We're the Military and Airpower Guys of Jonah Goldberg of National Review Online + a stray we found wandering around looking lost. All original material JHD, BHD, JR, WT, and KA 2003-2007 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html Sun, 03 Aug 2008 17:09:26 Z Movable Type 4.12 en Copyright 2008 http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification Another one here, and another one here. Those are M-14's, the Armorer's favorite US battle rifle. H/t, Tammy B.... http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html Fri, 10 Mar 2006 08:23:38 -0600 One of the best Arty training films around! Cheers JMH http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42323 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42323 Sat, 11 Mar 2006 16:24:38 -0600 The 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Abn drew a couple hundred M-14's from depot stocks as interim weapons for soldiers in Designated Marksman positions prior to deploying to Iraq last year. When we got to the staging base in Kuwait, it turned out that I (that old retired dude,) was the only person in the Brigade headquarters company who knew how to field strip one. It turned into a train-the-trainer class real quick. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42321 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42321 Sat, 11 Mar 2006 15:34:21 -0600 'Phibian - no, no. I forwarded you that from CAPT H! http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42311 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42311 Sat, 11 Mar 2006 11:55:55 -0600 Isn't that you front right? ]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42308 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42308 Sat, 11 Mar 2006 10:26:47 -0600 Clearly got here far too late to contribute meaningfully to this discussion... Will point out that I love the M-14 too. Just sumpin about a rifle that's got heft, both coming and going. And you leave that last bit be, Were-Kitten ;-) http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42307 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42307 Sat, 11 Mar 2006 10:26:04 -0600 Rather than a "mount" perhaps a "mounting"? Cheers JMH http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42302 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42302 Fri, 10 Mar 2006 21:19:07 -0600 Well, HL- female sailors *demand* a different mount (or so I've heard). Something to do with solid rails over the ports, or some such thing... http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42300 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42300 Fri, 10 Mar 2006 19:55:57 -0600 Am I the only one who noticed the Picatinny rail looking thingys on the female sailors rifle? First mount I've seen that didn't have a solid rail all the way over the ejection port. Can anyone elighten me as to the advantage of doing it this way? http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42297 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42297 Fri, 10 Mar 2006 18:31:08 -0600 Geez chief, just because they say 120 men get underway on a sub and 2 prizefighters and 59 couples come back...? http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42296 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42296 Fri, 10 Mar 2006 18:12:21 -0600 Huh? Using "sailor" and "straight" in the same sentence? What's up--you turning into Lex of Argghhh? http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42291 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42291 Fri, 10 Mar 2006 15:29:26 -0600 I tole ya a wandering sailor would give us the straight skinny!~ http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42289 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42289 Fri, 10 Mar 2006 15:24:46 -0600 We interrupt your regularly scheduled threadjacking with this important Naval Bulletin: Our benevolent host is mostly correct on the airman confusion. There are 3 'flavors' of ratings in the Navy: Seamen (most rates), Airmen (aviation related rates), Firemen (Damage Control types, Hull Techs, Machinists, other seemingly random rates). However, once they reach E4, they are all just referred to as Petty Officers, or their specific rate. We now return you to your threadjacking already in progress]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42288 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42288 Fri, 10 Mar 2006 15:20:43 -0600 Thread-jacking? Moi? never..... I was just looking out for the safety of our men at sea. honest. *crosses fingers behind back* http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42282 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42282 Fri, 10 Mar 2006 13:38:11 -0600 no one play with the term threadjacking okay ... it's Friday after all. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42281 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42281 Fri, 10 Mar 2006 13:06:30 -0600 Owe-kayyy, I sense a thread-hijacking attempt in progress... Perceptive, ain't he? ;)]]> http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42280 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42280 Fri, 10 Mar 2006 13:00:34 -0600 Heh. Just, heh. