Posted on 06/12/2004 7:52:58 PM PDT by Cannoneer No. 4
Ceremonial artillery is a precise endeavor
I think that at every arrival and departure points of Ronald Reagan's remains during his funeral week there was a 21-gun salute fired by either Army or Marine gunners.
When I was a battery commander in 3d Armored Division in Germany, my battery was the division's salute battery. We did a number of salutes for V Corps Headquarters, so we might have been the salute battery for the whole corps, too.
My battalion was equipped with M109A3, self-propelled, 155mm howitzers.
Because salutes fire blank rounds (duh!) separate loading ammunition - the propellant and the projectile are separate - cannot be used. With no projectile, all firing bags of propellant in the M109-series guns would do is shoot a mass of flame out the muzzle. Not only is this dangerous to everyone around, it endangers the crew and wreaks havoc on the interior of the barrel.
Salute rounds are brass cannisters with a special charge inside designed to make a loud noise, a bright flash and produce lots of white smoke (tactical artillery ammunition is practically flashless and smokeless).
In Germany, my battery was assigned four 75mm pack howitzers to fire salutes. These date from 1927. Pack artillery, designed to be broken down and carried on muleback, was first used by the US Army in the 1830s. In WW II the 75mm pack was used by Army mountain and airborne units and Marines. It was towed by a jeep.
These guns haven't been manufactured in decades, so getting spare parts for them was always a challenge! My mechanics were very creative in keeping them ready.
Accurate counting is everything in firing salutes properly. Different persons being honored take different numbers of rounds fired. Heads of state get 21 rounds, lesser lights get fewer, according to a protocol worked out over about 200 years.
Of course, salute firing was an extra duty for my battery. We always had to perform our regular mission. Although my battery was the salute battery, manning the four pack howitzers required only a fraction of the soldiers under my command:
On each gun:
– a chief of section who was overall responsible for the gun and his gun's firing. [chief of the piece on a Napoleon]
– a gunner, whose job was the fire the cannon by pulling the lanyard, which released the firing pin to set off the round. This was his only duty once the salute began. [hey, that's MY job]
– a number one cannoneer, who job was to load each round into the cannon's breech. He also had no other duties when the firing began.
Other personnel:
– a chief of battery, a staff sergeant or a sergeant first class, who supervised the firing line and ensured the equipment and soldiers were ready for each salute. He also trained the whole team.
– an officer in charge (my XO, not me) who exercised actual command of the salute battery when performing ceremonies. (Although the artillery battery I commanded had salute battery duties, I assigned the salute sections to be commanded by my XO.)
– a smart NCO to count the rounds fired. For a 21-gun salute (which we never fired) the counter would signal the end is near by about-facing at round 19 and loudly announcing,"Nineteen!" to the chief of battery. On the next round the chief of battery faces about and announces, "Twenty!" This signals the XO to order one more round fired.
– a timer, equipped with a stopwatch, whose job was to ensure the correct interval between rounds was maintained - five seconds for funerals (we never did a funeral) and three seconds for all other occasions. After each round, the timer called, "One, two, three!" and on the word, "three," the XO signaled the next gun to fire.
We also took along several artillery and automotive mechanics who hopefully would have nothing to do. Alas, they were always employed.
Before the salute began, each chief ensured his gun and crew were ready, then faced the XO and raised his right hand straight up. When all guns signaled ready the XO raised his arm likewise. This signaled the ceremony commander (aka, "commander of troops", COT) that the battery was ready.
During the ceremony, the COT would present the ceremony's troops to the honoree by rendering a hand salute. When the XO saw the COT's hand approach his headgear, he would drop his arm at gun number one, which was the gun farthest to the XO's right. The section chief would drop his arm and the gunner would fire the gun. (In actuality, we just had the gunner fire when he saw the XO drop his arm.) Once the gun was reloaded and ready, the section chief would assume the raised-arm position, signaling the XO the gun was again ready.
With three-second intervals, each section had 12 seconds to reload, recock and assume the ready position that visually informed the XO gun in action. For a well-trained crew, 12 seconds is plenty of time to do that and for the section chief ensure all is proper. But when something on the gun broke during the firing sequence, which happened with distressing frequency, the pucker factor went up real fast. The section chief's race against the clock was relentless because the precision of the interval had to be kept!
