 Tank is standing for target, rolling up and it'll fire just after it gets up on top. It's probably the baddest thing in the battlefield. This vehicle is nothing but a 70 ton jersey barrier without a crew. The soldiers are what makes that weapon system lethal. The third ID picked their top two tank crews and set them off to train for six weeks. Traverse right with the camera. We met them in the final week of their preparation. You get to play on the Big Boy platform. Guys, this is the Super Bowl tank. The Sullivan Cup is a best tank crew competition. This was the competition before competition. They were all going to get something out of this experience, but only one crew would get to represent the third ID. We flew to Jacksonville. We picked up our rental car and we took off for Georgia. We'd be meeting two tank crews at Fort Stewart. While we were driving we passed the time researching tank facts. According to this, there's a maintenance challenge or a maintenance heat, so they have to do, they've replaced an eight block section of tank track. Tank history, tank movies. Now in Fury, they had their war name. Remember? Oh yeah! We're going to have fun with it. We were all pretty stoked for this story. Now there are telltale signs that you're in Georgia. There's tons of Spanish moss. There's historic cemeteries. There's that good old feeling of Southern charm. There's the alligators. But it was the tank crossing signs that let us know we were in the right place. I've always had an affection for tanks, but it started when I was a young NCO in Korea. This was actually three-quarter inch that we were shooting on. You know, the camera with the umbilical cord, look at that. Young Army Sergeant Lance Milstead driving an M-60 tank. I'm a tanker. Does that qualify me as a tanker? If not, I thought at least he would give me some street cred with the tankers we were about to meet. Time to meet some tankers. Both crews were from Charlie Company 164 Armor. Team Canonarchy was made up of Smith, Chappies, Bates, and McLean. And Team Count Tracula was made up of Fauntleroi, Felton, Corona, and Martin. Sergeant First Class Todd Poison was responsible for training them and deciding who gets to go to the cup. What's your role with the team from 3rd ID this year? As the Division Abrams Master Gunner, I was given the rare and unique opportunity to create a six-week train-up. Everything tank-related. We spent a lot of time in the motor pool. I'm doing ammunition upload and vehicle ID and land navigation. I created a mounted land nav course for them. They did about 250 kilometers in one day. I did a couple of refuels on the move. For those who don't know what the Sullivan Cup is, I know it's the third time they've done it, but could you give us a description of what the competition entails and what it's about? The Sullivan Cup is a best-tank crew competition. It's a crew-level event. So tank crews are four people. Driver, loader, gunner, and tank commander. And it's open to our allies. But every active division sends their best tank crew that has tanks. And the National Guard and Marine Corps get to send their guys, and it's to see who the best of the best is. The first thing that really struck me, I was like, Man, they're like kids. They're so young. We quickly got past the fact that they're so young because they're so passionate and they're so professional and competent. And they really are engaged in what they're doing and being excellent at it. I'm getting a chance to represent an entire division. Yeah, you're one of two teams to consider the best. Eight people, and I'm one of them. I'm really grateful for the opportunity. It's really humbling. Today's tanks are so high-tech that it's actually hard to miss. So as part of the train-up, the crews have to face degraded modes of operation. Hey, traverse right with the camera. And it's really hard. Sergeant First Class Roy Smith and his crew were about to find out just how hard it is. That's where a lot of gunners have difficulty when you have stabilization failure. When you can only use your gas, your gunner's auxiliary sight instead of the primary sight. Whether your LRF is damaged and you have to battle sight ranges, manually input ranges, and you have to figure out what those ranges are. You can see that round impact out there. These are all skills that back in World War II, that was the norm. I created an entire table six of nothing but degraded engagements and I took almost everything away from them. So I need you to move to the bullpen where you will receive an AAR. You guys are a crew. You guys are four parts of that killing machine. It's tough, wasn't it? With a full-up firing system, Sergeant Smith's crew would have aced that run. But with degraded mode, it's another story. One, as you guys know, we don't get to train degraded mode nearly enough, at least in my opinion. And two, this is also to get you guys ready for when you go out to bedding that whatever they throw at you out there won't be anywhere near as difficult as what we had here. That was a very good technique. And I could see you around, you did that whip. That's important. Just saturate the target. Put lead on that target. They only qualified two out of six engagements. What does it take to get you guys ready? We need to be physical fit. A regular PT test has nothing on this tank or PT test. I score 300s, and I do not max out this tank or PT test. Part of the Sullivan Cup is to have these physical tests of strength and agility that relate to the tank. Place it neatly on a thing, and just throw it. The test is based on the 1974 Armored Crewman Proficiency Test. Talk about a smoke session. It took actual things that you do as a tanker and you have a time limit to achieve each of these five tasks in and it's very challenging. It's physically grueling. You can score 300 on an Armored PT test and not necessarily be a good loader because you don't challenge muscle groups that you would normally use as a loader doing the APFT. I hope it's here to stay. I really do because I think it is an amazing, amazing test, physical test. Poison lined up the full arsenal of tools to prepare the team. Even some high-tech video games. It's actually called the Close Combat Tactical Trainer. Some of the good things about it is, unlike another simulator that we use, this one, the whole crew can get in. You have a driver. Actually, you see the driver in there right now. Take a look in there. Excuse me. This is exactly how it's going to look when you're inside the tank. If you really wanted to drive a tank, this was as close as I'd get. So this, you'd actually look in with your eyeball. Right. Still pretty cool. So where is the trigger? That'll be this one right here. Oh, the top one. Yep. Got it. You know, to your right here, this is... This is quite the video game. My time as a tank gunner was up. Preparing to defend. The team had their own mission. Carry heat, report retcon 1. Heat, battle carried and retcon 1. Up! Ultimately, these crews and everything we do is in the name of lethality. It's how fast we put steel on target. This was the crew's final bit of practice before their last day on the range. Yeah, you know, I remember Sergeant Smith talking and he said this vehicle is nothing but a 70-10 jersey barrier without a crew. Tank is a tank. You put the crew in there and then you have a weapon system. And the soldiers are what makes that weapon system lethal. All right, now, without stripping the scales on a gas-board sighting knob... But it goes back to see an excellence. I mean, these guys are going to take all this training away and they're going to take what they have picked up here, you know, through the training and mentorship. And they're going to take that and they're going to give it back. We'll be down the range in a second. Team Count Dracula's on deck for their last degraded run. It's their last chance to impress. It's kind of a... it's a lost art. It's definitely a lost art. You need to practice a lot. And a lot of tank crews don't get the opportunity to practice to really get proficient at it like they should be. So, you know, something, Justin, I sense a lot of passion when you talk about this. Just giving the opportunity to even get a shot to prove it is such a big deal to me. Tank is standing for target. It's rolling up and it'll fire just after it gets up on top. You may get picked to go, you may not. You may go, you may win, you may not. You're still going to take something away from this experience, I bet. Just getting ready, preparing for the shot. To get a shot to go to the Southern Cup. I have learned probably more in these last few weeks than any other training exercise I've done combined. So, we'd only been down here for three days, but they've been doing this for six weeks and they still didn't know who's going to go to the Cup. I'll tell you, they gave it their best shot. It's a win-win-win situation. They're probably going to go back to the course with a whole lot of knowledge. I'm going to go to the Southern Cup with a lot of knowledge and opportunity to perform at the Southern Cup. I'm going to go to the Southern Cup with a lot of knowledge and I'll win the Southern Cup. This is one of the best opportunities I've had in my career. And that's what the Southern Cup is about.