Fulda Gap 1968 and Khe Sanh 1968

[Blackcloud6]

Fulda Gap 1968 and Khe Sanh 1968 are two new games coming to PG Modern.

I caves in a month or two ago and preordered both as both have their appeal to me.

Fulda Gap was among a group of 4 pre-orders I made last month. I was trained on the old M-114 recon track and would love to see it in the game. I know the armored cav units in Germany were among the last units to let go of them, so it would fit. Probably wouldn't last long in game, but would give me a feeling for their use in combat. I got to Fort Hood, TX just as they were all being towed out to the impact area as targets in the fall of '74, after that having been the primary vehicle I was trained on at Fort Knox.

I'm building the Tamiya M551 Sheridan and am awaiting getting the new Takom kit of the M114.  I've been reading some interesting things about both vehicles, neither had a great reputation in the Army, although the Sheridan was ion service for a long time.  I knew that GEN Don Starry did not like the M551 and I just read recently that he was the one who ordered the M114s be taken out of service.  I respect and admire GEN Starry as he was one of the fathers of Airland Battle doctrine and was influential in the rebuilding of the Army post-Vietnam that led to the great Army of the late 1980s which proved itself well in Desert Storm.  Starry commanded the 11th ACR is vehicle and was quite effective with it, he used it aggressively an in tactical offenses.   This points to a conundrum that persist in the US Army of Cavalry vs. reconnaissance units.  Yes, the Armored Cavalry gets recon missions in its doctrine but also acts as a combat formation, other armies like the UK, use pure recon units that specialize in that task.   As result of US Cavalry doctrine, the US has had problems developing an adequate recon vehicle.  Almost always, except for the M114 and M551, the US have taken combat platform, such as the m2 Bradley, and made it into a scout/cavalry platform and it ends up neither fish nor fowl.  I wonder how Starry's disdain for the M114 and M551 affect the lack of proper recon vehicle in the US Army?    Note:  i was the Threat Analyst for the US Army's Future Scout & Cavalry System in the late 1990s.  I sat through many of the doctrinal debates within the Army and also with the UK Army as it was a Combined Program with the UK, and their doctrine clashed hard with the US's.  This is one reason why the US dropped out of the program, and the Brits did finally bring it to fruition withe TRACER vehicle... which, finally went into production 20 or so years later and is having problems.