--- title: "Behold, West Point’s t-shirt cannon tank" description: "For the 2024 Army-Navy game, West Point cadets man a cotton-lobbing t-shirt tank that was once a golf cart." date: "2024-12-14" modified: "2024-12-14" authors: - name: "Patty Nieberg" job_title: "Senior Reporter" link: "https://taskandpurpose.com/authors/patty-nieberg/" url: "https://taskandpurpose.com/culture/army-navy-game-t-shirt-tank/" categories: - "Culture" --- # Behold, West Point’s t-shirt cannon tank ![Army Navy Game t-shirt tank 2024]() *Technically not a tank. Task & Purpose photo by Patty Nieberg.* At this year’s Army-Navy football game at Northwest Stadium in Maryland on Saturday, a crew of West Point cadets will man a tank on the field. But it’s not just any tank. This one isn’t in the vanguard of a major land invasion or providing mobile fire support for advancing infantry. Instead, with the help of a scuba air tank, it launches t-shirts into roaring crowds at the service academy’s annual football game. But there’s a catch: The tank only fires when the Army football team, the Black Knights, score a touchdown. After being shipped roughly 300 miles by trailer from the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York to Landover, Maryland, Army-Navy audiences may get a chance to catch a t-shirt soaring into the bleachers. After the touchdown, cadets and Army leaders will come onto the field and do push-ups based on the total number of game points, said Raquel Zitta, a fourth-year cadet. During that pause, the tank crew will get into position and begin lobbing its cotton-grade ordnance. Marshall Krebs, a third-year West Point cadet said the tank, which is actually a golf cart built with a 900-or-so-pound exterior, was designed by a West Point senior for an engineering class a little more than a decade ago. And when the tank needs upgrades, the team calls in the academy mechanical engineers. The t-shirt tank crew is made up of 12 cadets who fulfill their dreams of being a tanker at all academy football games. As part of their duties, the cadets shoot t-shirts into the crowds, show off the tank that’s not technically a tank – yes, we know, spare us your angry emails about what is and isn't a tank. The cadets also find themselves giving the occasional safety brief. “The kids always love to try to get a t-shirt, but the parents are the ones that come down and are like ‘shoot me in the stomach!’” Krebs laughed. “I’m not trying to lose my job.” ## The latest on Task & Purpose - **A push to** [**cut veterans disability**]() **benefits is gaining traction, experts warn** - **A judge ordered the VA to build thousands of new veterans housing units in Los Angeles. An appeals court** [**halted it**]() - **Sailors on USS Carney recall tense** [**night of combat**]() **in fierce Red Sea fight** - **To build a runway for the** [**new stealth bomber**]()**, the Air Force is moving 17 B-1s to a new base** - **VFW bashes The Economist for taking ‘**[**turkey-sized dump**]()**’ on disabled vets** ## Author Patty is a senior reporter for Task & Purpose. She's reported on the military for six years, embedding with the National Guard during a hurricane and covering Guantanamo Bay legal proceedings for an alleged al Qaeda commander. Her previous bylines can be found at the *Associated Press*, *Bloomberg Government*, *Washington Post*, *The New York Times*, and *ABC*. You can reach Patty by email at [Patty.Nieberg@taskandpurpose.com](). ### Author social links [Twitter]() [LinkedIn]()