As we are wont to do here, we write stories. Have done, and will do again.
One such was over five years ago.
But, as signs at log-on should make evident, the Internet Is Forever.
At least it is, if you leave it alone.
And we read our comments. Partly to weed out bad manners, bile, or the occasional Indonesian Viagra spam, but mainly because of mutual interest in other people's thoughts and ideas.
So this afternoon, we got to know, in that rich phrase, "the rest of the story".
Nota bene, not the fascinating part of it we received out of the blue four months after penning the original post. But rather, the part we received this afternoon, another five years after that.
I humbly suggest reading the whole thing linked above, but more specifically the comments.
I may be wrong, but I suspect it may be interesting to some readers here, particularly those with prior or current military service.
It's a big world, but the 'net shrinks it down to about a phone booth, in ways you'd never imagine.
reality bites.
ReplyDeleteI have been thanked for what I did at accident scenes (by the vics) and at homicide scenes (by the fams) and at failed resuscitation efforts (also by the fams).
THAT comment has waggled all of the neck hairs I still have and the ones up and down my arms.
Mixed value memories of different times when I was but a callow yute. good choice on saving the story.
When I checked in to the ship I retired from, there were not one, not two, but three former shipmates of mine on board. One of whom I used to supervise 12 years before, and who was now 2 pay grades above me.
ReplyDeleteAbout 4 months after I got there, a forth former shipmate of mine checked in.
It isn't just the net that is small, meat space is small, too, if you stay in the same organization long enough.
When that former report of mine made E-8, that is when I knew it was time for me to go...
Being a FDC nerd in the 11th Marines, our terror story to scare us about shooting out was supposedly some dummy who had put a round into a civilian house in Fallston during a backyard shoot at Pendleton.
ReplyDeleteCan't do anything but appreciate good folks, and be glad that occasionally the smallness of the world is a good thing.
ReplyDeleteWhat I can do is once again appreciate the original story because yes, I made HUGE mistakes in the course of my service, fortunately none of the costing life, limb or eyesight.
Concur with your assessment of the M198, a piece I was never able to love and the classic "105" which I always will.
third generation artilleryman, Boat Guy
Even the Corps recognized their error, albeit belatedly.
ReplyDeleteFor a good hunk of time I, like every section in the division's three direct-support battalions, was the happy custodian of one example of each, after Grenada left the deployed BLT with no arty capability worth the trouble.
Whereas, last I looked, the 105 could be used with even a lowly M-151 Jeep for a prime mover, or delivered on site with the ancient CH-46.
That's the kind of infantry support role that would make Stonewall Jackson salivate, and it's the sort of thing the Corps should even now be aspiring to, i.e. getting lighter and more nimble rather than trying to replicate the heavy brigades of the 1st Armored Division.
The newer 105 that the Army has uses a HMMVW as its prime mover and there's (far as I can tell) the equivalent of an FDC in another Hummvee. Not gonna tote much ammo in those rigs but at least you can accomplish tasks #1 and #3. I'm presuming the Army's using the trucks I see in the parks for ammo. Decent-looking rigs; some years ago we had a redleg who'd lost his way working in the shop and we use to talk about the good stuff. HAven't been aboard a USMC base in about a decade so sunno what they're using for DS arty.
ReplyDeleteSTILL dislike the 198; many bad memories getting those things to the beach and across it.
BG
They' using the M777; it's the M198, except it folds in half and tows by the barrel, and it weighs something like 1/2 as much. Something like 4 1/2 tons instead of 7 1/2. But it's still a pig.
ReplyDeleteIIRC, the Army 105 is the British Light Gun, which we've typed as the M119, which lighter than the M101A1 by about 1500#. You can sling it under a UH-1N, or pull it with a HMMWV. Like you should.
Counter-battery isn't an issue against 99% of the forces either will face, but when it is you can displace before the rounds land. Problem solved.
Anything you can displace in 60 seconds will survive counter-battery.
Anything bigger than that should be SP, or left at home, for exactly that reason.
Anyone who wants parity with counter-battery should be in a heavy brigade with M109A7 SPs. That and MLRS should be the GS battalions.
Marine and airborne DS forces should be running 8-gun Light Gun/M119 batteries pulled by HMMWVs or equivalent, and deployable by damn near anything.
You could carry 10 rounds in the prime mover along with the crew, and re-supply with LMTVs or deuce-and-a-halfs instead of 5-ton trucks. You've just saved the BLT 18 heavy trucks, and you can drive half the battery battery off the tail ramp of 5 MV-22s in one lift, and now it's the size of five Suburbans instead of 5 18-wheel semi-trucks, with a 50% reduction in manpower requirements as well, letting you run two separate split-platoon units for less manpower and logistic tail, instead of one six-gun heavy battery. It's also small enough that staying <1000m behind the supported unit is no problem.
As noted, artillery becomes nearly direct fire at that point, like it should be.
And why use a SMAW when you can just drop a 105 into a doorway or bunker, right?
But I'm not the CMC, the one we have is a dolt, and SecDef Mattis appears to be busy with other things.
/rant
I'm not CMC either."...the one we have is a dolt, and SecDef Mattis appears to be busy with other things." AYE.
ReplyDeleteTracking right with you on the light gun/howitzer running with the Grunts and continuing to "lend dignity" and as importantly shoot OVER stuff; I'm a big fan of indirect fire on any terrain that's not a pool table
BG