TechIntersect

Today as I walked across the campus of Kansas State University, the windows rattled and shook because soldiers at Fort Riley were having artillery practice. As I heard the guns boom and felt the ground shake, I recalled that today was another anniversary of sorts from my days in the US Navy.

I will never forget the day that the Battleship Missouri unleashed her 16″ guns against Iraqi forces in Kuwait. February 3, 1991. I was off duty, asleep in my bunk when a tremendous BOOM! shook the ship. The first thing that came to my mind was “Oh no, we’ve struck a mine!” Ships were hitting mines, and we had been involved in destroying mines in the gulf over the previous several days. Then, as I came to my senses, I realized what was happening. The big guns of the USS Missouri were back in combat action for the first time since the Korean war!

Our berthing compartment was directly below Turret #2, so it is a difficult thing to ignore. But believe it or not, there were times that we were so tired we actually slept while fire missions were going on over head.

I was in “F” division, the group responsible for aiming and firing the world’s largest guns. I can remember being frustrated at first because we were divided into two teams and the other fire control team was getting all of the missions. When my team would take over, there seemed to always be a lull in the action. But the frustration was short lived because by the time the 1991 gulf war ended, the Missouri had fired over 800 one ton projectiles.

It is hard to describe the feelings associated with firing Naval Gunfire Support missions. It was something I had trained for over the six years I had been in the Navy. I had been to the gulf region once before on the USS Cochrane shortly after the USS Stark was hit, but we were never called upon to shoot. I can remember feeling disappointed because shortly after leaving the gulf, the USS Hoel, a sister ship to the Cochrane, was called in to destroy an Iranian oil platform. We wanted that job!

But in February of 1991, it was finally our chance to do the job we had trained long and hard to do. I am briefly visible in the YouTube video at 0:21 seconds. A minute later, check out the footage starting at 1:21. The dot you see flying out of the impact crater and arcing across the desert is a truck! These guns were big, they were bad, and the world will never see the likes of them again.

Just imagine firing something the size of a Volkswagen Beetle at a football field in the next town 20 miles away! That is what we did in the 1991 Gulf War. It’s a pity that the battleships were eventually retired, never to be heard from again. But I’m proud to have served on the world’s most famous battleship.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS