How many US Army tanks were named for Civil War generals?

Your question about the series of Patton tanks has already been answered, but yes, there was also a Pershing tank as well.
The first 200 or so Pershings produced were made at the Fisher Tank Arsenal not far from where I live . It is long gone but produced many M4s , M10s and some M36s as well .
 
While talking about this with an old infantryman (82nd Airborne) who works with me I floated ¨What about Ft Alvin C York as a replacement for Ft Bragg?¨ We were both thoughtfully silent for a moment, then he quietly said ¨He was a leg though...¨ :bounce:
 
While talking about this with an old infantryman (82nd Airborne) who works with me I floated ¨What about Ft Alvin C York as a replacement for Ft Bragg?¨ We were both thoughtfully silent for a moment, then he quietly said ¨He was a leg though...¨ :bounce:
I forgot! There was a York anti aircraft tank which was not accepted for service but was tested and built.
 
It's sort of interesting how naming themes like that develop. In the USN for example, the "Battleships Mean States" rule was not set, at first, and so you had the USS Kearsarge which was a BB but not a state (and the Maine which was a state but not a BB!)
 
I forgot! There was a York anti aircraft tank which was not accepted for service but was tested and built.
It would have been the first vehicle named for an enlisted man. I was part of the test and development unit that determined the SGT York DIVAD (Division Air Defense) gun couldn´t move shoot or communicate! I shot 3 of them down in operational tests. I was a 2LT tank platoon leader at the time.
 
I saw an M8 Greyhound in Guatemala in 2006.

The northern NJ guy who bought Guatemala's M41 Walker Bulldogs for import (@ 1996?) also scored in the same deal three Marmon Herrington light tanks (CTMS-1TBI*) that had been down there rusting away as Gate Guards. Their interiors were painted black, they used Stuart roadwheels at the end of their mobility life and to satisfy BATF, the bronze breach assemblies of their 37mm clip-fed main guns had to be torch cut.

* Pics of one here, scroll down
https://usautoindustryworldwartwo.com/marmon-herrington.htm
 
I hoped to find a photo of the SGT York during the operational tests, but the best I could do was one taken by DoD during the live-fire tests at White Sands. Here she is. Twin 40mm guns, the targeting system from an F-16, the engine from an M1 and the hull of an M48a5. Frankentank. It threw a plume of dust behind it when it moved, so you could track its movements from miles away. Famously, during the live fire trials, it acquired the fan in a porta-potty and blew that Commie portapotty into a million pieces. The ADA community wanted something like the Soviet ZSU-23-4 or the German Gephard. They didn´t get it, and that was probably a good thing all in all.

M247-DIVAD.jpg
 
It would have been the first vehicle named for an enlisted man. I was part of the test and development unit that determined the SGT York DIVAD (Division Air Defense) gun couldn´t move shoot or communicate! I shot 3 of them down in operational tests. I was a 2LT tank platoon leader at the time.
Yeah, I remember hearing about it. I spent most of my career in Marine Corps armor units. We were in the loop. kinda....
 
While talking about this with an old infantryman (82nd Airborne) who works with me I floated ¨What about Ft Alvin C York as a replacement for Ft Bragg?¨ We were both thoughtfully silent for a moment, then he quietly said ¨He was a leg though...¨ :bounce:
I wonder how many soldiers who have been based at these forts know of whom they are named for and if they really care ? Ever wonder why these forts were based in the South ? May be change one to honor a Union general; Ft. Hood to Ft. McClellan. As for tanks ,there has not be one named for a woman. In today's Army of equality there has to be one.
 
Last edited:
I wonder how many soldiers who have been based at these forts know of whom they are named for and if they really care ? Ever wonder why these forts were based in the South ? May be change one to honor a Union general; Ft. Hood to Ft. McClellan.
While I think he deserves it, there has already been a Fort McClellan (closed at the end of the 20th century). There's also been a Fort Porter but that one was much less recent, so that could work.
 
Back
Top