Armed Forces: This Is the Army

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The sirens screech in the dead of the West German night. In dozens of barracks and off-base housing units, thousands of U.S. men and officers snap awake and dive for field uniforms and equipment. One by one, the diesel engines of the squat, 52-ton M-60 tanks cough and rumble to life. In quick order, the assembled units roar down serpentine German roads toward fighting positions that have long since been plotted for protective cover and fields of fire. Within two hours of the first cry of the sirens, the 14,617-man 3rd...

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