The Armorer Gets Whatziss' too...

Such as this email I got yesterday.

This picture was taken in front of a former American Legion post in Key West. I have no clue what arty piece this is. No that fat guy is not Don Vitto. Just a out of shape doggy from the 1st Cav.

To which the Armorer responded:

Daniel - that's a US Model 1902 3-inch field gun - in need of some *real* TLC.

That was our first modern field gun with a hydro-pneumatic recoil system, developed in response to out getting punched in the nose by Spanish artillery during the Span-Am War.

They never saw any combat, since they were functionally almost identical to the French 75mm, but didn't have interchangeable ammunition (3 inch is 77mm) we chose to use the 3-incher stateside for training, and the artillery troops fell in on french guns "Over There." Saved us the shipping space for both guns and ammo during the war.

The commander of that post needs to be kneed in the groin for allowing that gun to get into that condition. But that's just an old artilleryman talking.

An old artilleryman who will happily hook up his trailer and head down that way to pick that gun up and give it a good home, if the boys of the VFW aren't going to take care of it.

I was wrong in my response, too, in that I forgot they did see combat, such as it was, during the Punitive Expedition to Mexico...

Of course, it's not like we haven't been over this ground before...