Tag Archives: DOD

View from Above, Electric Acorn 105 edition

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This is a really great shot of what looks like an M119A2/A3 (L118) 105mm howitzer slung under a UH-60 Blackhawk, one of the few modern guns light enough– just 5,100 lbs– for such lifts.

Soldiers move a howitzer during a joint field training exercise with Marines at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, on May 4, 2021. The exercise enhanced partnership, interoperability, and readiness. Photo By: Army Spc. Jessica Scott VIRIN: 210504-A-PO701-870M

SPC Scott, on the same day, took this image, which gives a pointer as to the unit– the historic 3d Battalion, 7th Field Artillery Regiment. Formed in 1916 as the 7th’s old Battery C, they have been part of the 25th (Tropic Lightning) Infantry Division (Light) since 1986.

Schofield Barracks, HI — Soldiers from Alpha Battery, 3-7 Field Artillery, 25th Infantry Division Artillery conducted their M119 Howitzer night live-fire Table VI certification to set conditions for future artillery operations at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, May 19, 2021. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Jessica Scott)

Note the “Allstate” tube name.

You’re in good hands…

Little Groups of Marines

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Ten U.S. Marines with Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force – Southern Command teamed up with the U.S. Navy for a three-month deployment aboard the Spearhead-class expeditionary fast transport USNS Burlington (T-EPF 10), returning to Little Creek this week. The SPMAGTF-SC detachment provided the 1,500-ton Burlington, officially a noncombatant manned by civilian mariners of the MSC alongside a USN commo team, with an embarked security team, providing force protection for the deployment.

This is the type of tasking that little groups of Marines will increasingly see in the future, no longer just the stuff of the “Gator Navy.”

Of course, it is something of a case of everything old is new again, as the Marines for something like 220 years regularly provided small dets on surface ships for security/gunnery/landing force missions. Back in the day, ships as small as gunboats, sloops, and frigates often had Marines aboard, although the practice was trimmed back to cruisers, battleships, and carriers by the 1920s (with a few notable exceptions).

The Marine Detachment, gunboat USS Dauntless (PG-61) – mid-1942

The last Marine Carrier Dets, useful for guarding admirals, performing TRAP missions, and keeping an eye on “special munitions” (aka nukes) were disbanded in 1998.