How to fire artillery salutes

One Hand Clapping ^ | 6/12/2004 | Donald Sensing

[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.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

I am not the author, but I was in Germany 1983-86, first in Nuernburg, then Stuttgart.

[vetvetdoug]

That is a 1861 12# Field Howitzer on a #1 carriage.

[T-Bird45]

#4 - Great post, good info there, especially on the 75mm pack howitzer. My Pershing Rifles unit in college used one at Oklahoma State football games on every score. It was a great honor to service the piece. One member of the unit reloaded shotgun shells to fire.

OldCorps - I was in Wiesbaden, 1978-81, with 1st Bn., 333rd Field Artillery at Camp Pieri but spent some time at the Air Base because I was the S-1 in my last year there so I had to go to the Regional Personnel Center regularly.

[1stFreedom]

>>Since we were stationed near Giessen, 55 kilometers away from division headquarters in Frankfurt

Heh, I lived in Herborn Seelbach, not too far from Giessen.

Small world.

[vetvetdoug]

Thanks for the post. I watched the funeral artillery and cringed every time the announcers stated The Army 21 Cannon Salute.....any idiot better be able to tell the difference between a Marine and an Army redleg.

[killjoy]

I watched three different salutes, and at each site, there was an extra cannon that didn't fire.

I noticed that also.

[texasflower]

"Gun [x], stand by, FIRE"

That's what I heard also.

[Feckless]

Had the salute battery at Ft Dix for 4 years, Pack 75's. Hard to find parts is right. Usually took good part off one and had post engineers make a copy.

[Let's Roll]

Yes, that's what it sounded like to me too. They all fired five times and Cannon One (or whatever he called it - but it was something one) fired six times.

I was counting too and I'm a girl. :-)

[Cannoneer No. 4]

12 - Pounder Field Howitzer Model 1841 is what Steen Cannons calls it.

[vetvetdoug]

I read about the current problems for burial of veterans in the American Legion magazine. Some living veterans are forming honor guards and doing the job. Clinton cutbacks made burial duty way at the bottom of priorities for the military.

[MEG33]

With all the decussions of the memorials I have done I have not properly noted the magnificent performance of our military during this past week...

I salute them all .... the bearers of President Reagan's casket, honor guards, escorts, bands, choruses, those who delivered the salutes, the pilots..everyone of them have my appreciation.

Thank you , you made us proud to be Americans!

[texasflower]

Here. Read this.

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Oct2002/n10242002_200210243.html

"Digitized Bugle Studied for Use at Military Funerals"

[MEG33]

discussions

[MountainPatriot]

We have 50, plus one smart arse...

Figured it out by myself, but don't appreciate your being an arse.

[fso301]

Ok, here's my observation from this past week:

I didn't pay close attention when the casket was leaving California for Washington but at the capitol, I noticed there were three guns in front of the capitol but only two were firing. I looked but didn't see any indication that a malfunction occured but figured that must have been what happened. Then, at the Reagan library, I was surprised to see four guns and immediately thought one must be a spare but got quite a surprise when it fired. Since there were four guns and all four guns were firing. I thought "That's odd because four guns don't add up to 21 rounds". Then I realized that by having an even number of guns firing, the last gun to fire in a sequenced 21 gun salute would be the #1 gun.

Was my assumption correct that the last shot was intended to be from the #1 gun?

[NonValueAdded]

Sorry, I didn't mean for it to come off like that. I did not mean to imply what you infer, as Barry Farber says. To atone for my sin, the web site of the Military District of Washington, the wonderful men and women who managed this week's honors, covers this in their Origins of the 21 Gun Salute page. FRegards.

[fso301]

Does anyone know the current procedures for burial of vets? I've heard that with the army overcommitted, taps is being played as a cassette over a loudspeaker

I can help out concerning taps. Yes that was a ghastly practice of having a soldier show up to a vets funeral with a boom box. The "electronic trumpet" is only a marginal improvement. My understanding is that enough people had to endure the spectacle of listening to taps from a boom box at Grandpa's funeral that somebody did something about it. Congress has authorized civic groups such as Boy Scouts to train and play taps using a real bugle.

The volunteers are currently undergoing training and will begin playing at funeral services beginning July 4, 2004. What I don't know is what type uniform they will wear. My hope is that in such capacity, they will wear an official uniform such as worn by Civil Air Patrol or other auxilliary units.

[WorkingClassFilth]

Cool post! Thanks!

[sd-joe]

Re your question: "Then, at sunset a 50-gun salute was given what is the significance of that". See the following quote:

In 1842, the Presidential salute was formally established at 21 guns. In 1890, regulations designated the "national salute" as 21 guns and redesignated the traditional Independence Day salute, the "Salute to the Union," equal to the number of states. Fifty guns are also fired on all military installations equipped to do so at the close of the day of the funeral of a President, ex-President, or President-elect.