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We need something extremely male and gunlike.

So, how about some Canadian gunners having a good afternoon, getting ready to put some 105mm WillyPete (white phosphorus, red markings on light green 'jo) down range, probably to mark a target in a firepower demonstration for that M109 155mm gun in the background?

Gunners having a good day!

I thought you'd see it my way.

19 Comments

Not shown: The OH-6 dropping a red smoke on the target to mark it for the AH-1, which will, in turn, fire a Mk66 with a 17-pound orange paint warhead to mark the target for the guy peering through the pan-tel...
 
An obvious lie. You don't sight on a direct fire target with the pantel, you use the elbow telescope. The pantel is only for your aiming posts, collimator, or common distant aiming point - which is fixed, not ephemeral, and far enough away to simulate infinity (which, of course, is why the collimator was invented in the first place). Bad Bill! Report to the basement of Snow Hall for re-education!
 
Soooo, tell me--just how *far* downrange are those aiming stakes? Reminds me of why it takes Slobovian gunners so long to enter the Fire for Effect phase... FO: "Left one hundred, add two hundred, Over." *scene: gunners scrambling frantically to displace piece a hundred meters to the left, then wheeling it two hundred forward...*
 
Them Slobovian gunners musta been graduates of early 70's basic at Fort Dix...
 
Ahhhh not to be a contrarian (sp) but: Thing 1. The elbow telescope is the primary direct fire scope. The panoramic sight can and is used for direct fire if required. Yes it does require boresighting for that function. Thing 2. If I were the XO of that battery I would have that gunner's 6. Look at the way he is allowing that loader to handle that projo. His right hand should be clenched in a fist so as to allow him to retain all his digits when the breech is slammed in a hurry. He has two functions ... 1 shove that projo up the spout. 2 hold it there till the breach is closed. Okay 3.... retain his fingers. Perhaps it's the photo or my eyes but that projo doesn't look at all properly seated in the cannister. I am glad I can't see the 155 in the background, I would hate to complain about them guys firing loading elevation.
 
One simply does *not* use the pantel for direct fire unless one is in dire straits. And like the boresight would hold after any significant number of rounds have been fired. I'd slap in the boresight disk and aim kentucky-style through the tube... And like I said, graduates of a certain Fort Dix BCT company. I didn't even get into the 'no helmet' thing, because that's just an anal-retentive Army thang.
 
Oh, and how can one tell Jim B is fibbing (aside from the obvious, his lips are moving)? Ahhhh not to be a contrarian Yeah, right.
 
We practiced using the panoramic sight for direct fire. It works.... yanno the closer I look at these guys the more they look like the New Jersey National Guard ... God save us all. They are the poster boys for "Danger Close Wherever you Are" magazine.
 
You must be referring to graduates of a certain Fort Dix BCT Infantry Company. I kept warning them to go for higher scores on their Proficiency Park Intelligence Tests or they'd get stuck as gun bunnies, but *noooooo*...
 
Snerk! Your desperation knows no bounds now, aviator!
 
Looks like Gagetown in the late '80s/early '90s. Two are wearing combat caps which disappeared from stores around 1987; and that is the former Army combat uniform. As for how to hold the cartridge case base, well it's legal and safe while holding the round prior to loading. Once the round is inserted into the chamber then it's fist time. I preferred to use my knuckles. in a subtle transgressive manner. And, yes, Canadian gunners sometimes use the pantel in a direct fire shoot. I watch them do so while missing an 1800m target five times. It was during our "Introduction to the Artillery" Day. Cheers JMH
 
I rest my case on the pantel. Silly thing to use for direct fire. Especially in front of direct-fire specialists. Silly gunners, not in *my* battery!
 
Just as long as you chuckleheads get it on target when I ask for it, you could wear pink tutus and shove the round up the tube with a toilet plunger...
 
Ah, that would be *Naval* gunnery.
 
Fingers, John. We have no evidence of lips moving.
 
Heh. Ever watch a Marine read? Their lips move. I'm sure it's the same when they type.
 
I could use something extremely male and gunlike.....
 
Canadians have guns? The Oracle www.redskybrothers.com
 
I rest my case on the pantel. Silly thing to use for direct fire. Especially in front of direct-fire specialists. Three words: Beehive! Beehive! Beehive! Heh. Pointee-shootee. Don' need no steenkeen' sights, even...
 
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