in the 1990s i awoke from a trip in time and space! i had been inside a tank during the war called yom kippur war when the arab neighbors of israel acted "very" neighborly and sent their tanks along the border. egypt blocked shipping and syria sent its tanks invading into northern israel. we were in a russian t69b tank crossing into northern israel. the year was 1973!
i was the tank commander! but i did not know arabic! the controls around me had russian letters but i did not know russian. i waved my hand... so the tank driver turned obeying my orders we separated from the rest of the group. that gave me an idea since we rode on tracks i motioned my hand like a circle... the driver turned wider and we went around a hill!
i looked out the front and saw no enemy army vehicles. the cannon guy shouted something to me in arabic pointing, but i did not understand arabic. so i followed the direction it was clearly a village with homes. i held up a hand. like stop. he started arguing with the driver and the driver was angry... i thought they were gonna stab me for not shooting at the jew village...
...but luckily the driver convinced him to save ammunition. on the radio i heard numbers. number in arabic sounds similar to hebrew we were losing many tanks as they rode under israel artillery between the mountains called golan! we were saved by going separately. we rounded the hill to attack the israel artillery from behind... but i heard a knock on the metal top of the tank.
i understood some foot soldier was there with explosives to put on the weak armor in the back or drop in a grenade. i jumped to the driver and held my hand stop! he stopped i pulled off my army uniform and white under shirt and stuck it out the gun slit! then i heard "niknattem" i knew what that meant so i said niknannu.
i opened the round door of the turret which was not even locked yikes! he coulda opened and dropped a grenade! i poked my white undershirt up and climbed up facing... the tube of the uzi rapid fire submachine gun. i climbed out and down. my gunner was stupid and was climbing up with his pistol in one hand. the israeli saw that and sprayed him with the uzi. poppoppop.
he then closed the round door pulled a grenade, pulled its pin, opened the round cover a bit dropped it in and closed. my tank crew was doomed and the expensive computer equipment would be destroyed but at least i was alive. the grenade exploded and the ammunition inside blew up too. the tank barely held together as its joint swelled and the sides popped off and flew 7 feet away.
the turret caved in under the israeli and the noise woke me up. i awoke in high school dorm somewhere in u.s. and realized that i needed to learn russian and arabic. so i started learning russian letters and sounds but i never returned to the tank... year after year passed... until this week. a couple weeks ago in december someone told me that russia is sending old tanks from the 1950s into ukraine.
i knew this was impossible because the russians had built thousands of tanks during the 1980s and had, according to the war website, the MOST tanks in the world more than ten thousand! despite they stopped producing in 1991 when not an enemy to nato' but they still had many from the 1980s. i argued but they guy showed me pictures.
turns out, russia had around 3000 operational tanks in february '22 thinking plenty to take kiev and ukraine but were surprised to lose dozens on the first day. ukraine had not surrendered yet but claimed 200 destroyed in the first week of battle which i refused to believe but perhaps some days 30 and others ten?
i read that in june '23 ukraine claimed to have destroyed 4000 tanks in a year and a half. i felt it was outrageous exageration except... the article quoted a brit admiral... we all know they have brit precision spy satelites and know the precise number better than those on the battlefield! brit said that number is not far from the real number. i knew he knew as above!
he said "we do not know exactly" which he did as above but he estimated "not far" 4000 from a reasonable estimate. a couple months after that ukraine celebrated destroying 5000 tanks. if true russians had lost 5/12 of their tanks, still plenty left but lost plenty nearly half! that means they lost 2000 modern tanks and indeed had sent thousands of the old ones.
in january '24 ukraine claimed to destroy 6000 tanks that means russia lost half if its total 12000 which seems impossible but considering they are old and the brit said 4000 was not far from a reasonable estimate, meaning what he saw on precision satelites... then now a haf year later they probably did destroy 2000 more old tanks easy to destroy.
all that reading caused me to dream... this morning i woke from a trip to a russian tank. i was working as a computer programmer typing english programming words when three soldiers in green uniform drafted me into the tank armor unit. i argued that i would be more helpful fighting cyber but they laughed.
"how dare you argue. we will send you to prison . we do not need you on a computer. we need tank crews!" so i followed them to a truck. squeezed in with other non sport geeky nerds and rode the cramped crowded truck to the east border of ukraine. i recalled my dream about the t69b tank in 1973 and hoped i would be put in a t80 tank.
i knew the statistics i would be in a 1950 t64 even older than the one in the yom kippur war. to my surprise since we were nerds we got the newer t90d a limited edition for show, with fancy computers stuff. i was the only one without glasses. my crew were two very nerdy looking engineers probably far smarter than me who were wiping the steam off their glasses in the stuffy unventilated t90.
i looked at the controls and THIS time i knew the russian letters but... they were abbreviations what the bleep was a frs? we joined a slow moving column on a road over the border, already held by us but the slow annoyed me. i yelled "chitiriski" hoping it meant forty. the driver gave me the look i belonged in an asylum so i waved my arm like when i was commander in the syra war.
he swerved the tank off the road and we rode our tracks fast passing over 100 old tanks. soon we were far ahead of the column moving between trees out of sight ukrainian drones. i was angry that i was drafted and sent into danger. i wondered if they were also unwilling to fight for piutin? but i was scared to say it because one or both might be loyal...
nah they were too nerdy but i could not risk. so i said "i like programming better" and the younger guy said in english shut up. that was pretty loyal or was he pretending because he was scared of me? soon we coud hear the booms from the battle field! i had to test if they were not loyal like me we can surrender and hide in ukraine!
i ordered in my best russian in fanciest words "save ammunition we have very few in storage for resupply." they barked yes sir in english... maybe i was just dreaming? one said in english "respectfully sir if we get hit our own bomb will explode in here." so i agreed we must not risk that. use all but two to practice aiming.
the gunner went to work aiming at trees ahead of us and fired 13 of the 15 anti tank shells. only two were left so we could use it but most were used for a good cause target practice. then something exploded near us. the tank wall was *peirced! the armor, even of the t90 was weak even by a near miss! the driver stopped and switched off the radio and power.
the gunner jumped at me with a raised steak knife. i lifted both hands to block his arm hand with the knife and yelled "i was drafted against my will" but i said it in hebrew by mistake. the guy stopped pushing the knife and said, "shto? what?". i was so scared i could only speak in hebrew but luckily he realized i was not really russian. so he lowered the knife.
he said in english "our tank is damaged we better just surrender" i agreed "dah" they laughed and mocked my dah saying dah! we all pulled off our uniforms and climbed out of the tank we crawled to the ukrainian line and told them that a damaged t90 tank is there. we will give it if you give us new clothing and food.
a guy sprayed rapid fire at us and said shpino! spies. according to novel james bond. luckily he only killed my crew they knew i was american and told me to lead them to the tank for capture. i crawled back the way i came. they turned the tank around and drove to surprise the russian invaders from the flank. too bad only two anti tank shells left.
i was given new clothes and ate three boiled hot dog thin sausages. i said i was a computer programmer so they sent me to a city in the west ukraine to work for a software company i made games for kids and my eyes got tired from the bright screen so i rubbed my eyes and awoke in my home here in new york.
being american had saved my life. the end.
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