Armor Reconnaissance Specialist MOS 11D

[Tanksmasher]

I've been scouring the net looking for as much info as I can get on the roles of various units in the Vietnam War. But I can't seem to find an answer to the following:

Were all M113A1 ACAV and/or APC crews (driver & vehicle commander) designated armor recon specialists (11D) regardless of their unit and operation? I know for instance that the typical armored cavalry platoon, such as in the 11th ACR, had a scout section of 4 ACAVs each with four 11D crewmen, but it also contained an ACAV with a squad of 11B infantrymen and a driver. The mechanized rifle squad which also consisted of 11B infantrymen had an extra man attached to drive the M113A1 APC. So did these drivers have an MOS of 11D armor recon specialist or were they just 11B infantrymen trained to drive the vehicles? It's a trivial question, true, but one I can't find an answer for since vietnam-era TOEs aren't commonly found on the internet.

[midgettem1]

Tanksmasher- I don't think this will help you- but I was with 4th Light Armored Recon, Delta Company for awhile while I was in the Corps. While not a Vietnam-era unit or even an Army unit, it is very similar in function to the unit you're talking about. All of our drivers/gunners were sent to SoI (school of infantry), before they were sent to the respective armor/gunner schools. Don't know if that helps any!

[Tanksmasher]

Originally Posted by midgettem1

Tanksmasher- I don't think this will help you- but I was with 4th Light Armored Recon, Delta Company for awhile while I was in the Corps. While not a Vietnam-era unit or even an Army unit, it is very similar in function to the unit you're talking about. All of our drivers/gunners were sent to SoI (school of infantry), before they were sent to the respective armor/gunner schools. Don't know if that helps any!

Thanks, I was just trying to figure out if all APC/ACAV drivers were considered 11D scouts back then and all tank crews 11Es. I believe that today all of the Bradley crews are 19D cavalry scouts or is that only for CFV crews? And M1 crews are all 19K.

[Chunks]

Back in *the day* my MOS was first 11D, then 11E for my entire career on tanks, driver to TC (at some point in the mid '70s D and E actually traded between armoured recon and armour crewman, no idea why. Only in the late '70s did the whole 19* MOS occur for the actual position occupied with in that general specialty, IIRC.

The following links show the 11D/E change.

http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?verb=get...fier=AD0759569

http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?verb=get...fier=ADA012725

This one has some info for 19E, tho I don't think it's currant.

http://www.us-army-info.com/pages/mos/armor/19e.html

[Paul]

That is some interesting stuff chunks.

[BalthazarB]

I was 11D from 1971 to 1974. 11D20 refers to a driver, 11D10 observer, and 11D30 TC. Each specialty had their own apc drivers, be it recon, motors, infantry, or whatever. It was my understanding that 11D's weren't used much in Nam in our specialty, since recon's were usually done by much larger groups, say platoon or company strength, rather than the 2 vehicle sections we were trained to operate in. A lot of 11D's ended up as door gunners due to all the weapon training we had. I'm not an expert at this, I spent a year at Knox in a air cav unit in a troop using jeeps, and a couple of years in Germany in the recon platoon of an armored battalion using m114's (which we hardly ever drove, training cost more money than anyone wanted to spend on us, and we had to tow our dead tracks out to field exercises to get enough priority to get them fixed!), but that's what I heard from the guys who had been over there.

[Bravestarr]

Originally Posted by BalthazarB

I was 11D from 1971 to 1974. 11D20 refers to a driver, 11D10 observer, and 11D30 TC. Each specialty had their own apc drivers, be it recon, motors, infantry, or whatever. It was my understanding that 11D's weren't used much in Nam in our specialty, since recon's were usually done by much larger groups, say platoon or company strength, rather than the 2 vehicle sections we were trained to operate in. A lot of 11D's ended up as door gunners due to all the weapon training we had. I'm not an expert at this, I spent a year at Knox in a air cav unit in a troop using jeeps, and a couple of years in Germany in the recon platoon of an armored battalion using m114's (which we hardly ever drove, training cost more money than anyone wanted to spend on us, and we had to tow our dead tracks out to field exercises to get enough priority to get them fixed!), but that's what I heard from the guys who had been over there.

Glad to have you here, and glad to read about your experiences with the old 114s.

Where in Germany were you?

I was in Vilseck and Graf from 2001-2005.