet charging their way down Little
Round Top and into history during the epic third day of the Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
 The National Emergency arose when the new cold war suddenly flashed hot in June 1950. As
the reds poured across the 38th Parallel in Korea, the thought that this would be the start of the
next global war brought the U.S. Army’s tank shortage into sharp focus. The Truman
administration’s rearmament program had to respond to much more than just the fight on the
Korean peninsula, at the same time they were most concerned with substantially strengthening
the entire “Free World’s” political, economic, and miliary capabilities. The perception at the time
was that the United States lagged far behind the Soviet Union in terms of tank quantity and
quality. The administration decided to execute a “partial” or limited mobilization to revitalize the
industrial base without inflicting a major disruption to the civilian economy, the thought was to
build a national baseline war material industrial position that would have the nation ready to
ramp up to full mobilization on very short notice if and when the need ever arose.
New tank construction could not be delayed, the hull and engine combination of the T42
medium tank design’s power train and suspension wasn’t ready for production, but its turret
design was. The T42 design had been the favored recommendation for the future medium tank of
the November 1945 War Department Equipment Board “Stillwell Board” that was formed after
WWII to determine future Army equipment needs. The composite design of the revamped M46
hull mounting the turret of the new developmental T42 medium tank was rushed into production
as the M47 Patton II and the race was on to design the interim M47 tank’s successor.
The 01 November 1950 Ordnance Technical Committee Minutes (OTCM) No. 33485 that
approved the production of the Tank, 90mm Gun, M47 Patton II also called for the start of design
work for its successor, the T48.

M46 General Patton M47 Patton II T48 Patton 48

On 08 December 1950, the Army selected Chrysler to design and to be the lead builder for no
other reason than that Chrysler had a proven record of delivering outstanding tanks and with the
full-on Korean Emergency the Army felt that there was no time for opening a competitive bid
process. Chrysler’s contract, Number DA-20-089-ORD-8406 called for the new tank’s blueprint
development, acquisition of tooling and production equipment, and for the production and
delivery of a large number of T48 tanks. Under provisions of the contract the contractor
undertook to engineer and design the tank “in general conformity with the desires of the
government.” Their obligations would be fulfilled if Chrysler made their “best efforts” even if
deviations were made from government furnished specifications and were additionally bound to
“act diligently and assert their best effort.”
The new tank was to be powered by the same Continental AV1790-5B/CD850-4, 12-cylinder
gasoline engine as the hurriedly designed and built interim tank M47. The design of what would
become the T48 was derived from the elliptical hull and turret medium tank concept studies
created in 1948 by Mr. Joseph Williams of the Ordnance Department’s Tank Automotive
Command (OTAC), he was the Army Ordnance Department engineer who was instrumental in
the design of the advanced Patton II T42/M47 turret and the T37/M41 “Walker Bulldog” light
tank. The preliminary design and engineering development of the elliptically shaped T48 Main
Battle Tank had already commenced in October 1950 at Chrysler Corporation’s Ordnance
Development Department, in their sprawling headquarters complex in Highland Park, Michigan.

OTCM No. 33791 dated 27 February 1951 officially initiated the design of the new tank,
designated the 90mm Gun Tank and outlined that it weigh no more than 45 tons, have track that
was 5 inches wider than that fielded on the M26/46 and M47 tanks, and be armed with the new
T139 light weight 90mm gun capable of being quickly changed with interrupted screw threads at
the chamber end and that was ballistically
compatible with all 90mm tank ammunition
in United States stocks. Designed as a shorter
and lighter version of the elliptical hulled
T43/M103 Heavy Tank, it retained the heavy
tank’s large 85-inch diameter turret ring that
allowed the elliptical turret design to slope
down to the turret ring without the creation
of a shot trap, it would also have a roomier
turret fighting compartment, and allow for up
arming the tank with a larger gun in the
future. Maximum interchangeability of parts
with the heavy tank was part of the design, this entailed using the new 28-inch wide T96/T97
track and beefing up the suspension system components stronger than that of the preceding
M26/M46/M47 designs.
Chrysler was directed to complete the detail design and build six pilot tanks as quickly as
possible, five were for the Army and one for the Marine Corps. Drawings of the hull and turret
were provided to the foundries and work on T48 Pilot No. 1 commenced at Highland Park. In
July of 1951 Chrysler was given the go ahead to build Pilot No. 2 at their new Delaware Tank
Plant in Newark, Delaware. Designated as the Lenape Army Ordnance Depot, the facility had
been specifically designed and built to produce the new 90mm Gun, T48 Medium Tank
concurrently with production of the 120mm Gun, T43/M103 Heavy Tank. The first rolled off the
line just eleven months after groundbreaking with a lot more tanks quickly coming behind.

M48A1 Medium and M103 Heavy Tanks, built to prevail on the atomic battlefield.
Pilot No. 2 was built but held at the Delaware Tank Plant until December 1951 awaiting
modifications to be applied to correct faults found during the testing of Pilot No. 1, Number 2
was completed and shipped to Aberdeen Proving Ground for testing on 11 April 1952, Number 3
was completed and shipped to Fort Knox for testing on 24 May and Number 4 arrived at Fort
Knox on 24 July. Design corrections and modifications to correct the faults found in testing of
Pilots 1 through 4 were incorporated in Pilots 5 and 6, at the end of November 1952 Pilot No. 5
was shipped to Aberdeen and Pilot No. 6 was shipped to the Marine Corps. Testing continued
until the end of 1952 with correction of design defects added to the prints as quickly as they were
found. In the end the design of the T48 was never finalized, such was the need for large numbers
of new tanks to be quickly fielded, full production of the T48 commenced long before the
completion of all the Pilots and even longer before completion of user testing.

