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Some Gunner Zen

By The Armorer on July 27, 2009 | | Comments (14)
Some pics to soothe a gunner's soul.  Well, actually, one of 'em makes us nervous, because pilots do silly things like *drop* our guns...

Out and about with the new...

Marine Staff Sgt. William McGowan, right, and Marine Cpl. Thomas Down, both assigned to Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 262, look down through the "hell hole" in the belly of a CH-53E "Sea Stallion" helicopter while transporting an M777 155-mm Howitzer during an artillery airlift exercise. The 31st MEU and HMM-262 are embarked aboard the forward-deployed amphibious assault ship USS Essex. Essex is participating in exercise Talisman Saber 2009, a biennial, joint, combined exercise sponsored by U.S. Pacific Command and the Australian defense force. Photo by Seaman Gabriel Weber

And in with the old, for some refurbishment.

Transportation personnel at Naval Support Facility Dahlgren prepare to off-load a World War I-era tractor-mounted artillery piece, the first gun originally test fired to mark the establishment of Dahlgren as a naval proving ground on Oct. 16, 1918. The 7-inch, 45-caliber gun will be restored by the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division.

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14 Comments

By BillT on July 27, 2009 8:20 AM
Whoo -- you wouldn't believe the hole an M114 falling 2,000 feet makes in a wet rice paddy.

Heh -- same guy who dropped two of our shot-up Charlie models. For a while, we joked that the Inkeepers' motto was, "There is no load so big, heavy, or expensive that we can't punch it off."

After they dropped the howitzer, it sorta ceased to be a joke...
 
By Kirk on July 27, 2009 8:52 AM
Interesting story with that gun...and additional pics:

http://www.patriotfiles.com/forum/showthread.php?t=109952
 
By AW1 Tim on July 27, 2009 11:30 AM

  That 7" gun is wicked kewl..... Great story too!
 
By MAJ Mike on July 27, 2009 4:27 PM
Youzaaa!!  Amazing how so much heavy metal can produce a woody!
 
By John (not the armorer) on July 27, 2009 8:31 PM
Gotta  watch them jarheads.  They will steal anything not nailed down.  Even 7" guns.
 
By Grimmy on July 27, 2009 9:29 PM
"Gotta watch them jarheads. They will steal anything not nailed down. Even 7" guns."

Marines never steal anything. BUT!! Anything left unattended and/or unguarded is obviously unwanted and therefore up for grabs.
 
By Casey on July 28, 2009 12:02 AM
Ok, what gun is in the upper photo?


 
By John of Argghhh! on July 28, 2009 6:22 AM
That's an M777 Casey.
 
By Casey on July 28, 2009 12:24 PM
Thanks. Couldn't tell a darn thing from that angle, and perspective.

 
By John of Argghhh! on July 28, 2009 12:50 PM
From that angle, the forward-placed wheels, with the spades right at the end of the gun are good id points.
 
By John of Argghhh! on July 28, 2009 12:53 PM
BTW, Casey - can you not see the captions if you mouse over the picture?  I'm curious - because I've found so that that IE8 does not display alt tag data from the blog.
 
By Casey on July 28, 2009 11:07 PM
My sense of scale is shot on that photo. Now that you point it out, I can see/comprehend the spades, and the wheels. It still looks (to me) like the whole thing is only 6-10 feet long. I suspect that's because the gun is far enough below the chopper to cause that illusion. To my eye, the gun seems to be just below the belly of the helicopter.

I use Firefox 3.0.12 under WinXP SP2. Alas, no mouse-over ALT tags appear here, either.

 
By BillT on July 29, 2009 7:05 AM
My sense of scale is shot on that photo.

Why? It's dangling under a Chit-Hook, which is obvious from the shape of the crewchief's hatch -- and which also clues you to the close scale -- plus the apparent size of the cargo straps means it's about 23.75 feet below the aircraft, so that should help with the linear aspect. The apparent foreshortening of the wheels helps a lot, but the shadows are a dead giveaway that the pic was snapped at 1038, plus-or-minus five minutes.

See? Easy.

Ummmmm -- what?
 
By John of Argghhh! on July 29, 2009 7:13 AM
Um, well the *caption* which apparently you can't read by mouse-over except in IE7 sez...

"Marine Staff Sgt. William McGowan, right, and Marine Cpl. Thomas Down, both assigned to Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 262, look down through the "hell hole" in the belly of a CH-53E Sea Stallion helicopter while transporting an M777 155-mm Howitzer during an artillery airlift exercise. The 31st MEU and HMM-262 are embarked aboard the forward-deployed amphibious assault ship USS Essex. Essex is participating in exercise Talisman Saber 2009, a biennial, joint, combined exercise sponsored by U.S. Pacific Command and the Australian defense force. Photo by Seaman Gabriel Weber"

But one rectangular hole in the floor of a helo looks like pretty much any other rectangular hole in the bottom of a helo...