We at Task & Purpose care deeply about issues affecting active-duty military and veterans. We also love a good tank name. “ASVAB Waiver,” “Divine Intervention” and “Bye Felicia” are just a few that light up our day. And now we can add “Executioners Finest” to the list.
The M1A2 Abrams Main Battle Tank is assigned to the 1st Cavalry Regiment, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division. It was recently photographed taking part in 1st Armored Division’s Iron Heroes Competition at the Dona Ana Range complex in New Mexico last month. The Army photo by Sgt. Jerron Bruce managed to capture the tank’s barrel, with a clear view of the stenciled tank name. The military recently posted some images of it and other tanks to the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, or DVIDS, its public media platform.
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The Iron Heroes Competition pits different teams from the division against each other to see who the best is, in categories such as Best Tank, Best Maintenance Team and — perhaps a sign of how rapidly uncrewed systems are becoming an important part of the Army — Best Drone Pilot. For the tanks competing, it involved maneuvers and live fire qualifications, both during the day and night. One video released by the 1st Armored Division had a tank moving through pitch black desert, the only light coming from the flash of its main weapon. The competition wrapped last month, with a team from 6th Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team winning Best Tank. It’s not immediately clear which tank they were operating. Task & Purpose reached out to 1st Armored Division to see how the crew of “Executioners Finest” did but hasn’t heard back.
Typically tanks are named using a specific formula — they often start with matching the first letter to the specific company. So another classic tank name, “Come and Take It,” was likely from C company, for instance. According to several tankers Task & Purpose has spoken with in the past, crews also need to be qualified before they can start officially naming their armor.
These tank names also often need to get approval from higher up the chain of command before any paint can be applied to the tank’s barrel. The Army has become stricter of the years with what it allows, so vulgarity tends to not make the cut. Instead, tankers often go towards the sardonic or pithy names — “ASVAB waiver” is a prime example — or towards the more boastful and militant. It’s not clear how the tank got the name “Executioners Finest,” but it definitely is in the latter category.