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42277 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42277 Fri, 10 Mar 2006 12:06:42 -0600 Owe-kayyy, I sense a thread-hijacking attempt in progress... http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42276 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42276 Fri, 10 Mar 2006 12:04:16 -0600 I just hope those bags are full of sand, and not seamen. ;-) http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42274 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42274 Fri, 10 Mar 2006 11:44:00 -0600 Bruce let me try to explain. The range is a flight deck of a carrier.... that IS her LBE. A helmet would mess up her hair, she is wearing her 5th ammendment glasses, and keeping a tight group somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific or wherever she is tournig at present. That 'gun' thing is just a way of passing some time, they were playin with remote control air planes till they crashed them all. What you can't hear is the music playin while they shoot, and the gunner's mate gryping about having to clean the rifles after they are done. I hope she doesn't break a nail. You know how crabby she gets. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42273 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42273 Fri, 10 Mar 2006 11:25:37 -0600 Wait a minute! No helmets or LBE? What kind of rifle range is that? And... So that's where all the M-14s are hiding out.. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42270 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42270 Fri, 10 Mar 2006 10:52:11 -0600 hi! I am a real fan of your website! I am from the "M-14" army! enjoyed this article on that fine weapon! Roy Patterson veteran B Troop 1st Squadron 14th Armored Cav 1966-1969 Fulda Gap http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42269 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42269 Fri, 10 Mar 2006 10:49:48 -0600 Carriers = Naval Aspirators. They are engaged in a FAM fire. Sandbags are to protect the stuff around the catwalks ... have you ever seen squids shoot? Sailors designated as Ship's Landing Party FAM fire weapons now and then. A lot of them are armed with the M-14, which replaced the M-1. BAR, Thompson's some time back. To Marines they look more like the Ding Ding Brothers Barnfarb and Bailout circus. They even go ashore now and then for familiarization. Or sometimes in areas where there is no USO to provide comic relief to any Marines who may be about. Grey helmits dungarees, and their trousers tucked into their socks. Usually the 'CCO' of a gator ship, or the Marine Detatchment of a capitol ship is tasked to try to teach them something. Back in the 'day' they operated like the the anchor klankers in Sand Pebbles. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42267 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42267 Fri, 10 Mar 2006 10:26:56 -0600 Beat me to the FOD walkdown. Heh. The sandbags are probably full of laundry... http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42264 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42264 Fri, 10 Mar 2006 10:04:18 -0600 Good catch, Bill. I've only shot the M1 and M14 out to 800 meters on the National Match ranges at Fort Riley and Fort Sill. But I suspect my eyesight no longer supports that kind of shooting over iron sights. There's a little FOD detail to follow, since they seem to be shooting across the flight deck... and I wonder what those sandbags are full of... http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42261 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42261 Fri, 10 Mar 2006 09:56:45 -0600 Miss Melissa has picked up a very bad habit, somewhere along the line. First time she tries to hit a target greater than 15 meters away with *that* support-arm position, she's gonna be SOL. Even the VC knew better than to use the mag as a front handgrip. And I like the M-14 a lot, too. But for anything over a thousand meters, I'll take an M-1, and, yes, I *can* hit things that far out with it. With iron sights. The only advantage I can see to using a scope is to see "the look" on his face... http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42258 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42258 Fri, 10 Mar 2006 09:40:21 -0600 Look at how they captioned the photographer, too. Airman may be Naval shorthand for the Aviation ratings in the Navy. I dunno. Mebbe a visiting sailor with enlighten us. That said, if the people doing captions for the Navy have the same depth of knowledge as the people captioning Army pics, it could just be a screw-up, too. But those are Navy ratings doing the shooting. http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42255 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42255 Fri, 10 Mar 2006 09:19:41 -0600 Question. The caption says it's an Airman pictured, on board a carrier. Do we have Air Force personnel assigned to carriers now?? http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42253 http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2006/03/navy_gun_pr0n.html#comment-42253 Fri, 10 Mar 2006 09:06:37 -0600