Gary Bell Photo Album:

 

2/14 ACR Receives M551s, Summer 1970
 

We received the following letter.
 

"I was informed by an old friend of my brother that you were looking for Army pictures of Bad Kissingen. My brother, Gary Bell, was at that Army base in 1969 and 1970 and sent a number of snapshots home. I helped my mother put the album together and remember that I thought the town name was "Big Kissinger " and how funny that sounded. I was only 10 at the time. Here is the album."

 

"Gary never talked much about the Army although I think he liked it. He only had that one enlistment. Gary was killed in truck accident in December 1999 when the tractor - trailer rig he was driving collided with a jack knifed unit in Nebraska on an iced up bridge. He was only 49 at the time. I am sure he would have wanted to share his pictures and I hope if any of his old buddies recall him, the memories are happy ones. Gary always had a smile for everyone."

 

Barry Bell

West Covina, California

 

The only original captions with the photos were dates, however, it is easy to see that the photos trace the Summer and Fall of 1970, starting with Gary Bell as a tanker in one of the 2/14 ACR scout troops with M60s, then going to Graf-Vilseck to receive the new M551s. The album then appears to show a few images of the return to BK, a Fall maneuver and time at Camp Harris in Coburg. We have included here, only the tank related images and have added brief captions to clarify what we believe is shown in the images.