In the post below, our man Slab extolled the hardiness and endurance of the average air-cooled, beer-fed, self-propelled Marine (and soldier) grunt. All of this is true, and I cannot disagree.
However, today I must raise a voice in praise of my own favorite (favourite, for our visitors from The Torch) military laborers– the cannoneers. They don’t walk; what “king” does?? But they lift, and they dig, and then they lift some more. And what they lift they usually end up hauling around. Remember that every HE shell that goes downrange weighs in at a little less than a hundred pounds, and each one is (in the Marine Corps) broken out of its pallet, prepared for firing, and loaded all by hand. And this is towed artillery– every howitzer is manhandled in and out of position.
By way of my good friend and fellow Marine, GySgt Joe Demro (USMC, ret.), meet the M198.
And now meet the ’198′s replacement, the M777.
Yes, Gunny, it does bring back memories.
In the opening sequence of the first clip you see an old M101A1 105mm howitzer outside the 3/10 CP in Camp Lejeune. They are all museum pieces now, but that’s a fairly recent development. When I was a student at Ft Sill in 1990, we shot the M101A1 several times; the one I remember using had a breechblock stamped “1944.” And shortly afterwards when I reported to 1/10, each battery had a full set of M198 gear and a full set of M101A1 gear. One week we’d go to the field and shoot 105s, the next week we’d shoot 155s. It was a strange arrangement to be sure, but the ever-conservative Marine Corps wanted to maintain that light artillery capability. MEU SOC battalion landing teams continued to pack a pair of M101A1s as late as 93 or 94, if I remember correctly.
Sir, when I stumbled on that video, I was flooded with lots of memories. Some of them not to fun, but looking back are very rewarding.
I remember being at Ft. Bragg in the late 80’s, it was 0200, raining and cold. My Gun, (M198 Gun 5) was slated for a Time on Target (TOT) at 0210 hrs. Well were standing around waiting and things change as we all know, especially with Battalion. We did not fire the TOT until 0600.
We have all stood around in bad weather and hated life, but I remember my gun crew the most. Just making the best of it, and being diligent. The Marines I have served with and trained in those bad and fun times is what I miss the most. Some of the things they would come up with to stay entertained with was quite amusing. And the stories we could all tell, we should all write books.
The artillery world and the men and women (Sgt. Hart./COMM) that make it function like a well oiled machine do not get the claim they should. Tanks for including me in your BLOG Sir.
Semper Fi
“SEAT, HOME, READY,….RAM”
Damn that sounds good!
Gunny D
If they could just bottle up the smell of burnt cordite, I would keep it on hand and put a little dab behind Kathleen’s ears and neck. LOL, Miss that smell.
I know you know exactly what I mean…LOL
“beer-fed … Marine.” Uh huh. Beer fed is right. You nailed that one.
Boom!