[ansel12]

For me, the difficulty of quickly digging holes for the 155 spades during a quick-fire when seconds counted was an obvious point of impossibility for the female, also the fact that I could single-handedly remove, carry and set a spade demonstrated the extra possibilities and depth gained by having all-male crews.

[Chainmail]

For an M198 (and for that matter, an M777), digging in was a very manly exercise and could not happen quickly: the training standard for time for a "hipshoot" was 12 MINUTES to go from towed to emplaced and firing - and that was with a full 11-man gun crew plus driver whaling away !

I always hated to watch those things: men running, heavy tube, Travel Lock, trails, spades, wheels and firing platform all moving at once, sledgehammers, long pry bars, shovels, dust flying and my Battalion Surgeon standing by.

As far as I know, only the Marine Corps still thought that the 155 was an adequate expeditionary direct support artillery system. With the old M101A1, we could fire the first round in a hipshoot in 30 seconds and fire fore effect with the whole battery in one minute.

Honest.