Early on in production planning, during March of 1951, Ford Motor Company, General Motors
Fisher Body Division, and American Locomotive Company (ALCO) were presented contracts to
build the T48. Ford would erect a new tank production plant in Livonia, Michigan, Fisher Body,
and ALCO would build their tanks as they did six years prior in their World War II Tank
Production Plants at Grand Blanc, Michigan and Schenectady, New York respectively. As the
designated Vehicle Design Agency, Chrysler’s Delaware Tank Plant passed along continually
updated engineering data and drawings to Ford and Fisher Body. Such was the Army’s
worldwide need for the new tank, that Chrysler’s Delaware Tank Plant commenced full
production of the T48 in June 1952, a month before Pilot No.4 and five months before Pilots No.
5 and 6 were completed and sent off to service testing.
The T48 was rushed into production before the design of the powered elevation and traverse
system and the tank-on-tank engagement fire control systems had matured and their design had
been finalized. Vehicle weight had risen from the called for 45 tons to 50 tons combat loaded and
although the gasoline engine delivered plenty of horsepower, the seventy-mile driving range was
the most serious drawback, a one cylinder four cycle auxiliary engine was provided to supply
electrical power when the main engine was shut down to conserve fuel. Such was the dire need
in the emergency that in spite of major design elements not being ready, production of the T48
was started. The desire to the regenerate of the steel foundry and the armored vehicle assembly
industrial base and also getting the new tanks into the hands of the troops as soon as possible
were two of the imperatives that spurred the immediate start of full production to obtain the
massive amount of state-of-the-art tanks that needed to be quickly fielded.
The hull and turret castings were to be made of homogenized armor steel; at that time, these
hulls were the largest single pour armor castings
ever made. More a matter of molten steel pour
choreography training and perfecting the armor steel
homogenization process, the single pour hull
castings of the first 120 vehicles were cast using
mild steel at the foundries, these ballistically inferior
vehicles were designated M48C and would be
relegated for training use only and spend their
service lives with a warning spelled out in stainless steel rod on the tank’s glacis.
There was a production bottleneck with the limited number of steel foundries capable of
producing the large single pour hull castings, an addition hull design was created that would be
made up of seven smaller pieces to get more foundries with smaller steel casting capabilities
involved. Six smaller castings and a rolled armor plate bottom would be held together in a
massive rolling production jig and welded into one piece with stainless steel rod. It came to be in
the entire production run that
71% of the M48/M48A1 hulls
were single pour castings and
29% were seven-piece composite
hulls. This was a time saving
production process that would be
revived in the 1970s when the
M60A1 series monthly
production output had to be
tripled under the Army’s
Accelerated Tank Production
Program to replace the losses from Israel’s fight for survival during the October 1973 Yom
Kippur War. For their entire production run, Ford Motor Company produced their own single
pour hull and turret castings at the company’s River Rouge Steel Plant in Dearborn, Michigan.
 With full production commencing long before design acceptance testing was completed and in
spite of all the known deficiencies, it was the thought that the tanks could be fixed later at depot
rebuild or through the Modification Work Order (MWO) process that kept the manufacturers
going all out with series production. Only eleven months after the building’s groundbreaking, the
first production T48 built was rolled out of the new Chrysler Delaware Tank Plant, Newark,
Delaware and was christened the Patton 48 during the plant’s inauguration ceremonies on the
first of July 1952 by the widow of General George Smith Patton Jr, Mrs. Beatrice Banning
Patton, of Hamilton, Massachusetts.

July 1952 saw three of the manufacturers, plus the Ordnance Department, the Armor Board, and
the Army Field Forces form a planning group to deal with T48 fleet production and recommend
design solutions to the numerous problems that presented themselves during service testing. This
Design Coordinating Committee would regularly convene and would stay in being for the length
of the M48 production run. With the war in Korea in stalemate, the press fixed on the problems
with the new tank program and scandalized the story.

The program also quickly became politicized, in the new Department of Defense, the Secretary
of the Army, Robert Stevens, following the directive of Secretary of Defense Charles E. Wilson’s
single efficient producer model of the new SECDEF’s “ More Bang For The Buck Program,” had
ordered cutbacks in all of the tank programs and directed that the Army reduce the number of
companies producing the medium tank T48. After preparing the setup of their assembly line for
series T48 production, American Locomotive’s contract was canceled, and their order added to
Chrysler’s orders in December 1952. ALCO would continue to finish out their contract building
M47 Patton II tanks until they completed their order of 3095 examples in November 1953. Until
the end of 1953 the nation’s largest tank assembly line, Chrysler’s Detroit Arsenal Tank Plant in
Warren, Michigan would also continue to be occupied completing their order of 5481 M47 tanks.
 Storage Yard Fisher Body Division, Grand Blanc, Michigan
During this time, the production of the 90-mm Gun Tank T48 continued along full bore with
tanks piling up end connector to end connector, bow to tow pintle at depots across the country
awaiting design corrections and delivery of hull and turret system parts. With the Korean
Emergency pressure abating and the urgency of troop requirements diminishing, the Army
decided to stop shipping unmodified tanks to the troops and embarked on a program to apply the
one hundred plus modifications to the tanks on a production line basis.

