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morganbj -> RE: So, what's the biggest gun you guys have fired? (6/21/2010 8:55:13 PM)
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ORIGINAL: Termite2
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ORIGINAL: bjmorgan
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ORIGINAL: Termite2
As a tank gunner; 152mm, 105mm and 120mm.
But the most fun was hip firing an M-60 MG-stupid stupid stupid-but FUN
Good grief! I forgot about the 152mm. We had 'em in the early 70's before the Army came to its senses. Yeah, I fired that a few hundred times, too. When the damn thing misfired, which it did a lot, we had to push the round out of the tube with the cleaning rod since the round had no brass cannister to extract it with. So, the thing's in the chamber, having been "fired," and we're outside inserting a 12' rod in the tube. Great fun.
Only got to fire the missle once, though. Those things were pretty expensive, as I recall. We used to call the Sheridans BEWMs, for Broken Electric War Machines (a play on a popular toy being sold then). What a piece of crap it was. It even came with its own toilet paper.
It was a great weapon[;)] I liked how the propellant would fall out on the turret floor and when you moved your boots over them, you get little sparks
What's not to like about the Sheridan; I watched one burn, the armor burning made a nice fire. We like to get the new guys to load, that way; it was great fun to watch them when the gun would go out of battery on firing; not so much fun for the gunner when the "cherry" juice would spray him when that happened. The M60A2 was a little better; at least the armour didn't burn and the gun would stay in battery most of the time.
I didn't get to fire it; but was near[me and everyone else in a 5 mile radius] when they set off a nuclear simulator, would like to set one of those off in my backyard, that would get homeland security's attention in a hurry.[:D]
Saw one catch fire and blow up on a Reforger exercise in 1973, I think it was. One guy never found, one died on the chopper to Nuremburg. One guy made it half-way to San Antonio. All because some jerk was trying to fix the heater while smoking a cigarette. The thing was sans ammo. I can't imagine what would have happened had we not downloded the basic load before the exercise.
Your post brings back many crummy memories. Thank goodness they dumped those pieces of crap.
The M60A2 was a little better, I guess, but it was still a waste of a good tank gun platform. The A1 was MUCH better in taking out other tanks. Glad they ditched that one, too. (And the turret design on the A2 was bizzare. Some guy smoking the funny green stuff thought that one up.)
Enough. Let's get back to seeing the other answers.
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