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A moment of Gunner Zen

By The Armorer on September 7, 2011 | | Comments (16)
It's been a while since we had a good moment of zen...

M-777-firing-web.jpg

Pfc. Erik Park from San Mateo, Calif., fires his M-777 155mm howitzer Sept. 3. Park is in 3rd Platoon, Alpha Battery, 1st Battalion, 77th Field Artillery Regiment, 172nd Infantry Brigade. He was 12 years old on 9/11. Photo by Spc. Ken Scar.

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16 Comments

By Heartless Libertarian on September 7, 2011 8:46 AM
That looks like an awfully low barrel elevation (sorry if I don't know the proper redleg term for it).  Hopefully there isn't anything tall along the G-T line.

I didn't know the lanyard was that long, either.
 
By Fred on September 7, 2011 9:07 AM
What a fireball !  Would have been very impressive (and easy to spot for counter-battery fire) at night.
What the heck are they firing? Beehive round?
 
By John (Not The Armorer) on September 7, 2011 9:18 AM
Huge fireball.  Don't they use flash reducing stuff in all the ammo?

Back in the day, the Navy had both "flashless" and "non-flashless" powder charges (SPDF and SPDN respectively), but I think they were just using up old (WW2 era) inventory of the SPDN.

But, ti still looks like fun!
 
By fdcol63 on September 7, 2011 9:47 AM
I was afraid of displaying my ignorance about the M-777's normal lanyard length, but I agree with Heartless.  That does seem L-O-N-G.  Reminds me of those 50' lanyards we'd use on M109's with those corseted "S.W." / Charge-8 white bags.
 
By MikeD on September 7, 2011 10:53 AM
He was 12 on Sept 11, 2001... damn am I getting old.
 
By John of Argghhh! on September 7, 2011 11:26 AM
Yes, that gun is at a pretty low quadrant. That's probably a direct-fire mission, like "Killer Junior" or something similar. 

As for the flash - they've changed the powder since I played this game - but back in the day, when you had a flash like that, it was usually because there was water in the breech from swabbing the previous round, or your powder had been sitting open in the right weather conditions (think evening/morning transitions) and gotten damp.

The crewman does look to be using the 50ft lanyard, and with no one else around the gun, they could be doing a proof firing after the gun having been repaired (think recoil mechanism or breech repair), or, in the case of a "Killer Junior" style mission, are firing max charge and have the crew (and gunner) away from the gun to reduce the wear and tear on the crew from blast overpressures.

I'd like to see the XO's Min QE for that gun position.
 
By 11B40 on September 7, 2011 11:47 AM
 Greetings:

I think that the rock 'n' roll band Steppenwolf calls them "Earenschplittenloudenboomers".
 
By Heartless Libertarian on September 7, 2011 12:29 PM
John, you're speaking redleg again...

I'm going to assume QE in this context does not stand for Queen Elizabeth, Quantitative Easing, or the Quadratic Equation.
 
By John of Argghhh! on September 7, 2011 1:53 PM
Quadrant Elevation.

The "shooting elevation" is referred to as the "quadrant elevation."

It is the sum of the standard elevation for the charge based on the desired range, and the modifiers to account for all the other factors, such as wind, temperature, humidity, site (target above or below the gun's elevation), projectile weight and such.

XO's Min(imum) QE is a safety calculation the XO does based on obstacles surrounding the gun position (ridgelines, buildings, treelines, powerlines, etc.  It represents the lowest safe-to-fire QE in the area around the gun position.  Firing below the Min QE requires special actions to ensure safety (i.e., the average Min QE might apply along any given azimuth to only a couple of guns - the others might be able to fire safely).
 
By Fishmugger on September 7, 2011 2:52 PM
Sheesh...I didn't understand all that stuff the second time either.

If you ask me, it looks like the crew initiated a flamethrower defense to ward off the Kandahar Lancers.
 
By Fishmugger on September 7, 2011 3:03 PM
The gun is aimed so low because the Kandahar Lancers are riding on their all terrain vehicle...Goats. (Not very fast but they can charge up the sides of hills)
 
By John of Argghhh! on September 7, 2011 3:29 PM
Wow.  Look at the time difference for the echo.  That might be a record for the gnomes.  I think they're Teamsters.
 
By fdcol63 on September 7, 2011 3:52 PM
If I could include links without going to comment pergatory, I found a nifty diagram that would illustrate Min QE to Heartless.
 
By John of Argghhh! on September 7, 2011 8:25 PM
Frank - if worse comes to worse, just select the "source" button, paste in the URL, then deselect the source button and it should post just fine.
   
By J.M. Heinrichs on September 8, 2011 4:47 PM
"To verify the angle of site to crest, the chief of section, sights along the bottom edge of the bore, has the tube traversed across the probable field of fire and has the tube elevated until the line of sight clears the crest at the highest point."
We used to do 'top of chamber @ breech to bottom of bore @ muzzle'. But we had only single charges ...

Cheers