Turret Drill Press, Chrysler Delaware Tank Plant

Confronting the problem with the overlapping of what should have been the sequential steps of
development and then production, by the middle of 1952 staff of Army Ordnance were
convinced that although it was justified as an emergency measure in light of the world-wide
threat, doubt was cast on that course of action, the compressing of the acquisition process and
then the accelerated procurement of equipment that was still in development caused greater unit
cost, loss of time, and inordinate technical effort and resources diverted to rectify the problems
caused by the telescoping of the development and acquisition processes. From then on, “Crash”
production programs were no longer the way to go.
Depending which manufacturer made the tank and when it was made, an individual T48 could
have early, intermediate, or late features. Everything from stowage, hull and turret components, a
host of incremental changes that were unique by Serial Number groups. The original T48
Technical Manual stated that in order to identify the correct part for a tank you must use the
Serial Number and manufacturer located on the data plate in the drivers compartment since
changes incorporated during assembly by the three producers and SN's were not in sequence.
With the T48/M48 fleet built to different succeeding standards depending on when and where
they came off the respective assembly lines, a survey by vehicle location plus Serial and
Registration Number was conducted to determine what and where to ship of the sixty different
modification kits that were developed to apply fault corrections under field modification work
programs to bring all of the fielded and stored M48 Pattons up to the same base line standard.
As soon as the modification kits came in the troops had their tanks ungraded under the MWO
process by Ordnance Contact Teams one platoon, one company, one battalion, and then one
group at a time. Tanks at the depots had their MWOs applied on an industrial assembly line
basis. Six of the Modification Work Orders required heavy machine shop work and the Army
deciding to defer applying them until the vehicles were ready for rebuilt at depot overhaul. Army
policy was to apply MWOs under the following criteria: promote the safety of personnel, prevent
serious damage to equipment, enhance combat or operational effectiveness significantly, and
materially reduce maintenance costs. Even using troop labor, the MWOs applied added an
estimated $12,000. to the cost of every M48 tank. That would be $133,000. in today’s dollars.
 In January 1953, the Army Ground Forces directed that the T48 was acceptable for restricted
issue to the troops if the latest MWOs for fire control and electrical fixes had been applied to the
vehicle.
The Ordnance Technical Committee Minutes No. 34765 dated 02 April 1953 standardized the
T48 as the 90mm Gun Tank M48 Patton. In September 1953 during the next round of contracts
to produce the M48, General Motors underbid Chrysler, and Army Secretary Stevens awarded
Fisher Body a $200 million contract to become the sole producer of the M48. This decision drew
the ire of congress, Senator Estes Kefauver who had gained national prominence with the
organized crime hearings he held in 1950, was concerned that General Motors would become the
sole producer of light and medium tanks after April 1954 when Chrysler finished their M48
contract. It should be noted that SECDEF Charles Wilson had been the President and CEO of
General Motors before he took the political Defense Department post.
In January 1954, the Department of Defense was called before the Senate Armed Services
Committee hearings to defend their single-producer decision. During those hearings Army
Under-Secretary John Slezak argued that the move reduced costs and that multiple producers
were unnecessary to fulfill the Army’s diminishing needs in light of congressional funding cuts
for medium tank production. The Congressional concerns were for the shrinking of the nation’s
armored vehicle industrial base in the middle of the Cold War. The Army defended its use of
their “best efforts” type of contract, pointing to the reputation and integrity of the M48
producers, and that engineering review of the progress of the design and building of the vehicle
was conducted by the Detroit, Watervliet, and Frankfort Arsenals throughout M48 production.
Ford also had been requested by the Army to submit a proposal, but they declined to do so on
the basis that it was their policy not to engage in the production of this large type of war material
except in time of emergency. When their initial contract ended, Ford bowed out of M48 and
M48A1 production after producing just nine hundred and forty-nine high quality tanks.
 Ford Motor Company’s Livonia, Michigan Assembly Line
Contract decisions were put on hold and a new round of contract talks were called for; Chrysler,
which had already shut down on 04 June 1954 after the completion of the original T48 contract,
underbid General Motors in the new round of proposals. In September 1954, the Army awarded
Chrysler an exclusive contract to restart M48 production and the General Motors Cadillac
Division would continue to build M41 “Walker Bulldog” light tanks at their Government
Owned/Contractor Operated (GOCO) Tank Plant in Cleveland, Ohio. General Motors Fisher
Body Division would cease tank production forever at the Grand Blanc Tank Arsenal in early
1956 after producing 4200 T48/M48/M48A1 Pattons.
With political pressure applied by New York’s congressional delegation and in recognition of
their initial work and investment, in November 1955 the Army awarded American Locomotive
Company a contract to begin producing 600 M48A2s in 1956. ALCO would complete this tank
contract in July of 1957, opt out of the next round of contract talks and never again build another
tank for our nation. In May 1957, the Army awarded a contract to the only bidder, Chrysler and
they would continue production of the M48A2 at the Newark, Delaware Tank Plant.
Ordnance Technical Committee Minutes (OTCM) No. 35619 dated 25 October 1954 outlined
the first model change that reflected the
collection of modifications to improve
the vehicle that had been added to
Patton production by all the
manufacturers as of August 1954,
designated M48A1, changes included
the enlargement and improved operation of the tanks original small hull top driver’s hatch. The
addition of the Aircraft Armaments Model 30 armored commanders’ cupola that facilitated under
armor operation and reloading of the tank commanders’ weapon. Designated: Caliber 50
Machine Gun Mount M1, it was semi ringed with five integral vision blocks and had the
T42/M28 Periscope Anti-Aircraft Sight to aim the internal mounted M2 Heavy Barrel (HB)
Caliber 50 Machine Gun. Cupola development started late in 1951 and the design was turned
over to Chrysler in fall of 1953 for inclusion into the M48 program. It was rushed into
production without testing to get the long lead time castings made, there were a number of
problems with the design, the very limited closed up headroom for the tank commander being
one of them. It would be somewhat solved with the adoption of the M48A3 standard with the
G305 all-around Vision Block Riser for the Cupola with the elimination of the vision blocks and
the addition of a prominent head room bulge in the tank commander’s Cupola Hatch casting that
were retrofitted to the M1 Cupola at depot overhaul. The limited amount of Caliber 50 ammo,
fifty rounds in the ready box and awkward arraignment of the Machine Gun would never be
fixed. Additional incremental measures were also applied to try to rectify the M48’s problems
and continued to be added to the production line as soon as they were ready for inclusion to the
assembly line building process.

