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Subject: M777
Smoke WP    4/9/2006 4:49:20 PM
Can anyone here provide a brief description on how to handle a mis-fire?
 
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Carl S       9/28/2006 7:29:51 PM
"
One question from someone with almost no knowledge of artillery: Those wheels on the M777, if you pull it on anything soft or wet (mud), will it not sink in very easily? They look very small and thin compared to the size of the cannon. How does it perform in in terms of mobility in somewhat more rugged terrain? Do you have to rely on helo's then?"

It does not look like serious problem to me.  The M198 was much heavier & the tires were not much larger.  In Korea, Okinawa, and Tinian or the Phillipines we had no problems.  Neither did my reserve artillery unit have a problem in Wisconson in January.  At least off road.  The reserves had a problem the regular marines saw a lot less of.   To shoot we had to make a 280 mile one way trip to a NG camp.  The wide all terrain tires did not last well at steady 50 mph speeds on the Wisconson interstate.  After a half dozen round trips chunks of tread started flying off.  We were allowed to change over to a comercial highway tire.  Although it was narrower we had no trouble with it either in mud, snow or desert rock. 
 
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Sabre       9/29/2006 1:32:59 AM
God have mercy, Carl S, I can't imagine a 280-mile road march. Well I guess I can, I've done it, but every time you want to go shoot? That's insane!
 
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S-2    Sabre Reply   9/29/2006 3:05:14 AM
220 miles to shoot from Portland AFB, our home station, to YFC (Yakima Firing Center).  
 
I once drove from Portland to Ashland, Oregon (240 miles on a friday afternoon), hooked up with 1-186 Inf. that night for a bus trip of another 400 miles overnight to pull a mortar LFX at Camp Roberts, Calif. the next morning.  Fired until 2200hrs. then bused back to Ashland, Oregon that Saturday night and arrived Sunday morning.  Spent Sunday recovering from the field and drove home to Portland that night.  Life in the Guard/Reserves.
 
I was in grad school at the time with an exam that Monday morning.  Didn't go well.
 
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Carl S       9/30/2006 4:30:47 PM
"God have mercy, Carl S, I can't imagine a 280-mile road march. Well I guess I can, I've done it, but every time you want to go shoot? That's insane!"
 
The things you never do in the regular military....

In a good year we could rent cheap a fenced lot with a old shed & leave the bulk of the rolling stock at McCoy for several months.  Say we'd shoot three drills, shift it all back to Joliet for a couple months maintinance.  Do AT and move it back up to MCoy for several more months in the autum.

In a bad year McCoy would be booked up with higher priority active service units and we would have to make the round trip each time.   Sometimes we had the extra money to pay reservists to drive the rolling stock up the previous weekend or bring it back later.  Other times we would just bite the bullet and roll-shoot-roll.

At some point we figured out that a Humvee will fit in the back of the five ton truck.  We were lucky enough to have a right sized ramp at the reserve center & of course McCoy had a ramp.  Eleminating the the need for 6-8 drivers & A drivers helped a lot.

Getting on & off a airplane is something else reservists do much better than active service.  I think I supervised that exercise a avg. of four times a year for a decade.  A reserve unit with average leadership can get on or off a plane with zero fuss.  I watched some regular units we trained with do the same thing with an incredible ammount of flailing about and two written but contradictory plans for doing it in hand.  I'd stand there watching them wondering if I'd been that bad when on active service.
 
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ArtyEngineer       10/2/2006 11:46:59 PM
Tomorrow I take the first M777A1 (Digital Fire Control Equipped M777's) into one of the most critical tests any new weapon system can do.  Cant tell you what the test is exactly, nor will I be able to give results.  However you all can probably guess what is of utmost importance for an artillery system.  So I would like as much positive thoughts sent in the direction of Yuma tomorrow as possible!!!!!!
 
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Smoke WP       10/3/2006 1:37:51 PM
ArtyEngineer,
 
One picture is worth a thousand words
 
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Smoke WP    M777 improvements   4/13/2008 9:49:30 AM
Happened to speak to a Gunner back from A'stan, he mentioned that there have been over a 100 improvements to the M777 since its deployment to A'stan. Anyone have knowledge of the improvements?
 
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Carl S       4/15/2008 12:41:05 PM
"Tomorrow I take the first M777A1 (Digital Fire Control Equipped M777's) into one of the most critical tests any new weapon system can do.  Cant tell you what the test is exactly, nor will I be able to give results.  However you all can probably guess what is of utmost importance for an artillery system.  So I would like as much positive thoughts sent in the direction of Yuma tomorrow as possible!!!!!!"
 
I wonder if the results can be told now...
 
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