correct ground movement hand signals

[rob love]

We have a very set pattern in the Cdn military. It always perturbs me when a guy suddenly introduces hand signals from whatever civilian trucking company that he worked for before entering the CF.

The other big problem I run into is kind of the opposite of what tankbarrel comments on. When I am moving armour, I very often get guides who overthink the backwards movement and give me the opposite signal to what I need. When backing up next to another piece of armour, it can be embarrassing. When backing onto a semitrailer with only an inch or two to spare on both sides, this can be disastrous. I will either freeze the vehicle and ask the guide if that's what he really wants, or else make a very slight correction in the direction he asks for, to which he will usually realize his mistake and make the proper hand signal.

Even with a guide, sometimes things still go wrong. I was backing a M113A2 off a semi trailer about two weeks ago. The ramps were quite steep, and it was the first time I was using this trailer with the 113. When the carrier got to it's tipping point, I must have had one tiller bar dragging a little tighter than the other and the carrier decided to turn about 20° from straight. I tried to make corrections in that split second and it was not working out, so I braced for what I thought was going to be a nasty ride down to earth. It came down as smooth as butter....I guess with the distance of carrier that hung over before the tip, it was close enough to the ground that all worked out.

On the return trip, once I was at the tipping point, I just let the carrier roll off until I was off the trailer.