M48A1 w/ Rack Assembly, Jettison Fuel Tank Kit

One M48A1 improvement measure was a jettisonable external fuel tank arraignment comprised
of four 55-gallon drums protected by a heat shield that would deflect any leaking fuel off vehicle
away from the engine compartment. This arrangement would extend the tank’s short 70-mile
range to 135 miles. The external fuel system fed directly to the engine ahead of the internal
tanks, upon approach to a combat engagement the system which was not armored could easily be
jettisoned from inside the tank, leaving it a full internal fuel load for battle. The kits were easy
and economical to install and were added to all tanks prior to shipment overseas.
Adding unprotected external fuel tanks was not the answer, Continental Motors had been
working on product improving their 1790 cubic inch V-12 engine to make the engine family
more compact, efficient, and reliable. The new 80 octane Military Order Gasoline (MOGAS)
engine, AVI-1790-8 eliminated the twin carburetors and added the Simmonds SU Series fuel
injection system and also eliminated the bulky outrigger oil coolers with their separate fans from
being winged out on each side of the engine. The new oil coolers would be mounted along both
sides of the top of the engine using the two main engine fan towers to draw air through them.
The new arraignment made the engine much more compact,
leaving room to enlarge the size of the interior wing fuel tanks,
increasing the internal fuel storage from 200 gallons to 335
gallons. The new 1790 AVI engine with the modified CD-850-
4B and the new internal fuel arraignment increased the tank’s
base range from 70 miles to 160 miles and with the
jettisonable external fuel tank arraignment the tank’s range
reached 250 miles. The new engine arraignment necessitated change of the vehicle rear and
engine deck. The M48A2 tank series would be the first to receive the now familiar armored heat
dissipating and infrared (IR) suppressing top deck and twin rear grill doors that would be carried
over into the XM60 design and mark all succeeding American tanks until the fielding of the M1
Abrams. Improvements to the suspension system added much stronger front Idler Wheel
suspension arm hull mountings, replaced the hydraulic shock absorbers with friction snubbers,
and eliminated two of the track support rollers from each side.
To help alleviate driver fatigue the drivers’ compartment was revamped with a new 14-inch
oval steering wheel in a more ergonomically correct placement along with a better location from
on the steering column to the right-side hull floor for the transmission shift lever, and the
placement of the Accelerator and Brake Pedals were reversed to make them just like the civilian
automotive standard that soldiers grew up with. Also, the two cold weather heaters were replaced
by one large heater located in the left front of the hull. The exterior turret rear received the full
turret bustle rack basket, these improvements along with the fire control upgrades that will be
outlined next were incorporated into the tank and the OCTM dated 06 October 1955 standardized
this configuration as the M48A2 and January of 1956 saw the M48A2 being built at Chrysler
Newark, Delaware and ALCO Schenectady, New York.
 In spite of the scandalized bad press at that time, the Army believed the M48 series tank to be
“a good fightable tank.” The vehicle’s subsequent long history and war record would bear that
assessment out. The story of the Patton 48 is a cautionary tale of the volume production of a
virtually untested vehicle of an unfrozen design which was hoped could be modified later to
overcome any deficiencies found in the testing that had been conducted concurrent with massive
series production. The Army was working with the thought that the M48 Patton would measure
up to the requirements of modern atomic warfare, all the while knowing that the welfare of our
nation might well rest on their efforts. The Patton 48 story is a cautionary tale of high-volume
production of an armored vehicle with many new and untested components.

M48A1 1954 M48A2 (MOD A) 1956 M48A3 (MOD B) 1967

Hurried design of the turret that counted on components whose design development had not yet
matured would add its own problems to the M48 series. Awaiting the development of the
Cadillac-Gage constant
pressure hydraulic power
traverse and elevation system,
the T48 was fitted with the
interim, more complex, and
not entirely satisfactory
Oilgear electric hydraulic
powered elevation and
traverse mechanism that
caused the new turret to suffer
with the same oscillation and
lag problems that the system
caused for the M46/M47
turrets. In addition to those problems the Oilgear hydraulic power pack’s electric motor made an
annoying high pitched screeching sound that made turret interior crew communication difficult
even with intercom. These problems would continue until the Cadillac-Gage constant pressure
system was ready for inclusion in the Patton 48 production line at the start of 1956. The rest of
the already built M48 series fleet would have to wait until 1967 for inclusion of this system at
their M48A3 rebuilding at the Army Depots at Anniston, Alabama and Red River, Texas.
Developmental problems with the stereoscopic T46E1 Range Finder and the T30 Ballistic
Computer would delay their fielding and inclusion of the components to complete the designed
for fire control system of the T48s coming off the assembly line. Army studies on visual
estimation ranges and tank gunnery problems had revealed the need for a rangefinder to be
incorporated into tank fire control systems. In 1947 an Army Ground Forces board somehow
determined that the stereoscopic range finder was in their words, “far superior” to the
coincidence type. Thus started a decade and more of pain for American tankers.

The stereoscopic rangefinder is a binocular instrument that provides the user with two magnified
images of the target. The tank commander fuses his
right and left eye with the target and the reticle that
has five vertical lighted lines in a “V” pattern which
had “Depth” and that were “flown” out by turning
the ranging knob until the “Geese” appeared to be at
the same distance as the target. To be proficient with
it the tank commander needed to train with it and
“Fly the Geese” over and over again at targets at
known distances. The reality was that it took an
inordinate amount of time to become anywhere near
to being proficient with the stereoscopic rangefinder
and that was for soldiers that didn’t have bad
eyesight, or lacked depth perception, were not
hungover, or had any other of a host of problems
that would keep the “Geese” from flying.
In November 1960, the Congressional General
Accounting Office (GAO) stated to the Army that
everyone operating the stereoscopic rangefinder needed to be fully capable and qualified to
operate it or failing that the Army needed to field the new coincidence rangefinder. All this being
said, the stereoscopic rangefinder hadn’t been ready for fielding during the first years of Patton
production. Also, not ready for the first years of production was the analog electromechanical
T30 Ballistic Computer that took input of range to target from the rangefinder and applied it to
the type of ammunition selected to impart the proper amount of superelevation through the
Ballistic Drive to the Gun Mount needed by the particular type of ammo to hit the target on the
aiming point. Two inputs in and one out for a firing solution. The range input could also be
manually entered for a firing solution to be imparted to the Ballistic Drive and onto the gun. The
analog Ballistic Computer would take some time to be ready for production.

90-MM Gun M41/T139 in Mount T148

Production of the T48 started long before the designed fire control system would be ready.
From the start of production, it was known that the rangefinder and analog computer would not
be ready, there was a plan to field a progressively more capable fire control system as the
developmental components matured and were ready for fielding. The fire control system would
be fielded in four progressively more capable phases. The first three would be interim phases
until all the original design components were fielded as a system in phase IV. Phase I was the
simplest and consisted of the gunner’s T35/M20 Periscopic Sight in the T184E1 Mount attached
to the turret ceiling, in the absence of the rangefinder the tank commander had the former T157
Elbow Sight, now designated T161 Telescope installed in the right rangefinder blister and used
by the tank commander for sighting and target designation. The T24 Ballistic Drive tied these
sights along with the T25 Range Drive (that substituted for the Ballistic Computer) into the T148
90mm Gun Mount.
 Phase I Fire Control
After a year of series production, included into the assembly lines starting in the late spring of
1953 were the Phase II and Phase III fire control systems that replaced the tank commander’s
T161 Telescope with the T46E1/M13A1 Stereoscopic Rangefinder. The gunner’s M20 Periscope
was retained and the direct fire T156E1 Telescope in Telescope Mount T191 was added to the
right side of the T148 90mm Gun Mount replacing the right-side coaxial machine gun. The
modified T24E1 Ballistic Drive connected the M20 Periscope and T25 Range Drive with the gun
elevation mechanism. The Ballistic Drive was not connected to the Rangefinder. The tank
commander would determine and announce the range and the gunner using the M20 Periscope
would manually input the announced range into the Range Drive or using the Telescope align the
proper range line on the target. Phase II and Phase III only had minor differences, the M20
Periscope was attached to the turret ceiling by the T184E1 Mount in Phase II and either the T184
or the T184E1 Mount in Phase III, the difference was the T184 was also machined to hold a new
Range Drive that was never fielded. By the end of 1953 the fielding of what was termed the
Ultimate System, Phase IV saw the T25 Range Drive finally replaced by the T30 Ballistic
Computer, the new heavy duty and finer tuned T24E2 Ballistic Drive and the Stereoscopic
Rangefinder linked directly to the Ballistic Computer, finally linking the whole fire control
system together as originally designed.
 Phase IV Fire Control
Addressing the shortcomings of the M48/M48A1, January 1956 saw the series production start
of the M48A2. Exterior visual clues were the larger bore
evacuator with the T shaped blast deflector, a change to the
new more robust headlight groups that would carry on into
the M60 Series, the rear infrared suppressing top deck and
twin grill doors, three track return rollers, and no rear track
tension idler wheels at the sprockets. The single larger heater
exhaust pipe.

