Sonara

*Sonora* is the callsign for the for the Mojave Rose Tankery Team's Sherman M4A3E2 'Jumbo'. It is commanded by Haley Pearce, a girl who joined the team during the US National Tankery Tournament. Initially armed with the 75mm M3 Gun, it would later be mounted 76mm M1A1 Gun during the international competition. Being a medium tank, it's role on the team is versatile, being used equally in defensive and offensive roles. Thanks to its up-armored nature, however, the Jumbo can withstand greater punishment unlike some other mediums on the team.

## Former Affiliation

Vehicles that participate in tankery are either manufactured during wartime that soon found their way into tankery teams modified to have protective carbon linings or accurately reproduced by engineering firms for the purpose of being sold to teams.

For Mojave Rose's Jumbo, it was manufactured by the Fisher Tank Arsenal in Michigan in early 1944. It fall of the same year, the Jumbo was attached to the 743rd Tank Battalion of the U.S. Army, of one of five armored battalions that landed on Normandy during the D-Day landings. The 743rd saw serious action at the Siegfried Line and at the Battle of the Bulge, of which it inflicted serious casualties. The most notable action of the 743rd was their liberation of over two thousand concentration camp prisoners from an abandoned train, prisoners that were originally intended to be shipped toward the heart of Germany to be exterminated.

After the war, the Jumbo that would become Mojave Rose's was sent back to the United States where it was placed into storage as newer tanks replaced its role. Sometime in the late 1950s, the Jumbo would be auctioned off where it would be obtained by a school for their tankery team. Over the years, the tank would see a number of owners as it steadily moved west. In 1990, after the near fatal accident of the Independence Day Tankery friendlies in Death Valley that plunged tankery's popularity in the greater area, the then-commander of the Jumbo, along with then-commander of the SU-14, hid both of their machines in an abandoned mine for fear of them being scrapped. Years later, in early 2013, they would be rediscovered and put into service of the Mojave Rose tankery team.

## Under Mojave Rose's Ownership

As the Jumbo was 'stored' in an abandoned mine, the tank was in relatively good shape after all those years underground. It didn't take long for the tank to be declared ready for action and even less to find a crew. It's callsign is painted on the left side of the turret in white paint. It is a depiction of the Sonoran desert, though some people have pointed out that it looks like a generic desert, much to the Jumbo crew's chagrin.

*Sonora* is operated by a crew of four:

* Haley Pearce *( Commander )*
* Danielle *( Driver )*
* Heidi  *( Gunner )*
* Harper *( Loader )*

## Trivia

* Though the Sherman M4A3E2 is widely known as the 'Jumbo', there is no documents from the war that has ever seen the tank referred to as such. It's reasoned that where it actually originated was from a model kit company years after the war.
* The famous photo of concentration camp prisoners being liberated from a train was done by the 743rd Tank Battalion.
* Harper, the tank's loader, is the only known member of the Mojave Rose team that has a disability, with her being deaf.