Sgt. 1st Class Shawn Coolidge, commanding one of two M-1 "Abrams" tanks on a simulated Iraqi dirt road at the Army base, had ordered soldiers to be alert for anything suspicious in an expanse of cow pastures and rolling hills leading to the mock village of "Karabila."
His convoy halted because of a suspected improvised explosive device on the roadside. Suddenly, across an adjacent field, a herd of cattle broke into a run, suggesting that a sniper could be hidden among some trees.
Then a red pickup, loaded with assorted boxes and hay bales, emerged from a field and began to drive away. Cpl. Christopher Ashworth, commander of a tank near the truck, radioed that he was in pursuit but believed the vehicle was not part of the exercise.
Cpl. Ashworth's tank pulled alongside and found an astonished but smiling Central Texas rancher, who said he had been checking on his cattle when he found himself in the middle of military maneuvers.
His young daughter was sitting next to him.
What the article doesn't say is what happened to these guys and WHY they were on private land, with guns (albeit loaded with blanks).