M48A2
The tank was fitted with the gasoline AVI-1790-8/CD-850-5 Power Pack. The M48A2 saw the
introduction of the long-awaited Cadillac-Gage constant pressure hydraulic power traverse and
elevation system. This same system would carry over into the M60 Series of tanks.
 The more robust T24E2/M5A1 Ballistic Drive was further refined to include a temperature
compensating link that maintained the bore sight and zeroing inputs as the turret expanded and
contracted from the effects of the sun or winter drops in temperature, the new Ballistic Drive was
designated M5A2.
ALCO Products Incorporated (formerly American Locomotive Company) of Schenectady, New
York produced 600 examples and Chrysler Corporation’s Newark, Delaware tank plant produced
1728 for a total combined production run of 2328 M48A2s. Starting in March 1959 a change to
comply with North
Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO)
commonality standards,
1344 of these tanks were
reprocessed and upgraded
before troop issue and
retrofitted with new fire
control system
components that utilized
the metric system
changing range measurement from yards to meters. New equipment installed were the upgraded
M13A1 Ballistic Computer, the M105 Telescope, the M32 Periscope w/ Daylight & IR sights,
and the component that everyone was clamoring for, the M17 Coincidence Rangefinder.
The M17 Coincidence Rangefinder was readily accepted, as accurate as the stereoscopic and
much simpler to use, looking into the monocular sight the target image along with a ghost image
of the target was seen, turning the Range Knob until the actual and ghost images aligned to
present a clear target image would give the range to the target that was transmitted directly to the
Ballistic Computer via the mechanical linkage or for direct fire with the gun mount direct sight,
the range to target can be read off the range scale and announced to the gunner for him to put the
proper range line on the target using the M105 Telescope.
The 1344 M48A2 Pattons that were fitted with the “Ultimate Fire Control System” components:
M17 Coincidence Rangefinder, M32 Periscope w/ Daylight and Infrared (IR) Channels, M5A1
Ballistic Drive, M13A1 Ballistic Computer, and the M105 Telescope were given a different
classification than the Stereoscopic Rangefinder equipped M48A2s. OTCM No. 37025, dated
14 January 1959 designated the Coincidence Rangefinder equipped tanks M48A2C. Not to be
confused with the soft hulled M48C, you can guess what the C in M48A2C stood for.
The configuration of the “Ultimate Fire Control System” components, M17 Coincidence
Rangefinder, M32 Periscope w/ Daylight and Infrared (IR) Channels, M5A1 Ballistic Drive,
M13A1 Ballistic Computer, and the M105 Telescope would continue to be used in the M48A3
Pattons and the design’s improved fire control and engine would later form the basis of the
rushed XM60 design which for the next 30 years would be the United States Main Battle Tank.
Production of the M48 series tanks ended in 1959 with a total of 11,703 Patton 48s made. Seven
decades on, over 1,500 M48 Pattons still serve around the world, the largest users being Taiwan
and Turkey, they also still serve in South Korea, Iran, and Greece.
 Findings Report

Fitzgerald-Cummings American Legion Post Number 2

Augusta, Maine
The Fitzgerald-Cummings American Legion Post Number 2, Augusta, Maine’s monument tank:
Tank, 90-mm Gun, M48A1, Patton 48, Serial Number 8775, Registration Number 9A2399 was
one of the very last M48A1s to be built. The Augusta Post’s Patton was built by Chrysler Corp.
at the Newark, Delaware Tank Plant in December 1955. Ford Motor Company had already
completed their run of M48A1s, and in December 1955 the General Motors, Fisher Body
Division would finish their contract and would soon leave the Patton 48 program when Chrysler
and ALCO started M48A2 production in January 1956. The five-return roller suspension of the
T48/M48/M48A1 was more favored than the three-return roller suspension of the M48A2 for the
later rebuild programs. Rebuild for American tanks normally occurs at five years, five thousand
miles, American Legion Post 2s tank received a depot overhaul in March 1964. This rebuild
refurbished and maintained Serial Number 8775’s as built M48A1 standard and was performed
at the industrial complex of the Tooele Army Depot (TEAD), Tooele County, Utah.
Large numbers of Pattons were rebuilt to the M48A3 standard in the late 1960s to compliment
the M60 Series Main Battle Tank by adding the same Continental diesel engine and the Frankfort
Arsenal fire control system but because of the large stores of perfectly serviceable 90mm tank
ammo the M48A1 and M48A3 rebuilds remain armed with the 90-mm Gun. Later at the end of
the 1970s, showing the design promise of 1950, over two thousand Pattons were up gunned with
the M68 105mm Gun, fitted with the improved AVDS-1790-2D engine and rebuilt to the
M48A5 standard at the Anniston Army Depot, Anniston, Alabama under the post 1973 October
War, U.S. Army Tank Production Acceleration Program. These rebuild programs and the equally
large numbers of Pattons shipped around the world to our allies under the Foreign Military
Assistance and Military Sales Programs have left very few M48A1 Patton 48 tanks in their early
1950s configuration in our country.
 The Hull, Serial Number 8775 is a single pour homogeneous steel casting produced in the late
fall of 1955 by General Steel Castings Corporation, Eddystone, Pennsylvania. Part Number
7364149, Casting Number 2259GC is still in its original configuration. Vehicle Serial Number
stamp was found at the left front tow lug, and the Registration Number was painted on the left
side sponson box. It has the improved idler support arm mountings fitted on both sides. There are
the later friction snubbers instead of hydraulic shock absorbers at the first two and last road
wheel stations on both sides. Each side has six all steel dual 26 x 6-inch road wheels, one dual 26
x 6-inch compensating idler wheel, Part Numbers 7013976 and five all steel dual track return
rollers, Part Number 8706067 all fitted with steel hubs. There are no track tension idler wheels.
Abrams Company found considerable steel rot in the road and idler wheels which we dug out,
primed, then painted.

