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well, first no injuries at all in these two mishaps. unfortunately, matt's wife was injuried in an auto accident near this same spot as the M109 mishap the day after. aside from this, it was another exciting weekend of shoot em up.

Shawn -

What's the battery designation of that Reb "anti-balloon" gun?!?! I don't think I've run into such an outfit before . . .

Rob Stone
Seventh Michigan Vol. Inf., Coy. B

danged Union termites

Jeff Lewis

Now I know the glorious Southern troops were known to use the DamnYankee supply system to meet many of their needs BUT ...

Given the predominence of faded blue kepis and sky blue trousers and teh absence of butternut. I think this may be a DamnYankee artillery piece.

In which case those would be Heroic and patriotic Confederate termites dedicated to preserving the Southern Confederacy.

no sirs, it is a reb rifle... the feller in the red shirt owns this rifle. he is from the great state of TN! one pull of the lanyard and he turned his rifle into a mortar... i am just glad no one was hurt. shocked but not hurt.
unfortunately, he made his carriage out of red oak (laminated to boot). we were all standing around scratching our heads and asking "why?". besides the red oak, some had mentioned that his trunions were in a rearward location in relation to the axle and also his elevation screw bolted thru in roughly the same location as his cheeks (weaking the trail)...
all in all he generated alot of interest, his rifle was the most photographed field piece at the competition!
shawn
rob, i am sure i have run into you at events. you live near willow run dont you? or are you the one who was writing a civil war novel?
one of the E7's working on the M109 was in the 9th MI...

See there was his problem, The Red Oak is the state tree of NJ and only my home part of the state is below the Mason-Dixon line. It probably came from North Joisey as Bob would say

Jeff Lewis

That will teach him to use White Oak or Ash, as well as to oil it.

Yeah, Shawn, I live in Ann Arbor. My latest re-write on the Civil War novel is in full swing as I try to make it into something that will interest a literary agent. See you @ Jackson next month?

Rob

Was the M109 chained down? I don't see how this could have happened unless it was not tied down.

Rob, what date is Jackson? The battery wont be there, but I probably will be.

Mark, I wasnt able to get as close as I would have liked to. I tried to get whatever info I could. All the GI's told me was that the tractor/trailer "hit" something on the shoulder of the road, that caused the trailer to go all katywampass, the load shifted and slid off into the ditch... the shoulders are so rough and the edges of the asphalt road so broken up it is no wonder. I was told all said and done, they had to bring out a second 88 to give assist.
the roads around camp up there are terrible! I cant believe that Crawford County and/or in cooperation with the army wouldnt at least have army routes in better condition, considering how the routes are used...

Shawn -

The Jackson event takes place this year on Aug. 25-26.

Rob

Shawn, Mark,

GI's told me was that the tractor/trailer "hit" something on the shoulder of the road, that caused the trailer to go all katywampass, the load shifted and slid off into the ditch...

I don't buy it,
Looks more like the driver wasn't paying attention and drove into the ditch. HET's operate on a hell of a lot rougher roads in Iraq and at very high speeds. Most of the follow on forces (4ID, 3ACR and 1AD) in 2003 came up on them with crews in place ready for contact.

I had a Super HET get goofy on one of my platoons tanks (B22) at NTC coming down Brown/Debmon pass on Barstow road in 2001. Trailer got all "Katywampass" but never shifted the load like that. The tank did not slide off but the forces were enough to break a set of trailer dolly wheels off. M106 is a lot lighter, makes me agree with Mark.

Joe D

If he was driving with one set of wheels on the shoulder it's possible that the edge gave way. Still looks like things weren't cinched down good. After all 'It wasn't a big move they were only going a couple miles'

i took the word of the guardsmen there at the scene at the time...
and also that the wrecker was trying every which way to tug/winch directly onto the 109. the 88 had just repositioned and was trying to winch it from the rear, they had been straddling the road (way too narrow to do so) trying to move it laterally.

they had been working on it for several hours by the time i got to see the thing. quite possibly they have managed to pull the vehicle up closer to being back on the trailer, i dont know. if the thing slide off into a ditch, than you guys are correct it wasnt chained down or at least not chained down properly. either way i am glad i wasnt involved... the one guardsman said it wasnt the drivers fault.

anyway, the most humorous and entertaining were the local deputies that were on the scene. they werent at their best...
shawn