What if the Tank Rampage of San Diego was worse than it was?

The Tank Attack of San Diego is an unusual rampage that took place in 1995. Not much damage was done partially due to the fact that the cannon on the tank had no ammo in it. But what if it went differently? Here's how it would be!

The Tank Massacre of San Diego is a mass murder rampage that took place in 1995. It is the worst mass murder done by a single person in American history. A man named Shawn Nelson stole a M60A3 army tank that was fully loaded and used it to destroy Downtown San Diego. 789 people died in the attack.



Prior to the rampage

This is real information from Wikipedia. Nelson was hospitalized in 1990 for neck and back injuries from a motorcycle accident. He sued the hospital for $1.6 million citing negligence, assault, battery and false imprisonment. A superior court judge dismissed the case, and the hospital counter-sued for $6,640 in medical fees and legal expenses. Nelson claimed that he was forced to be treated without his consent. His wife of six years filed for divorce against him in 1991, and both of his parents died of cancer in 1992.

Scott Nelson, Shawn's brother, said that Shawn became addicted to methamphetamine in the few years prior to the incident. His neighbors complained to authorities of Shawn yelling at his roommate at night. Nelson then began to exhibit unusual behavior. On one occasion, he dug a hole 15 feet (4.6 m) deep in his backyard in an attempt to mine for gold.

In February 1995, he filed a notice informing the county of his plans to mine bedrock in his backyard, even though he was not required to because his backyard was private property. Nelson's fishing friend, Carson Honings, referred to the mine shaft as Shawn's "new hobby". In April, he filed two damage claims against the city totaling $2,000,000. One of them was for police negligence, and another for false arrest. Nelson's neck and back problems, combined with the theft of plumbing equipment from his truck, effectively halted his business. With no income, his utilities were cut off and his house was in foreclosure. In April 1995, his live-in girlfriend died of a drug overdose. His brother, Scott, said of him, "My brother was a good man. He'd help anybody. He just couldn't help himself."

Beginning of the Tank Rampage

This is where the different version happens. According to San Diego police, the week before his tank rampage Nelson told a friend that he was thinking of committing suicide, and the following weekend, told a friend that "Oklahoma was good stuff," in apparent reference to the Oklahoma City bombing which happened about a month before. Whether Nelson condoned the attack or simply meant that he enjoyed the drama is not clear. Police did not believe Nelson had any connection with the bombing or with a terrorist group.

At dusk on Thursday, May 18, 1995, Nelson drove his Chevrolet van to the California Army National Guard Armory in the Kearny Mesa neighborhood of San Diego. Although the gate to the vehicle yard was usually locked after 5:00 p.m., employees at the armory were working late, and left the gate open. The vehicle yard was completely deserted. Nelson likely used a crowbar to break open the tank hatches. The tanks started with a push button and did not require an ignition key. The first two tanks he broke into would not start. As he lowered himself into the third tank, a 57-ton M60A3, he was finally noticed by a Guardsman, who approached the tank. The tank started and flattened the Guardsman, killing him. Then, Shawn stole ammunition for the cannon and loaded it into the tank. Then, he set out to destroy San Diego.

The Tank arrives in San Diego

At 9:15 AM, Shawn finally arrived in the suburbs of San Diego and ran amok. He used every piece of weaponry on the tank. Shawn fired at everything in his path. He demolished houses, causing people to run for their lives. He blew up oncoming cars, and fired at businesses and houses in the area, causing them to explode and starting multiple fires. Police finally arrived on the scene at 9:23 AM, but they were no match against the 50-ton tank. Shawn crushed several police cars, and ran over several officers. Shawn finally made it onto the highway and fired at the support beams of the highway, causing the highway to collapse and send people in their cars falling to their deaths. At least 64 people died in the suburbs alone. At exactly 9:45 AM, the tank finally arrived at the downtown area of San Diego. Shawn smashed through traffic using his tank, and fired at many buildings in the city, causing enormous destruction. The SWAT team finally arrived and even they couldn't stop him. Shawn blew up much of the SWAT team. The entire downtown area was completely destroyed. It was only until Shawn's tank finally ran out of ammo and the tank ran out of fuel that Shawn's rampage was finally stopped. Shawn was then given the death penalty.

Aftermath

The rampage resulted in 789 deaths, and 14,000 injuries, and $120,000,000,000 in total destruction. It was the worst mass murder by a single person in history. The city of San Diego was finally rebuilt completely in 2003. On the 10th anniversery of the attack, a memorial for the victims of the attack was built.

Do you think that day could've been a lot worse than it was?
 
Er, what? How does one man manage to stock a tank's full load of munitions without anyone noticing? I don't think this is a five-minute feat, especially not for a single man to manage.
 