The Final Drive Sprocket Hubs, Part No. 7364134 have factory applied Modification Work
Order (MWO) mud shedding Vents milled into them and the eleven tooth, 24.5-inch diameter,
solid ring, drop forged Track Drive Sprockets, Part Number 1637173 show minimal wear. The
tank is fitted with T97E2 Double pin, center guide, 28 inch wide, rubber chevron track. 79 shoes
per track, 158 shoes per vehicle, the track shows little wear.
 Removed from the vehicle was the twelve-cylinder, 810 horsepower, Continental AV-1790-7C
gasoline engine that was paired with the CD-850-4B cross drive transmission. The power packs
were normally removed as part of the tank monument’s demilitarization process.

The top engine deck has the exhaust deflector that directed the screaming hot gases away from
the main gun travel lock. This was one of the very first problems to be rectified after it turned up
in acceptance testing. The original gasoline engine exhaust set up had directed the hot gases onto
the gun travel lock and made it so hot that the crew needed to use asbestos gloves to unlock and
release the main gun if they could. The extreme heat would often lock up the screwdown clamp.
The entire top deck was a marvelous design for supplying cooling fresh air to surround the
engine in the compartment, but it also produced a very large thermal and infrared signature.

.
On the rear plate is the armored casting of the Housing Box, Part Number 7723399 cast by the
Fort Pitt Steel Casting Company, McKeesport, Pennsylvania, for the Auxiliary Interphone
Equipment AN/VIA-1 that is used in conjunction with the vehicle’s interior intercom system to
provide communication between the
tank crew members and supporting
infantry personnel. Inside it there is
a handset on a 40 foot long in a
spring wound take-up reel, also it
held the Interphone Control Box C-
655/VIA-1 that had line posts for
hotloop WD-1 Field Wire and hook
up jacks for a Headset/Microphone
or Handset and Speaker. The hinged
armored access door for the housing
was broken off at some time and it is closed up and covered over with a welded-on steel plate.
The original Headlight Groups with their distinguishing bow shaped brush guards are still on the
tank and with the exception of the missing horn from the right-side group, they are remarkably
complete. The tail lights have been vandalized and the steel guard on the right-side light is bent.

It was built with the large Drivers Hatch with the swiveling mount for the T41/M24 Periscope
which was an Infrared (IR) binocular viewing device for night driving. The black IR headlamps
project the invisible IR light forward and the M24 IR Periscope converts it to a visible image.
 On the left side hull, the tank holds the twin exhaust pipes of the two smaller gasoline Perfection
Stove Co. of Cleveland, Ohio, Model E500-24 Personnel Heaters, both of which are still present,
the one on the driver’s front left corner and the second on the left side hull curve just to the rear
of the hull interior ammunition storage racks are present. The
exterior right rear sponson fender holds the small muffler for the
General Motors. Model A-41-2, 14.5
horsepower, one cylinder, four cycle,
gasoline Auxiliary Engine and GM
Model A-8585 Auxiliary Generator,
Part Number: 7402095, that was used
to save fuel by suppling electrical
power without the need for the main
engine to be operating. The “Little Joe”
direct current generator supplied 28
volts at 300 amperes when operating at 3,100 revolutions per minute. The “Little Joe” Auxiliary
Engine has been removed.
The Driver’s compartment is remarkably intact, present is the front left side Perfection E500-24
Personnel Heater, but the Drivers Instrument Panel is missing. On the hull floor the small round
Driver’s Escape Hatch is still locked in tight, this small round escape hatch design would carry
on into the first two
thousand hulls of the XM60
series tanks. The vinyl
padded sheet metal Driver’s
Seat is present but suffers
from severe rust rot. The
1964 Tooele Army Depot
rebuild maintained the
fatigue inducing and
ergonomically incorrect
locations of the Steering
Wheel, the on the column
Transmission Shift Lever,
and the backward
Accelerator and Brake
Pedals arrangement, all
these are present. Two of the
three Fire Extinguisher
cylinders are gone. The
heavily vandalized, ballistic
glass M17 Drivers
Periscopes were painted up.
The hull’s aluminum 90-mm gun ammunition racks are still present on either side of the driver,
nineteen ammo round sleeves on the left side and eleven sleeves on the right.
The Turret Part Number 8694366, Serial Number U2443, was made as an elliptical one piece,
one pour homogeneous steel casting in late 1955 by the Union Steel Casting Company, Pittsburg,
Pennsylvania. The foundry mark can be found on the turret’s roof and left side. The turret rotates
on ball bearings in an 85-inch diameter turret race ring built into the top of the hull casting. The
weight of the 90mm gun is counterbalanced by the large clamshell shaped extension or bustle at
the back of the turret. The interior of the bustle holds the turret ceiling mounted Ventilating
Blower that pulls fresh air into the turret and the MT-297/GR Radio Mount, both are still present.
On the turret exterior the troop rails are present, and the turret has the full equipment bustle rack.
The exterior Water Can Holders were missing but the right side has been replaced. The gunner’s
periscope “Doghouse” armored Head Guard, Part Number 8370332 is still present. Some of the
hold down clips that secure the canvas mantlet cover still ring round the turret at the mantlet.
There is no trace of the 10.10 oz. waxed cotton duck canvas cover still on the tank. Not
surprising being six decades after the last overhaul. The turret exterior and interior and mantlet
show no evidence of ever being fitted for operation of the Crouse-Hinds 18-inch Searchlight.

