Talk:Shawn Nelson (plumber)/Archive 1

How can he be in a film
How can he be in a film which is made in 2002 if he's dead already in 1995? --14:50, 28 July 2006 gragox
 * It's a documentary, as it says right there on the imdb page. Most likely he appears in archive footage, as one of the reviews on the imdb page mentions news broadcasts. Did you even look at the page? --Quietpeoplerock August 6, 2006, 15:12 EST

Nelson's wife told him she had an abortion
I was watching an MSNBC special the other night and they had something about this incident. I could have sworn I heard one of his friends state that Nelson's wife told him she had an abortion and that this sent him over the edge. Can anyone verify this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.160.108.190 (talk) 13:06, 10 December 2007 (UTC)
 * I can't find anything about this on the net. Inclusionist (talk) 04:53, 14 October 2008 (UTC)

The Simpsons
Bart went on a tank rampage on The Simpsons, an obvious reference to Nelson. Is this relevant to the article? --68.149.181.145 01:21, 19 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Yes! I recall Bart was on drugs as well. Muad (talk) 14:41, 6 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Perhaps even closer is Bill Dauterive. A divorced Army barber who steals a tank, after being wrongly told he was part of an Army experiment, and drunkenly drives the tank through his town.--T. Anthony (talk) 14:11, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

None of you really know, all of this is hearsay. Shawn was with my mother through all of this. I grew up with him as a father figure. He was engaged to my mom for years. And we miss him. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.128.189.251 (talk) 13:15, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

The tank
What happened to this particular tank after the pursuit? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.250.2.98 (talk) 19:04, 27 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Since it's a very expensive piece of machinery belonging to the government, one would suspect that it was either repaired and put back in service, or if not repairable, scrapped. I doubt it would be made into a monument to a doofus... --StarChaser Tyger (talk) 03:57, 2 January 2009 (UTC)


 * I did not know the army still used these kinds of tanks. I thought that we used the M1-A1.  65.167.146.130 (talk) 14:47, 10 February 2009 (UTC)


 * He didn't steal it from the Army, he stole it from the National Guard, who tends to have older equipment. --StarChaser Tyger (talk) 10:46, 2 April 2009 (UTC)

I worked at the Kearney Mesa National Guard Armory at the time of this incident. The tank was an M60A3 Main Battle Tank, not a Patton Tank (M47 version). The M60A3's MBT's were very effective and were used in Desert Storm by the USMC for one. However they were and have been replaced by the M1, M1A1 and the M1A2 (Abrams), a much better designed and technological advanced weapon system. The Kearney Mesa Armory was undergoing construction at the time, the indoor firing range, unused for years because of asbestos, was abated and renovated, requiring contractors. Somehow, Shawn Nelson got into the facility by passing as one of the contractors conducting work there, using his plumbing truck. He didn't use a crowbar to access tanks, he was a tanker in the U.S. Army years before and knew how to "break into" this type of tank known only to experienced tankers. The rest is pretty much history. This particular tank was towed back to the Armory, the gore from Shawn Nelson's death was cleaned out by Army medical personnel, and then it was shipped to Ft. Irwin, CA., a staging place for this Unit's armored vehicles. Ironically, this tank and 11 others like it at the Kearney Mesa Armory were being replaced by the M1A1 Abrams MBT within a period of 2 weeks, and were all scheduled to be transported to Ft. Irwin, CA. within that time period. The M60A3's were drained of fuels and oils and dumped into the ocean for reefs, or may have been sold to third world countries. Another rumor going around was ammunition. The main gun ammo was never kept in Kearney Mesa... where can you fire tank rounds in San Diego? You have to draw it from a base like Ft. Irwin (with tank firing ranges) and use it there or ship it to, say, Camp Pendleton, with tank firing ranges. This tank did employ two different caliber machine guns, however, same precidament, nowhere locally to fire or draw ammo. Machine guns could be drawn from Ft. Irwin for local training on say, unloading, disassemblilng, assembling, perform a functions check, and load (dummy ammunition for training). Part of the tank crews training when not going to Ft. Irwin. 34gpinkham (talk) 08:42, 29 April 2009 (UTC)

Army service?
The lead sentence says Nelson was an Army veteran. Any details of his service? KuyaBriBri Talk 13:26, 27 October 2009 (UTC) =Yeah, was he a tank driver? It was my understanding he was.

Legacy
Wouldn't it be appropriate to add a reference to Nelson being the subject of the 1999 song "Tankman Blues" by Mojo Nixon and the Toadliquors? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.38.80.230 (talk) 07:24, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

Tabloid Tone
This article has a tabloid tone. It appeals to low, voyeuristic sensationalist values. I removed the words "strange behavior" because they connote bizarre or twisted behavior. The actual activity referred to as "strange", that of digging in his own front yard, is in my opinion merely eccentric, unusual or uncommon. Digging a hole must be described as an activity and not behavior. In fact "behavior" should be omitted entirely since there is no indication that Mr. Nelson's actual behavior was altered. Were his mannerisms altered and if yes, how so?

If the author of the article has no proof that Mr. Nelson's mannerisms had become strange then all references to this element in the article should be omitted. There is a heartless tone to the article, and indifference to the fact that, due to his relative youth and the recent date of the event, Mr. Nelson had left friends and family. There is no indication that the authors have considered the possibility that Mr. Nelson was traumatized, was grieving or was suffering from stress. Please revise. —Preceding unsigned comment added by VaniNY (talk • contribs) 15:16, 1 June 2010 (UTC)