Michael Moore newsletter 12/20

[rikzilla]

Also I doubt If rik has ever been a Major General....oops, hang on, he has never claimed that, sorry rik.

"Modern" Major General that is!

I am the very model of a modern Major-General,
I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral,
I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical
From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical;
I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical,
I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical,
About binomial theorem I'm teeming with a lot o' news,
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse.

 

[Zero]

As someone who was in FDC you must appreciate how simple the firing process is compared to how truly difficult it would be using firing tables (and worse yet log books) to adjust simply with elevation and declination if there was just one poweder bag to fit all. That's not to say it's easy... just a hell of a lot more simple than it could be.

The gunnery was fun. I enjoyed firing the 105mm for most of our practice and and of course the 8 inch. The only guys I felt really sorry for were those using the M-198. Man what a pain the a** that must be to work on the crew. I also got to fire a 107mm mortar during a familiarization day with the Mech pukes.

Fire Direction was interesting because it challenged you mentally and you really got into the science of artillery. Fire Support was fun because we got to blow s*** up and it's more of the art of artillery.

Did you ever get to see a combined arms demonstration with a million dollar minute? The one they put on for us started with an old Civil War bronze cannon, then a French 75, introduced the M-119 and M--109A6 Paladin then progressed to the Mil$minute. We had tanks, tube artillery, Apaches, MLRS and even a B-1 out of Dyess flying around. It was amazing.

I forget most of the forms we had to fill out but I do remember how persnickerty we had to be with filling them out correctly. Nothing ends an officers career faster than a gun exploding and killing 5 people.

Did you do the old fashioned plotting boards, slide rules and log books or did they finally get rid of that stuff?

Yeah, but all that green/white bag stuff seems silly...

I didn't get to do any gunnery, mostly because I was such a hotshot that they couldn't spare me at my job(and I did that on purpose so I could avoid heavy lifting in the field!!) Mostly I was joined at the hip to various machinery, except when I was doing a survey with an actual transit, and that was always long before the batteries showed up.

I saw a couple of 'million dollar minute' sorts of things, one in California and one at Ft. Bragg. The Ft. Bragg one was a bit cooler, because I had a better spot to view it from...and it wasn't as dry, the one at 29 Palms was nothing but dust and sand almost from the get-go.

Oh, and we learned plotting boards in school, but never used them in practive, although we did confirm coordinates on the map before sending the data on to the guns...aren't computers wonderful? Beats the pure living hell out of log tables, although we still carried every damned FM and TM on earth out to the field with us. The officers needed a place to sit and drink coffee, after all!

 

[Troll]

Yeah, but all that green/white bag stuff seems silly...

I didn't get to do any gunnery, mostly because I was such a hotshot that they couldn't spare me at my job(and I did that on purpose so I could avoid heavy lifting in the field!!) Mostly I was joined at the hip to various machinery, except when I was doing a survey with an actual transit, and that was always long before the batteries showed up.

I saw a couple of 'million dollar minute' sorts of things, one in California and one at Ft. Bragg. The Ft. Bragg one was a bit cooler, because I had a better spot to view it from...and it wasn't as dry, the one at 29 Palms was nothing but dust and sand almost from the get-go.

Oh, and we learned plotting boards in school, but never used them in practive, although we did confirm coordinates on the map before sending the data on to the guns...aren't computers wonderful? Beats the pure living hell out of log tables, although we still carried every damned FM and TM on earth out to the field with us. The officers needed a place to sit and drink coffee, after all!

So being just a hair young for the Gulf I'm guessing you came in as GPS was still being introduced, correct? Meaning you still had to learn how to use the old PADS? Probably spent some time hanging with the guys from MET and AEM shops as well?

 

[Zero]

So being just a hair young for the Gulf I'm guessing you came in as GPS was still being introduced, correct? Meaning you still had to learn how to use the old PADS? Probably spent some time hanging with the guys from MET and AEM shops as well?

Oh, LOTS of PADS...the GPS we had at the time wasn't accurate enough for surveying. Just like the Marines, buy cheap and replace often. If you know PADS, then I have a funny story for you. I managed to bust two of them in a span of about 5 minutes. Something about the way that the gyroscopes spun down as the machines broke...the first time wasn't so bad, but when the second one went, THAT was bad. $300,000 apiece, I think? I'm just glad they didn't make me pay for it.