Arnold Schwarzenegger's time in the Austrian Army was anything but ordinary. Reminiscing about his time in the Austrian Army at 18, the bodybuilding legend discussed an uncertain incident involving an army tank.

On January 7, the Instagram account of "In Depth with Graham Bensinger" shared an old clip of Schwarzenegger from his appearance on the Graham Bensinger podcast on October 24, 2022. The seven-time Mr. Olympia recalled his experience while handling a tank.

He said, “I was inside the garage and did my daily routine of warming up the tank. And so I just ran this engine, and somehow I got into the reverse gear. And then started, you know, the tank started shaking, and I said to myself, this is kind of odd, you know, and I'm trying to switch things around. Then all of a sudden I felt dust coming down from the top.”

He continued, “All of a sudden I felt dust coming down from the top, and then all of a sudden I felt water, then smelled gas. So I literally ran with my tank through the building, through the wall, and broke the gas pipes and the water pipes…

So I stopped and realized I was in deep trouble. Got out of my tank, looked around, and said, Oh s***, this is trouble.”

After the accident, one of his officers, whom the Austrian Oak called to assess the situation, was stunned.

So, Schwarzenegger served in the Austrian Army in 1965, as it was mandatory to serve for a year at age 18.

The experience taught him that expertise comes from practice, a lesson that shaped his career.

Arnold Schwarzenegger Still Has the Tank

During his appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in 2014, the host asked him about the tank by showing photos of Schwarzenegger in front of it.

In response, he admitted it was the same tank he had driven during his service in the Austrian Army.

At that time, he drove a 1951 M-47 Patton tank, one of the 500 tanks available at the center. However, later those tanks became obsolete.

To restore his memories, he asked the Austrian Army to get the tank with the permission of the Austrian government, the US military, and the Pentagon.

He said, “The Austrian Army sent me the tank. I had to pay 20,000 dollars.”

However, that tank is now used for fun racing.

So, the chaotic mishap finally became a defining lesson for the legend, reinforcing that failures can sometimes fuel growth.

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Written by

Supradeep Dutta

Edited by

Ashvinkumar Patil