The interior of the turret is gutted, the turret basket floor and all hangers and appendages are
missing. All turret 90mm and machinegun ammunition storage racks and boxes has been taken
out. The turret slip ring is gone, and the 24-volt battery trays are clear of all equipment and most
cabling. The gunner’s and commander’s seats, trays, and guards are gone. Turret ring bolt holes
show that at the 1964 depot rebuild the tank had retained the original Oilgear traverse and
elevation system, this also has been entirely removed. The entire M87(T148) 90mm Gun Mount
with the T88 Concentric Recoil Mechanism and the vertical sliding block T139 Breech Ring, the
Caliber 30 Coaxial Machine Gun Mount, and the T184 Telescope Mount along with the ceiling
mounted hydraulic fluid recoil Replenisher Assembly and Indicator have been removed.
 The 1582 lb. M41(T139) 90-mm Gun has the original cylindrical Blast Deflector and is plugged
and demilitarized. It is properly placed where the gun should be and fixed for the monument tank
by being welded all around the Mantlet Collar and held in place inside by being welded at the
gun’s interrupted thread chamber end to a steel U beam that itself is welded to the turret ceiling.
The entire M48A1 Frankfort Arsenal Phase IV Fire Control system was removed from the turret
interior. Removed along with the T184 Telescope Mount and the entire M87(T148) 90mm Gun
Mount, was the T156E1 Telescope. Gone is the M5A1(T24E2) Ballistic Drive with the attached
M13 Elevation Quadrant, and the T46E1 Stereoscopic Rangefinder along with all the linkages.
The gunner’s M20A2 Periscope is gone but its’ Mount, Periscope M102A1(T184) SN 582
remains on board. Also missing are the T28 Azimuth Indicator and the T30 analog Ballistic
Computer. The turret bustle interior still holds the six single flat aluminum 90mm ammo racks on
the bustle lower surface, with the two single ammo racks hanging from the ceiling, in the back of
the bustle is the turret ceiling mounted Ventilating Blower that pulled fresh air into the turret, and
also it still has the MT-300/GR Radio Mount that held the AN/GRC “Anger” 7, RT-68
Receiver/Transmitter and the R-110 Auxiliary Receiver.

AN/GRC stands for Army Navy / Ground Radio Communication. The “Anger”-7 operated in the
radio spectrum range of 38-54 megacycles. Unlike the newer AN/VRC-12 radio system that most
folks are familiar with that could only fine tune the frequency in 5 kilocycle increments, the
“Angers” could adjust kilocycles one digit at a time. This meant that the “Angers” could tune in
commercial FM radio stations. “FM, No static at all!” At the rear turret roof antenna opening the
tank still has an AB 558 Mast Base mounted, parts of the crew’s intercom system are still
present. The AN/VIA-1 Auxiliary Interphone Equipment is still in the Driver’s Station, TC and
Loader’s Stations, they still hold their C-375/VRC Control Boxes, also the interior terminus of
the exterior Auxiliary Interphone Control Box C-655/VIA-1 infantry call box, the Auxiliary
Interphone Control Box C-664/VIA-1 with its call light is on the turret wall at the loaders station.
 The hinged spring counterbalanced armor plate Loader’s Escape Hatch is serviceable. This exact
same hatch design was carried into the follow on XM60 tank turrets. On Serial Number 8775’s
turret top just forward of and between the Loader’s hatch and the Cupola can be found the
Union Steel Casting Company, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania foundry casting numbers and mark:

1
 8694366
U2442 US

The M1 Cupola was first of a number of different tank cupolas developed by Aircraft
Armament Inc. of Cockeysville, Maryland to provide under armor protection for the tank
commander while reloading of the M2 HB (Heavy Barrel) Caliber 50 Machine Gun. It was made
of three homogeneous armor steel castings: Body, Hatch, and Shield. There are five laminated
ballistic glass direct vision blocks for side and rear under armor vision, three in the body and two
as part of the hatch. Forward vision is provided by the M28(T42) Periscope, Anti-Aircraft
Machine Gun (AA MG) Sight in the M104A1 Periscope, Mount. It has manual 360-degree
traverse and manual elevation. The M1 was added to production during the summer of 1954.

There were problems with the cupola, the largest being the lack of headroom in the extremely
cramped space, this was followed closely by the angle that the Caliber 50 was mounted, almost
laid on its left side it was difficult to feed from the small capacity (50 Round) ammo box. The
headroom problem wouldn’t be fixed until the M48A3 rebuild when the G305 all-around Vision
Block Riser was added to the Cupola and the addition of a prominent head room bulge with the
elimination of the vision blocks in the Tank Commander’s Cupola Hatch casting was also added,
the M2 Caliber 50 mount and ammunition capacity problem was never fixed. The Cupola Body
casting, Part Number 6338995, SN 972, the Cupola Mantlet casting, Part Number 8683163, and
the original two vision block clamshell shaped Commander’s Hatch casting, Part Number
8697577. Serial No. 907 were all cast by the Symington-Gould Corporation, Depew, New York.
The Cupola’s 10.10 oz. waxed cotton duck canvas mantlet rain cover is gone but all of the
mounting hardware is still present. On the interior the caliber 50 ready box and mount are gone,
the elevation and traverse mechanisms and the traverse lock are still present and are functioning.
The cupola power control box and the M104A1 Periscope Mount are still present, but the M28
Periscope AA MG Sight is gone. The cupola was set to the rear, Abrams brought it back around
front, the cupola has a Caliber 50 Heavy Barrel welded into the correct spot to make it appear
armed. The Caliber 50 Barrel is fitted with the twelve-piece M2HB Flash Suppressor, NSN
1005-00-716-2072 attached. Abrams Company rotated the M1 Cupola to face forward and
locked it in position, cleaned up the rust and painted the cupola and barrel. The tank was power
washed, scraped, ground, and primed then painted.
TANK, 90 MM GUN, T48 CREW 4 MEN
ORDNANCE CORPS US ARMY SERIAL NO. 8775
MFD BY: CHRYSLER CORP-DELAWARE TANK