But you do know the tank rampage really did happen right? Not as potrayed in this thread, but in real life.
 
Wow, he managed to load 63 rounds of 105mm ammo into the tank all by himself...

And was able to clamber between the drivers and the gunners position, even though that requires that the turret be rotated to the rear...
 
Plus, the Air National Guard would've shoved a missile up his ass if he did manage to somehow load the shells.
 
so I am confused about several things.

1: while I will admit my knowledge on this is limited, why would they store live ammunition inside of the tank?
or someplace that he can apparently easily break into?

2: Does Nelson know how to operate the main gun, and if so can he do so if he's the only person in the tank?
because if he has to move around in the tank to go back and forth from the main gun and driving area, would that not give the window of opportunity for the police?

3: During his actual rampage, the live coverage claimed the Police had considered calling National Guard support in the form of a Cobra Attack Helicopter.

in this scenario with Nelson driving around and actually killing people, and assuming that they did actually consider calling in a Cobra chopper, why wouldn't they do so?
 
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Plus, the Air National Guard would've shoved a missile up his ass if he did manage to somehow load the shells.

That nearly happened OTL, as it was the next action in case that one deputy with armor experience failed in his attempt to board the tank, force a hatch open & neutralize the driver, the authorities were going to call in a Marine or National Guard attack helicopter with a load of ATGMs & stop it that way.
 
Aftermath

The rampage resulted in 789 deaths, and 14,000 injuries, and $120,000,000,000 in total destruction. It was the worst mass murder by a single person in history. The city of San Diego was finally rebuilt completely in 2003. On the 10th anniversery of the attack, a memorial for the victims of the attack was built.

Do you think that day could've been a lot worse than it was?

I'm sorry, but I don't see that kind of possible death toll or injuries. A single tank is not going to be able to cause that much destruction on it's own in that short period of time. Also, as has been pointed out, the military would have intervened much sooner.

Torqumada
 
789 deaths seems excessive. And $120 billion definately is. That's three times the damage of the Northridge Earthquake. I'm not sure you could do $120 billion worth of damage to San Diego.

Even if he were able to load the munitions and operate all the weapons while driving, your outcome is ASB.
 
Not to mention taking all the shells and other ammunition from the armory which (unlike the tank park) was manned.
 
Couldn't extremely bad weather ITTL have kept attack helicopters grounded? Of course, that means the tank would be destroyed by fighter-bombers instead.
About the ammunition, maybe ITTL the tank was already loaded?
 
Couldn't extremely bad weather ITTL have kept attack helicopters grounded? Of course, that means the tank would be destroyed by fighter-bombers instead.
About the ammunition, maybe ITTL the tank was already loaded?

You could, conceivably, get significantly greater than OTL damage, but between the escalated response, the impracticality of operating much more than a hull mg with a single person and the vulnerability he would have had while immobile (as he would have had to be to load and fire) its not going to be anything like you proposed. I'd think that the biggest real threat would be the machine guns, and that the military would be brought in as soon as he opened up with anything. There's certainly not going to be the willingness to approach him.
 
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No hull MG on an M60A3. There is a narrow crawl space between the drivers compartment and the turret. You have to rotate the turret so it's facing the rear to be able to get in.

I think the OP thinks it's like a CoD tank where one person can run the whole thing.
 
You need about 3 people to sucessfully fire a tank cannon. Even if he knew how to do it by himself, it's going to take a few minutes by himself per shot. He won't be able to move in that time either so it will be a sitting duck. 120 billion is A LOT of damage to do in five minutes. Unless his tank is firing nuclear warheads, he's never going to come close to such an ammount.
 
Not to mention taking all the shells and other ammunition from the armory which (unlike the tank park) was manned.

If you take out every ship and sub in SD along with everything else?

Probably more than 120 Billion.

Yeah, that'd work. :) I'd like to see the results of that CM.

"Colonel Ripley, you used a nuclear weapon to stop a lunatic in an old M60. What were you thinking?"

"It was the only way to be sure."
 
Not possible

I drove Abrams in the service and never saw the inside of a Patton, but you need at the very least 2 people on-board.

And that's the easiest thing to rectify.

I loaded those shells, they are really really heavy. You'd need at least two people carry it from the storage, to the tank, and load in the rack before even moving.

The moment the guy pops any hatch, including the one under the hull, and tries to make for the other; anyone can pop him, let alone the police, SWAT, or the NG.

Other issues aside there only two ways to even approach the damage you're talking about.

Either he convinces someone(s) to help him out or he loads what ammo he can, get some explosives and turns it into a heavily armored moving bomb.
 
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