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More fun with pictures!

By The Armorer on March 8, 2009 | | Comments (29)
Funny hats and some Armorer-zen.

First up - funny hats!

03/05/2009 - From left, Colombian Chief of Defense Gen. Freddy Padilla de Leon, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Navy Adm. Mike Mullen and U.S. Ambassador to Colombia William Brownfield [Um, I edited out the Ambassador - he wasn't wearing a funny hat - the Armorer] pay respects during a wreath-laying ceremony at the Monument of Fallen Soldiers and Police in Bogota, Colombia, March 5, 2009. Mullen is visiting Colombia to meet with senior government and military officials to discuss the ongoing relationship between the United States and Colombia. (DoD photo by Master Sgt. Adam M. Stump, U.S. Air Force/Released)

03/05/2009 - From left, Colombian Chief of Defense Gen. Freddy Padilla de Leon, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Navy Adm. Mike Mullen and U.S. Ambassador to Colombia William Brownfield [Um, I edited out the Ambassador - he wasn't wearing a funny hat - the Armorer] pay respects during a wreath-laying ceremony at the Monument of Fallen Soldiers and Police in Bogota, Colombia, March 5, 2009. Mullen is visiting Colombia to meet with senior government and military officials to discuss the ongoing relationship between the United States and Colombia. (DoD photo by Master Sgt. Adam M. Stump, U.S. Air Force/Released)

You can keep the funny hats.  I'll take the musket, though!  Next up, Armorer Zen.  I've been by the Stennis Space Center.  I knew they tested shuttle engines there.  I didn't know the Navy also trains there.  Fun stuff, and sailors with a sense of humor, too!

First up - these are some nice john boats for hunting... even if you are hunting long pig.

Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen assigned to Special Boat Team 22 conduct live-fire drills at the riverine training range at the John C. Stennis Space Center. SBT-22 operates the special operations craft-riverine and is the only U.S. special operations command dedicated to operating in the riverine environment. Photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Robert Stratchko

Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen assigned to Special Boat Team 22 conduct live-fire drills at the riverine training range at the John C. Stennis Space Center. SBT-22 operates the special operations craft-riverine and is the only U.S. special operations command dedicated to operating in the riverine environment. Photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Robert Stratchko

I think the air freshener is a nice touch...

Now the Armorer-zen...  nothing like a twin mount when it looks like your prey is either going to stand and deliver, or run away.  It's all good in the 'hood.

Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen assigned to Special Boat Team 22 conduct live-fire drills at the riverine training range at the John C. Stennis Space Center. SBT-22 operates the special operations craft-riverine and is the only U.S. special operations command dedicated to operating in the riverine environment. Photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Robert Stratchko

Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen assigned to Special Boat Team 22 conduct live-fire drills at the riverine training range at the John C. Stennis Space Center. SBT-22 operates the special operations craft-riverine and is the only U.S. special operations command dedicated to operating in the riverine environment. Photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Robert Stratchko
 
Let's take a little closer look, for that full zen-like experience.  Ommmmmmmmmm.

Lastly, I'd like those wall posters, please.  And that Mk19, if it was available.  Which it ain't.

All this digital goodness courtesy of our friends at DVIDS.

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29 Comments

By Chuck Simmins on March 8, 2009 11:48 AM
Does the twin feed from both sides or does the feed on the right somehow supply both barrels?
 
By JimC on March 8, 2009 11:49 AM
Shakos are not funny hats.  The face plates might be funny but the shako is not.
 
By John of Argghhh! on March 8, 2009 11:51 AM
Jim - think about what either of us would look like in shakos.  Just one of many reasons I didn't go to West Point.
 
By John of Argghhh! on March 8, 2009 11:54 AM
And you made an assumption about the shako, anyway.  Saucer caps are silly, too.
 
By BillT on March 8, 2009 12:11 PM
Fun stuff, and sailors with a sense of humor, too!

I think it's cool the way Admiral Mullen is mocking John Kerry's saluting style...

 
By John of Argghhh! on March 8, 2009 12:23 PM
Chuck, I believe the guns feed from the outside, and eject down chutes in the middle.
 
By BillT on March 8, 2009 12:33 PM
Does the twin feed from both sides or does the feed on the right somehow supply both barrels?

Both sides. The gun on the right is an M240C and the one on the left looks an awful lot like an M240H.
 
By LarryK on March 8, 2009 12:34 PM
SBT-22 also trains at Ft Knox. There is a good article in the Feb  Popular Mechanics. Our son goes there about every 6 months for tactical coxswain training in the USCG. It is a live fire environment. In most places the USCG can't train on boats with real ammo. The Canadians and some local politicians threw a fit when they conducted some live fire exercises with M-240s etc on Lake Erie.Something about a treaty with the British (didn't know there were still any British on the Great Lakes). They also train at Camp Lejune. I don't know if the USCG shares space at Stennis. It sounds like great fun ... run a boat at high speed up narrow waterways firing live ammo at all sort of targets and get paid too!
 
By John of Argghhh! on March 8, 2009 1:09 PM
run a boat at high speed up narrow waterways firing live ammo at all sort of targets and get
paid too!

