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e coming battles of the airhead. " --General James M. Gavin Before heavy tanker envy struck, the U.S. Army Airborne parachute low-velocity airdropped (LVAD) M551 Sheridan Light Tanks and M113 Gavin Armored Personnel Carriers in the 3rd Battalion, 73rd Armored Regiment as a part of the 82nd Airborne Division in the XVIII Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. This video shows that the rear ramp of a C-5, C-17 or C-130 can be opened for light tanks to slide out, followed by the ramp closing and the Paratroopers to operate them to jump out both side jump doors. On C-130s, Paras can follow their M113 Gavins on Type V airdrop platforms immediately by a ramp jump currently not allowed on C-5Bs/C-17s with static-line parachutes. The U.S. Army despite inventing M113/M551 airdroppable light tanks in the 1950s thanks to Generals James Gavin and Hal Moore; had to play catch-up with the Russians who aggressively perfected air-mech in their force structure with a BMD assigned to every rifle squad while American Paras foot-slog after "seize & hold" defensive WW2 re-enactments. http://www.combatreform.org/ARMORHISTORY/index.htm Finally, in 1989, the U.S. Army Airborne stunned the world by airdropping M551 Sheridans into combat in Panama in 1989 while other Sheridans and Gavins on the scene by airland lead the way to a quick collapse and capture of dictator Manuel Noriega and his regime. http://www.combatreform.org/lighttanks.htm After another pair of victories in Haiti (1994) and Desert Storm (1990-91) where light tanks saved the day, the heavy tankers running HQDA in 1996-97 lied to the light Army Airborne with a "bait & switch"--retire your Sheridans and we will buy M8 Buford Armored Gun Systems (aka light tanks) to replace them. The Sheridans were placed on railroads cars to go to the National Training Center as training aids--and then HQDA cancelled the AGS buy. Thus, because of egomania, incompetence and envy, 3/73rd Armor was disbanded when thousands of M113 Gavins are available to re-equip them to be Assault Transportation for Light Infantry as Gavin always intended them to provide. HQDA racketeers refused of course, so in 2001 when Osama Bin Laden was escaping into Pakistan, General Meigs in Germany offered to fly-in his M113 Gavin Immediate Reaction Force to give our troops ground maneuver capabilities, Clintonista wheeled peacekeeper racketeer, General Shinseki said "no! I don't want anyone seeing M113s rolling off C-130s"--it'd reveal his too-heavy-to-fly-by-C-130, LAV-III "Stryker" truck purchases were un-necessary and dismal failures. When the Airborne asked to drop Paras en masse to block OBL's escape routes backed with 4 of the Buford AGS light tanks the Army already owned, SecDef Rumsfeld and HQDA said "no!" to that, too. They don't want to get CIA-man OBL and defend America; they need him as a "boogie man" to boost defense budgets to buy junk trucks so our men can get killed on roads by land mines to keep the American public in a rage at "ragheads" when the truth is that walling off the rival sects in Iraq and having a low-key American advisorary and M113 Gavin tracked Quick Reaction Force presence in Iraq/Afghanistan would reduce justified outrage at our obnoxious presence and smother the civil war in the former and stop air strikes killing civilians in the latter. Bad for war profiteers like Stryker truck-maker GDLS, but good for the Iraqi and American people and their Army. Here's an U.S. Army Command & General Staff College School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS) report by Infantry officer, Major William Sutey on the need for cross-country MOBILITY (XCM) from M113 Gavin light tracked tanks to improve LIGHT INFANTRY FORCE mobility, protection and firepower. READ IT. http://www.combatreform.org/M113GAVINSforLIGHTINFANTRYmajorsutey1993.pdf Want to know more? Our book, "Air-Mech-Strike: Asymmetric Maneuver Warfare for the 21st Century" is ONLINE for FREE skyjacked by Google! http://books.google.com/books?id=RCWtHnYZ0LMC&pg