WHEN one thinks of Arnold Schwarzenegger, what comes to mind? For most people, the name would conjure images of over-the-top action sequences and explosive movie scenes.
Over the years, a claim has popped up occasionally that Arnie's pre-celebrity days were also marked with antics that are larger than life – including a story that he got into a tank race with a friend while a teenager doing his national service with the Austrian Army.
Is this true?
VERDICT:
TRUE
This story is indeed true, as recounted by Schwarzenegger himself to Jimmy Fallon when the actor was a guest on his late-night talk show in 2014.
“When I was 18-years-old and I started as a tank driver, we made mistakes. I remember one night, we were on manouvers and at midnight we stopped for a break. My friend was in the tank next to me – and it was a more modern tank – so I said to him, let's see who's faster down this hill,” he said.
Schwarzenegger then added that he and his friend kicked off on the impromtu race despite being unable to see where they were going. “We took off and we drove down this hill at about 40 miles per hour (64kph) in the middle of the night, we just drove and were crushing through trees and bushes and everything, By the time we were at the bottom, I beat him even though he had the more modern tank,” he said.
“I then realised that there were 15 men who had been standing on top of the tank; I had forgotten to tell them to get off. So they were holding on and falling off one-by-one, and I heard the screams the whole time and I was wondering what was going on,” added Schwarzenegger.
And true to the saying that no mischief goes unpunished, Schwarzenegger then told Fallon that he and his friend were punished by being made to climb through the tank's hatches 50 times.
He added that this included the hatches that opened under the tank, which meant that his clothing eventually got bogged down from having to crawl through muddy ground. “It took me from midnight to 6am to complete the punishment and after that, I was so exhausted, I slept for 24 hours,” said Schwarzenegger.
