It's About Liberty: A Conservative Forum

Topics => Military News/Veterans => Topic started by: Libertas on August 29, 2012, 06:56:09 AM

Title: 5" inch gun
Post by: Libertas on August 29, 2012, 06:56:09 AM
I've witnessed them in action, never saw anything larger fired so I cannot compare to anything else, but it was fun to see.  Good links in the comments too.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/photo-tour-shows-what-makes-the-5-inch-weapon-tick-on-the-uss-barry/ (http://www.theblaze.com/stories/photo-tour-shows-what-makes-the-5-inch-weapon-tick-on-the-uss-barry/)

Title: Re: 5" inch gun
Post by: EW1(SG) on September 02, 2012, 07:58:48 AM
One of my ships, the USS Gray (namesake of SGT Ross Franklin Gray, USMCR; a WWII hero), was attacked by two Russian fighters off the coast of Viet Nam during that conflict.  She put up such a devastating wall of fire with her 5" gun, that one of the attacking aircraft (piloted by NV regulars) crashed on his inbound run attempting to avoid the fire...and the other peeled off and returned to base.

While taking on ammo at Seal Beach, after the fire and safety parties were manned up one weekend (most of the ship's crew on liberty), there were only TWO of us to move 300 rounds (oddly 42 pounds each, like the charges pictured at Libertas' linky...but a different kind of gun.  Not the same charges.)  Me and SK1 Flowers, spent a very loooong time moving ammo that day.

Spent some time on the gun line out at San Clemente with the New Jersey after she was recommissioned in the early 1980s.  Our gun would cause the Gray to jump over about an inch when she was fired~in spite of the big sonar dome directly under her.  I cannot imagine what it felt like on those battleships throwing Volkswagens at goats on the island out there, but the gout of flame (even in daytime) was awesome.  (First time they test fired after recommissioning, they were stunned at how much PAINT simply flaked off the deck structures...they kept her out for three days to repaint in order to deny the Soviets intel on the effect of the guns.)

When we would go out to San Clemente for gunnery practice, the Marine range officer would let us fire a few rounds for warmup with his Marines, then he would come out and ask us to miss on purpose so he could train his Marines how to give corrections to us.
Title: Re: 5" inch gun
Post by: Libertas on September 03, 2012, 07:02:11 PM
Nice EW1, I had only seen a 5" fired, a Sea Sparrow missile on a drone and the Sea Whiz...oh and plenty of holes blown in the ocean by the air wing to impress visiting VIPs.  My working parties were more mundane, moving food & equipment to ships stores while doing UnRep or at pier, or off a helo (big twin rotor jobs, forget the designation..  Lots of lifting and carrying punctuated by boredom and repetition, but, stuff don't move itself!
Title: Re: 5" inch gun
Post by: Glock32 on September 04, 2012, 07:53:01 PM
There's something about the old battleships.  I have toured the USS North Carolina many times, and it never gets old.  It has nine 16 inch guns.  The powder rooms beneath the turrets are quite impressive, no steel or sparking metal of any kind. Everything is brass.  The powder loads weigh something like 200 pounds each. It's kind of hard to fathom launching a shell that weighs over 2,000 pounds in excess of 20 miles. I've heard Marines and Army admit you haven't experienced artillery until you've experienced naval artillery. Nothing land-based can even come close.

Anyone who ever gets a chance to tour a WW2 vessel should do so.
Title: Re: 5" inch gun
Post by: benb61 on September 05, 2012, 06:02:35 PM
I had the chance to tour the USS Alabama about 15 years back and it was a grand ship.  The USS Midway is docked in San Diego and I have thought about going to the museum there but just haven't yet.  Soon...
Title: Re: 5" inch gun
Post by: Libertas on September 06, 2012, 06:55:57 AM
My last cruise was on the Coral Sea, commissioned 2 years after the Midway, sold for scrap back in '93.  The other ship I served on was the Kitty Hawk, and she was decommissioned in 2009 and is resting at Puget Sound.  Never set foot on a battleship, I'll have to remedy that sometime.