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Get that howitzer off our beach!


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Bob Hudson

Tonight - Saturday night - we walked out to the end of the pier in Oceanside, the town right next to Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton.

 

There was a special event going on at the beach and, as often happens around here, Camp Pendleton’s Command Mechanized Museum brought out a vehicle to put on display. In this case it was an M107 self--propelled gun which was parked on the sandy beach right next to the large truck and trailer that had carried it from Pendleton to the beach.

 

If you've never seen a self-propelled gun, well it looks like this (this is an Army version):

 

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About the time it got dark they started to pack it up and that was when they discovered the tow rig was stuck. They started up the M107 and the sound of that attracted quite a crowd as it spun around in the sand and maneuvered to get into position to tow the truck and trailer. That was quite a production: when the tracked rig turns it makes some deep ruts and high berms out of the beach sand - combine that with the noise and the very long gun barrel and it was enough to get people lined up along the sidewalks, the pier and balconies of nearby condos:

 

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Bob Hudson

The M107 first backed up to the truck's trailer and towed quite a ways backwards. After that the M107 was shut down to cool off and then moved around to the front end of the truck to tow it from the sand to the very narrow strip of road that runs between the sand and the beachfront homes and condos. Retired Gunny James King and his two helpers did a great job of moving that long combo of M107, truck and trailer around a lifeguard tower and palm tree onto the road. They gave me a flashlight at this point and I went down the road a bit and blocked traffic since no one could get through while the rig was being moved onto the road and the M107 loaded onto the trailer.

 

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Bob Hudson

Since I was playing traffic cop, my wife Teri took these photos:

 

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It was kind of fun to stop vehicles and tell them they couldn't get through because there was artillery blocking the road :)

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Bob Hudson

My son asked if anyone gave me any problems when I told them they couldn't get through - I told him I let them know that besides my flashlight I had a big gun pointed at them:

 

m017front.jpg

 

Kudos to Gunny King, who is now a volunteer at the Camp Pendleton’s Command Mechanized Museum since his retirement in February. There's an article here about him and the museum: http://www.thevillagenews.com/story.php?story_id=35661 and here he is on a vehicle he restored to get the museum going:

 

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My son (and I) have always enjoyed crawling in and around the many vehicles Sgt King has brought to local events including the annual airshow at MCAS Miramar, but I have to say, the howitzer turned tow truck on the beach was the most fun yet and now I have my own story about my small part in getting the artillery off the beach. ;)

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Bob Hudson

For those of you who have been to Oceanside (which is anyone who ever went through Camp Pendleton) I wanted to give an idea of where this all happened. In the photo below the row of lights are on the pier itself, which is at the foo7 of Mission Ave. in downtown Oceanside. The self-propelled gun is sitting on the narrow road that runs pretty much the entire length of Oceanside's beach, and which runs under the pier.

 

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Bob Hudson
wish they had that up on Northern California beaches! ABN thumbsup.gif

 

Wish I had a photo of three years ago when the Navy brought one of these up on the beach - we stood less than a hundred yards from it when it started up to head back up the coast to its base on Camp Pendleton: talk about a sandstorm!

 

lcac.jpg

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  • 3 weeks later...

Many thanks for sharing the pictures of the M107. Nice to see the Howitzer. Back 25 years I was a Gunner on the M107 in the Germany Army.

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  • 9 months later...
tango1niner

I love the night pics, most non vet civilians have no idea as to the size of that equiptment. Kind of reminds me of when stationed in Europe and the Cav would drive their 88's ( exhaust grates glowing dull red ) around the Kaserne at night heading out to the alert site with the full compliment of armored vehiciles.

 

thanks for the pics

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everforward
Wish I had a photo of three years ago when the Navy brought one of these up on the beach - we stood less than a hundred yards from it when it started up to head back up the coast to its base on Camp Pendleton: talk about a sandstorm!

 

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I was just gonna ask if they ever have an open house at the LCAC base further on down the 5 Freeway...Been by it many times and always thought it'd be cool to see those....even cooler to take a ride..!! :w00t:

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I was just gonna ask if they ever have an open house at the LCAC base further on down the 5 Freeway...Been by it many times and always thought it'd be cool to see those....even cooler to take a ride..!! :w00t:

 

I've never heard of an open house there, but they seem to show up on the beach every year for Oceanside Harbor Days in mid-September.

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  • 3 years later...
1SG_1st_Cav

Just for clarification, the M107 is a 175mm GUN. It is not a Howitzer! It fired a 147 pound projectile at a max range of 32, 400 meters, and a velocity of 3,000 FPS. The Howitzer version built on this same self-propelled chassis was the M110 8" Howitzer. I worked with both of these weapon systems at Ft Sill in 1963, Germany after we deployed a Bn of 175mm Guns to Bamberg, Germany (6th Bn, 10th Artillery) from 1963-66. The with the 7th Bn, 15th Artillery (8" SP) at Ft Bragg from 1966-67. Then deployed with them to Vietnam in June 1967. In November 1967, we converted some of our 8" Howitzers to 175mm Gun at LZ Pony, south of Bong Son. The Ordnance folks got to the point they could swap a tube out in about two hours. The maximum number of Full Service rounds for a 175mm Gun firing Zone 3 was only 300 rounds, and the tube had to be replaced. I transferred to 1-th FA (155mm Howitzer) in February 1968 in Vietnam. Danny

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