Army Tanker Reveals What It's Like Inside America's Deadliest Tank!

U.S. Army tanker Carlos Manjarrez served as an M1 Abrams armor crewman from 2012 to 2018. In this episode of the Urban Valor Podcast, Carlos shares the story of growing up in San Bernardino, joining the United States Army with a baby on the way, choosing a combat MOS, becoming an Army tanker, and experiencing the wild personalities, leadership, training, and brotherhood that came with life in an armor unit.Carlos didn’t grow up with some perfectly mapped-out plan to become an M1 Abrams tanker.After graduating high school in 2011, college wasn’t clicking. He had a child on the way, wasn’t sure what came next, and eventually walked into a military recruiting station looking for one thing:A combat job.He considered the Marines first, but the available jobs weren’t what he wanted. Then he walked into the Army recruiter’s office and was given several options—including cavalry scout, mortarman, and 19K M1 armor crewman.Carlos picked tanks.But this conversation goes WAY beyond the Army...Chapters:00:00 Wild Army Tanker Stories01:17 Growing Up in San Bernardino03:01 Growing Up Without His Father07:26 Taking a DNA Test to Find the Truth10:30 Growing Up Around Gangs & Street Culture15:35 The Police Encounter That Became a Wake-Up Call19:35 Why He Wanted to Join the Military22:45 Walking Into an Army Recruiting Office24:06 A Baby on the Way Changes Everything26:25 Choosing 19K Army Tanker26:56 Basic Training Begins31:45 Getting Smoked by the Drill Sergeants36:13 What Army Basic Training Was Really Like39:44 Questioning Whether He Made the Right Decision40:17 His Son Is Born During Training40:40 Getting Orders to Fort Stewart46:16 Life in His First Army Unit47:52 National Training Center at Fort Irwin48:35 How an M1 Abrams Tank Crew Works49:25 Becoming an M1 Abrams Gunner49:45 Earning the Legendary Tanker Boots51:01 Preparing to Fire the M1 Abrams59:02 Getting “Killed” During an NTC Mission1:00:14 Seeing a Soldier’s PTSD Triggered in Training1:02:15 Live Mortar Rounds Land Next to Their Tank1:06:01 Preparing for an Afghanistan Deployment1:06:29 Orders Suddenly Change to Germany1:06:45 Training With U.S. Allies in Germany1:08:17 The Sketchy M1 Abrams River Crossing1:15:28 Pranks Played on New Army Tankers1:16:42 Tank Crew Traditions & Gunnery Pranks1:20:09 What Firing an M1 Abrams Feels Like1:21:15 Why Every Tank Crew Member Matters1:32:06 Leaving the Army & Trying to Become a Cop1:34:31 Losing a Close Army Friend1:35:45 Finding a New Career Through Helmets to Hardhats1:37:28 Becoming a Groundman & Working Toward Lineman1:54:12 His Advice to Young Soldiers1:55:07 Final Thoughts👍 Like this video to support and show appreciation.🗣️ Comment your support or ask any questions. Sometimes, our interviewees respond, and we at Urban Valor will do our best to respond as well!✅ SUBSCRIBE to support Urban Valor and the courageous Veterans who tell their stories AND so you NEVER miss a weekly episode of our veteran stories. New stories every Sunday!Your engagement greatly supports our mission to share authentic and impactful veteran stories.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━DISCLAIMER: The views and experiences shared in this interview are those of the individual and are recounted from personal memory.#UrbanValor #usarmy #podcast