Mr. David L. Stanley

Mr. David L. Stanley was born in Anniston, Alabama on September 2, 1926 and graduated from Birmingham Southern College in 1950.

He played one of the most significant roles in the modernization of the U.S. Army's main battle tanks with the development and supervision of the depot conversion programs for the M48 and M60 tanks.

In 1961, he supervised the conversion of the M48A1 to the M48A3 configuration. Included in this upgrade was the changing of the power assemblies to diesel, and improving the turret drive and fire control systems.

In 1974 through 1979, he focused on upgrading the M48 to the M48A5 configuration. Again in 1980, he was called upon to upgrade the M60 to the M60A3 configuration. This was done for $497 million less than the cost of new production.

In 1967, he pioneered and developed the techniques used to repair ballistic armor. Prior to this, extensively damaged tanks were scrapped. Mr. Stanley continually sought ways to reduce design and production costs through reconfiguration and adaptation of existing equipment. He developed conversion plans for the uses of the M48 chassis for the new Sergeant York Air Defense Gun (DIVAD). Mr. Stanley's ideas resulted in direct savings to the U.S. Army.