Artillery Questions

[BigGunz90]

I PMed rvillac and he said I should post these here so everyone can see the answers. I really think I want to do CE instead of Infantry. I enlisted under Combat Support and am hoping to get artillery and I was wondering if you could answer a few questions:

1. Does every canoneer get issued their personal rifle?

2. What exactly is a hip shoot?

3. How loud are those howitzers?

4. Does everyone in the gun section have their own job or do they switch it up?

Thank you, I just wanted to get an insight on this

Thanks.

[SGT7477]

We were trained on every aspect of the gun, the guns are very loud and we were issued rifles when we hit the field this was the way it was from 1974-1977, OOHRAH.

[rvillac2]

1. Yes. Every Marine in every unit in the Marine Corps is issued a weapon. 0811 Sgts and below all carry rifles.

2. Whenever a battery moves to a new position, they are usually preceded by an advanced party that surveys and prepares each gun position. A hip shoot is essentially a battery pulling over to the side of the road, emplacing the guns, and firing rounds down range. Cannoneers are accustomed to emplacing the gun fast. However, the real challenges are for the XO and the FDC people who have to make their firing solutions really quick. These solutions require them to plot where exactly the gun is, where the target is, how to orient the gun in the direction of the target, what elevation angle to set the cannon, and how much powder to put in the breech.

3. Pretty loud. However, it's a percussive burst of noise and not that bad when wearing your ear protection. Marines on the flightline have it worse since jet noise is in a narrower frequency band and is persistent.

4. Yes, just like a baseball team, everyone has their own position but also knows every other position. It is not uncommon for Marines to switch positions between missions. However, Gunner, and A-gunner are typically the highest ranking Marines in the section.

Good questions, unlike some of our most recent posts.

[BigGunz90]

Alright thank you both, really hope I get this MOS.