If the chief decided the gun was out of action, he instantly would order all the crew, including himself, to kneel on one knee, facing the XO, and fold their arms across their chests. The chief of battery, who continually scanned the line, would notice and announce to the XO, "Gun One [or two, three, four] out of action!" the XO would know to skip it and proceed immediately to the next gun.
So each section knew he didn't really have 12 seconds to get ready to fire, they really had only nine. So the crews were very busy. There was one salute we fired with four guns beginning and two guns ending! It was, shall we say, exciting!
Occasionally the gunner would pull the lanyard and the round would not fire. Rare, but it did happen. (The ammo was as old as the guns.) When that happened we told the gunner, who would realize the misfire first, instantly to announce loudly, "Misfire!" The gunner of the next gun would hear and immediately fire with no further command. Three seconds between rounds was all we had!
A misfire always put a gun out of action because misfire procedures required 10 minutes to elapse before the breech could be opened to minimize the chance of a "cookoff" in which the propellant might be burning but not yet exploded. Extracting a misfired round was always very dicey but fortunately they were rare and caused no injuries.
I was especially proud of my salute crews because not one of them was an artilleryman. I assigned mechanics, cooks, supply clerks and other support soldiers to salute-gun duties. They performed magnificently, and at ceremonies the commander of troops and the honoree were always amazed that the salute was not fired by real artillerymen! The only actual artillerymen there were the XO, the chief of battery and the counter.
Not long before my command tour was over, the division-artillery commander reassigned salute duties to another unit on his own kaserne in Hanau. Since we were stationed near Giessen, 55 kilometers away from division headquarters in Frankfurt, the move made a lot of sense, and frankly, we shed no tears to give the salute duties away.
(Excerpt) Read more at donaldsensing.com ...
FAMPL Ping
ping
We had to do that in nord deutscheland, cause we weren't authorized salute rounds.
Carter era don't you know.
Toilet paper works real good for wadding, as long as you are upset by a few fires.
Very interesting and informative. Only on FR.
LOL Why wasn't this post here on Friday night?? During the salute at the library, my wife asked about the commands that were being shouted. Because I was trying to count the shots, I gestured for her to be quiet. That got her mad.
Seriously, it sounded like the person in charge was addressing each separate gun, viz "Gun [x], stand by, FIRE" ???
Have you ever heard of a case in which too few or too many shots were fired?
bttt
BUMP! to the Howitzers of the FIELD ARTILLERY !
The last redleg in our family was ggg grandfather Capt. S.H. Dent, commanding Dent's Alabama Battery, Hindman's Div., Breckenridge's Corps, under "that S.O.B. Bragg" at Chickamauga.
He didn't have much time to fire salutes . . . his unit pulled their 6 lb. Napoleons up Snodgrass Hill by hand because it was too steep for the horses. (My horse made it, but she wasn't dragging any field artillery.)
I noticed at the Capitol there were four cannons but only three were firing. Was the fourth on standby for just such a mishap? Or did it misfire early on? I ask because at the Reagan Library yesterday there were four cannons and all four were firing. Thanks for the insight.
But of course!
That would be my guess.
Is she of French descent? Or Irish?
we had a 21 gun salute in my back yard yesterday we live in anaheim i used blanks but my neighbors called the police
During the mid sixties, I played in both the Fifth Army Band at Ft Sheridan Illinois and then the 74th Army band at Ft. Harrison Indiana. While in the 74th Army band, I sometimes went out on 'bugle jobs' to play 'taps' at funerals even though my primary MOS was as a tuba player.
At each funeral, we had seven riflemen who fired their rifles in three vollies for the salute and then taps was played.
At one funeral on a very cold day in mid winter, on the first volly, six rifles fired and one misfired. On the second volly, the rifle that previously misfired successfully fired, but ALL the others misfired. For the third volly, it was a bunch of random shots as everyone had trouble firing their weapons.
And then, it was my turn. I unfortunately started out on the wrong note, too high, and everything went downhill from there.
I occasionally went out with Marine honor guards and on one job, they told me about one funeral that they were on where it was raining all day. The Marine folding the flag slipped and fell into the grave under the casket carrying the flag with him. He had to be helped out of the grave covered with mud.
Yep they should have shot 21 liberals out of the arty....the clintons gore kerry feingold mcain
maybe some hollywood types...
Maybe they could have shot baldwin over to France
Gun 2
stand by
FIRE !
Gun 3
stand by
FIRE !
I watched three different salutes, and at each site, there was an extra cannon that didn't fire.
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