Should be modded to read: run a boat [that someone else paid for] at high speed [using fuel someone else paid for] up narrow waterways [and no worry about guys with badges] firing live ammo [that someone else paid for from guns that someone else paid for] at all sort of targets [that someone else paid for] and get paid too! 

And they wonder why we enlist...  I need to get an embed ride along...

 
By Josh on March 8, 2009 1:29 PM
I maintain that the Official United States Air Force Silly Hat [also known as the Flight Cap] is the silliest of them all!
 
By Josh on March 8, 2009 1:53 PM
Oh and is that a minigun in the upper right corner of the first picture of SBT-22?  Why don't we get any pictures of THAT in action?
 
By Dad on March 8, 2009 2:01 PM
Neither of them know how to salute.
Dad
 
By John of Argghhh! on March 8, 2009 2:15 PM

I'm giving Admiral Mullen the benefit of the doubt in that he didn't want to smack his bony elbow into General de Leon's ear.

Josh - because if they took any, the haven't posted 'em.

 
By Josh on March 8, 2009 2:41 PM
Neither of them know how to salute.

I was gonna say...I'd get yelled at for saluting like that...whose job is it to yell at the Chairman of the JCS?

because if they took any, the haven't posted 'em.

Yeah but what kinda photographer doesn't want to show off pictures of a minigun in action?  They're very photogenic...

 
By BillT on March 8, 2009 3:53 PM
Oh and is that a minigun in the upper right corner of the first picture of SBT-22?

Yup.

Why don't we get any pictures of THAT in action?

Judging by the size of the ammo can, he only got off a 1-second burst.

 
By Grimmy on March 8, 2009 4:27 PM
Is this boat team part of the USN's recent restructure to bring back "brown water" capability?
 
By J.M. Heinrichs on March 8, 2009 4:28 PM
 1. For Josh: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nock_gun

2. "The Canadians ... threw a fit when they conducted some live fire exercises with M-240s etc on Lake Erie." That problem was treated before it went too far by getting the info into the media on the treaty and its applications over the past 150 years, and discussing the minor differences between a 5" deck gun and a 7.62mm MG. And that it was unlikely that stray bullets from an offshore range at Oswego might hamper boaters in Toronto harbour. The uproar remained confined to Dippers and local 'activists'.

Cheers
 
By Argent on March 8, 2009 5:24 PM
Gosh i thought this was Police Academy 47 for a second there.
 
By LarryK on March 8, 2009 5:44 PM
If you want to see the boats in action look at these two clips. I couldn't get any sound on the first one but the second is a hoot ..


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFkU-Roqz58&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdRfbjIigIM&NR=1

 
By John of Argghhh! on March 8, 2009 6:26 PM
And Josh gets his wish!
 
By Colin on March 8, 2009 7:06 PM
The absolute silly hat is the Pillbox, a stunningingly useless design.

As for the Great lakes, the Canadian army has been firing lots of bullets into them over the years.
 
By John of Argghhh! on March 8, 2009 7:13 PM
Yeah, but... no one has felt threatened by you guys since WWII...  except the Taliban, to their regret.

Whereas, US, well, everybody is afraid of us and our guns.
 
By Boquisucio on March 8, 2009 7:59 PM
Those buildings in the background look very much like those in and around the C.A.N.(The Colombian Pentagon)in Bogotá.

Gen. Padilla... Sounds familiar.  I wonder whether he is one of Beetlejuice´s henpecked groupies...
 
By Josh on March 9, 2009 9:51 AM
1. For Josh: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nock_gun

Ooooh cool...so it's more or less like loading up a double barrel 12-gauge with two Tri-Ball rounds and firing them both at the same time?
 
By Heartless Libertarian on March 9, 2009 9:57 AM
BillT-

Not an M240C - I'd say an M240B with a 240C feed tray and cover.  Not sure what the nomenclature would be for that.

The 240C is the coax version used in the M1 tank and the M2/3 IFV.   There are more, and very visible, differences than just the left-hand feed.

Key features of the 240C that are missing in the picture: the back plate (pictured weapon has a buttstock), shortened pistol grip (no need when solenoid fired),  and cable loop attached to the charging handle.  The 240C also lacks the front handguards and front sight, although adding the front sight is a simple matter of putting a 240B/G barrel on the weapon.
 
By BillT on March 9, 2009 11:54 AM
Heartless -- yup. That's what I get for multitasking.

Ummmm -- drinking coffee and talking to the weather chick on the phone while you're typing counts, right?
 
By Justthisguy on March 10, 2009 6:58 AM
As a former bandsman, I must say that shakos are cool, they being my high-school band headgear and my Ga. Tech band headgear. Ga. Tech AFROTC band only allowed the um, suggestively-folded cloth cap. You can stow lotsa stuff in a shako, and it also makes you look taller.
 
By Justthisguy on March 10, 2009 7:08 AM
P.s. In the Girl Genius cartoon universe, lotsa folks wear shakos. Because they look cool and make a dominating impression on people.
 
By Josh on March 10, 2009 9:18 AM
Ummmm -- drinking coffee and talking to the weather chick on the phone while you're typing counts, right?

Depends, are you talking to the Flight Services chick, or are you chatting up your local news station's weather girl?