Letters To Home - January 27, 1951

Very strange weather. Mornings are below freezing, with a cold wind all day.
This morning we went to the firing range in open trucks; almost froze. I wound up in the pits, pulling targets most of the morning. Got a nice sunburn.

Fired the M-2 carbine for the first time. Had absolutely no trouble qualifying with it. In fact, shot top score of all the batteries, "B," "C" and Service. Grandpa must have taught me something with that old Stevens "Favorite" of his. At 200 yards I was three less than perfect. At 100 yards, for some reason, I dropped four points. I shot 193 out of a possible 200 for the day. One of the officers, who carries a .45 Colt pistol for his personal arm, had to qualify on the carbine for his service record. He borrowed mine to shoot for score. He did fine at 200 yards, but, somehow, he bumped the selector switch to "full-automatic" at the 100-yard range. The first shot was right in there, but then it went into full auto, started climbing, started punching holes in the sky. Took some ribbing from his fellow officers; we common soliders couldn't say anything.

I pulled targets all morning. Hard work, but fun, and I'm beginning to get acquainted with some of the guys in my new outfit. Some dumb ass, though, kept firing low all morning (on purpose, no doubt). Kept hitting the rim of the pit, knocking dirt down on us. Not dangerous, just irritating.

As I mention before, "B" Battery has a good feel to it. I'm making a few friends, enjoying myself. More varied personal backgrounds here. "C" Battery had many rebels in it; too many, for my way of thinking. Many Californians in "B," also many from New Jersey and New York. I've found only one Pennsylvanian so far. Haven't made up my mind about the rebels yet. Some seem fine, others very clannish.

Finally got assigned to the gun. I've been designated #5 man on the 7-man gun crew. My job is to put out the aiming stakes, also to put together the ammunition. The shell for the 105 m.m. howitzer comes in two parts, the projectile and the shell case. Inside the case are seven bags of powder, looking much like large tea bags of various sizes, strung together by a thin cord. When we start firing, the chief of section tells me what charge he wants, and I load the proper number of bags into the case. The #4 man sets the desired fuse on the projectile, and places the projectile into the shell case.

He then passes the complete shell to the #3 man, who in turn hands it to the loader. The loader throws it into the gun's open chamber. The assistent gunner then closes the breech and, on command, pulls the lanyard, which fires the gun. It sounds slow, but in theory is is supposed to be quite fast. I'm sure we'll find out just how fast it can be.

We've been doing some training with the gun, just learning it. The thing weighs 4900 pounds, with a barrel 91-inches long. The complete shell weighs 35-pounds. With a charge seven, it shoots a little over 8 miles.

Our crew will be firing a demonstration on Wednesday, so, naturally, we have the gun all cleaned and polished. Takes three men on the ramrod to clean the barrel. You first run a dry burlap bag through it, followed by a rag soaked in about a half-pint of oil. Quite a change from the rifle.

Got our Class "A" passes today. We now can go into town any time we're off-duty. Don't have to be back until reville. Dix was never like this.

Had three days of very warm weather, then rain for a day, and cold weather has returned.

Went into the hills today, about 20 miles out, and shot our cannons. I'm in the third firing section. Our gun had the honor of getting the target sighted in so the other three guns could fire on it. We shot 65 rounds of high explosive ammunition all by ourselves, while the other three guns shot about 25 rounds each. I really do enjoy shooting the 105; it's quite accurate, so I'm told, and isn't hard to operate at all. We shot at ranges from 3800 to 4500 yards, and were right on target most of the time. Our F. O.'s (Forward Observers) must have slept well last night. The commanding general was on hand, so we had to put on a good show for him. First on the target, first to finish firing, and the most accurate.

Was quite surprised at the lack of noise the gun makes, at least directly behind the gun. The noise seemed to be not much more than the small bazooka. Since I was handling ammo during the shoot, I was kept quite busy cutting charges and helping to load the shells. Fun, though. One of the sergeants, originally from the First Division, went all through World War II. He says we shot more rounds today than they usually shot during a week in combat.

I may go to Atlanta or Birmingham next week-end unless I'm on KP or guard duty. Some of the guards claim to be bothered by bob cats once in awhile. Haven't seen any yet, but did find some strange tracks, and the other night heard something I'd never heard before. At least the guards are allowed to carry ammo for their carbines.