POHAKULOA TRAINING AREA, Hawaii -- The earth trembles. Pebbles and small stones begin to bounce upon the earth. Dust dashes away from an enormous thundering BOOM!
“Thor’s Hammer” has spoken.
It feels like someone just shocked your chest with a defibrillator after witnessing the Howitzer’s powerful statement. Ears continue ringing, as the motivated screams and shouts of cannoneers erupt after firing off a 155 mm shell, launched by a charge four hotel propellant. It was the biggest charge gun four has ever shot at the Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island.
Guns Platoon, Bravo Battery, 1st Battalion, 12th Marines started launching rounds down range this week at PTA. No one was more motivated to start practicing on the range than them, said certified gunner with Thor’s Hammer (the name of gun four’s crew) Lance Cpl. Tony L. Kantor.
“That’s freakin’ motivating,” Kantor said of being able to send a 96 pound, 155 mm projectile down range that’s filled with TNT and shrap metal that has a 50 meter kill radius, 100 meter casualty radius, and can send shrap metal more than 600 meters — all after traveling up to 18.4 miles.
But Kantor admits operating a Howitzer is no easy task.
“It’s more complicated than people think,” he said. “A lot of time and effort goes into firing one round down range and people don’t know all of the work that comes in from different MOSs [Military Occupational Specialties] to make sure that happens.”
An artillery battery has five or more MOSs that support the actual firing process, including Motor Transport, Fire Direction Control, Forward Observers, Communications and Cannoneers.
According to Cpl. Dustin A. Solomon, Thor’s Hammer assistant gunner, the role played by the gun crew is the most important.
“The quick decisions and reliability of the NCO [Non Commissioned Officer] ranks and the hard work and sweat from the lower ranks is what makes a gun successful,” Solomon said.
The hard work and decisions are ultimately to support the infantrymen and air support in combat.
“We need to be able to get some rounds down to the grunts in a fast, accurate and safe manner,” said Staff Sgt. Octavius L. Stone, Thor’s Hammer section chief.
“We have to constantly suppress the enemy and be highly mobile to do so,” he said. “We move just as fast as the grunts to provide them support. When they move, we move.”
Another reason artillery batteries have to move so much is to prevent detection.
“As soon as we fire the first round, you can tell why it’s so easy to find us,” Solomon said. “If we sit in one spot for too long, we risk being countered by enemy artillery.”
The moving process was given perhaps as much repetition as firing during the batteries’ time at PTA.
Every two or three hours between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m., the batteries would hear over the radio, “Advanced party up,” meaning it was time to go to the next firing point. Getting there requires many steps and a lot of sweat.
“It’s always a race to set up first,” Solomon said. “It’s unsat [unsatisfactory] if you’re last and if you’re not first, then there’s room for improvement. There’s always room for improvement.”
Perhaps the longest and hardest part of going to a new firing point is setting up and striking nets.
“Striking nets sucks,” agree just about every cannoneer on the gun when asked about the task.
Still, nets have to be put over a gun’s two seven-ton trucks and a trailer to shade the ammunition and charges from the heat.
The nets are about 1,000 square feet and snag on just about every corner or sharp spot on the trucks. They also have to be staked in the ground with sledgehammers at more than 10 different points.
The individual cannoneer has just as difficult a job mentally as physically due to having to know so many things about the weapon.
“We have to memorize 10 propellants, six fuzes and 21 projectiles and know how to use them without hesitation when in combat,” Solomon said.
“We also have to practice and know how to accurately position a gun by factoring temperature, time in flight, quadrant (elevation) and deflection (left and right),” he said.
As if memorizing their MOS alone isn’t enough, 0811s (cannoneers) have to know much more beyond artillery.
“0811s are the jack of all trades,” Solomon said. “We have to know communications, trucks, patrolling, machine guns and our own MOS.”
Nonetheless, there wasn’t one Marine on gun four who didn’t enjoy their job and bringing down thunder.
“Our job satisfaction comes from jamming the round into the chamber, pulling the lanyard and feeling the earth quake and the force press against your chest,” Solomon said.