12-55 ACT

SERIAL NO. 8775

OVERHAULED AT DATE

TEAD 3 64

This information has been compiled from the research of the following folks: Joe Daneri,
Gary Cooke, David Doyle, Charles Salter, Chris Connors, Don Moriarty, Richard Lathrop,
Michael Green, Kurt Laughlin, Charles R. Lemons, and R.P. Hunnicutt. The credit is all theirs.
The Fitzgerald-Cummings American Legion Post Number 2, Augusta, Maine’s monument tank
served in and is a memorial to the soldiers of the four Armor Battalions of the 20th Armor, Maine
Army National Guard. The Twentieth’s lineage dates back to the colonial Massachusetts Militia
(until 1820 when the free state of Maine came into the Union, it was a part of Massachusetts) and
that lineage continues to this day with the 133rd Engineer Battalion.
 TWENTIETH MAINE
*Constituted 21 June 1760 in the Massachusetts Militia as the Cumberland Regiment

*Organized in spring of 1775 to consist of 10 companies from Cumberland County. Adopted on

14 June 1775 into the Continental Army as the 12th Massachusetts Regiment and assigned to the
Main Continental Army. It was assigned on 22 July 1775, to Heath's Brigade, an element of the
Main Continental Army. Participating in seven Revolutionary War Campaigns: disbanded 01
January 1781 at West Point, New York (The Cumberland Regiment was on the Cambridge
Common, Cambridge, Massachusetts on 14 June 1776 when General George Washington stood
up the American Army under the great elm, this marked the birth of the United States Army)

[*Boston *Saratoga *Monmouth *Massachusetts 1775 *New York 1777

*Pennsylvania 1777 *Massachusetts 1779]

*Mustered into Federal service 17 September 1813, participated in two Campaigns, War of 1812,
mustered out of Federal service 27 October 1814

[*Massachusetts 1813 *Massachusetts 1814]

*District of Maine reorganized 15 March 1820 as the State of Maine

*Mustered into Federal service 03 May 1861, 20th Infantry Regiment, Maine Volunteer’s fought
in the American Civil War from Bull Run to Appomattox, participating in eighteen Campaigns,
(Twentieth Maine saved the Union Army’s left flank at Little Round Top during the third day of
the Battle of Gettysburg), mustered out of Federal service 21 June 1866 at Hilton Head, South
Carolina

[*Bull Run *Peninsula *Valley *Manassas *Antietam *Virginia 1862 *Fredericksburg

*Virginia 1863 *Tennessee 1863 *Chancellorsville *Gettysburg *Wilderness *Spotsylvania
*Louisiana 1864 *Cold Harbor *Petersburg *Shenandoah *Appomattox]

*While remaining in state service during the War with Spain, the 2nd Maine Infantry Regiment
furnished personnel for the Federalized 1st Battalion, Maine Volunteer Heavy Artillery

*Called into Federal service 13-30 April 1917 at home stations; drafted into Federal service 05
August 1917, Reorganized, and redesignated 21 August 1917 as the 103rd Infantry and assigned
to the 26th Division (Yankee), fought in six Campaigns, demobilized 28 April 1919 at Camp
Devens, Massachusetts

[*Champagne-Marne *Aisne-Marne *St. Mihiel *Meuse-Argonne *Ile de France 1918

*Lorraine 1918]

*Inducted into Federal service 24 February 1941 at home stations, fought in four Pacific
Campaigns as 103rd Infantry, 43rd Infantry Division (Red Wing / Winged Victory), Inactivated
01 November 1945 at Camp Stoneman, California

[*Guadalcanal *New Guinea *Northern Solomons *Luzon (w/ Arrowhead Device)]

Philippine Presidential Unit Citation, Streamer embroidered 17 OCTOBER 1944 04 JULY 1945

*Inducted into Federal service 24 February 1941 at Bangor, reorganized and redesignated 01
March 1943 as Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 203rd Field Artillery Group, participated
in four European Campaigns, inactivated 27 November 1945 at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey

[*Northern France *Rhineland *Ardennes-Alsace *Central Europe]

* Redesignated 1 October 1953 as the 703rd Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion, broken up 01 March
1959 and its elements consolidated with the 103rd Infantry to form the 103rd Armored Cavalry
Group under the Pentomic System

*103rd Armored Cavalry Group reorganized and redesignated 01 June 1961 as the 20th Armor, a
parent regiment under the Combat Arms Regimental System, to consist of the 1st, 2d, and 3d
Medium Tank Battalions; Headquarters Troop concurrently reorganized and redesignated as
Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 133rd Armor Group

*2nd Medium Tank Battalion (Patton), 20th Armor, ordered into active Federal service
15 October 1961 at Lewiston; released from active Federal service 09 August 1962 and reverted
to state control, [2nd Tank Battalion (Patton) was ordered to Active Duty and deployed to Fort
Campbell, Kentucky to backfill for Strategic Army Corps (STRAC) units that deployed to
Germany during the Berlin Crisis]
*1st Medium Tank Battalion (Patton), 20th Armor was stood up at Portland in October 1963
during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the issue was resolved before the unit moved to deploy

*20th Armor reorganized 01 March 1964 to consist of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Battalions
Consolidated

*31 December 1967 with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 133d Armor Group, and 20th
Armor (Consolidated) converted, reorganized, and redesignated as the 133d Engineer Battalion
with Headquarters at Portland (3d Battalion, 20th Armor, concurrently broken up and its
elements reorganized and redesignated as various units in the Maine Army National Guard,
hereafter separate lineages

*133d and 262d Engineer Battalions consolidated 1 September 1993 and consolidated unit
designated as the 133d Engineer Battalion with Headquarters at South Portland

*Ordered into active Federal service 07 December 2003 at home stations; released from active
Federal service 3 June 2005 and reverted to state control, participated in two Iraqi Campaigns

[*Transition of Iraq *Iraqi Governance]

Meritorious Unit Commendation (Army), Streamer embroidered IRAQ 2004-2005

*Ordered into active Federal service 10 August 2013 at home stations; released from active
Federal service 01 July 2014 and reverted to state control, participated in Operation Enduring
Freedom Afghanistan

Meritorious Unit Commendation (Army), Streamer embroidered AFGANISTAN 2013-2014

Abrams Company, 4th Battalion “Burt’s Knights”

United States Army Brotherhood of Tankers
 Tank, 90mm Gun T48/M48 1952

Tank, 90mm Gun M48A1 1954

Tank, 90mm Gun M48A2 (MODIFICATION A) 1956

Tank, 90mm Gun M48A3 (MODIFICATION B) 1967

Tank, 105mm Gun M48A5 1978