In 1967, I was a new Gunner's Mate (Guns) 3rd Class aboard a Fletcher-class destroyer, USS HALSEY POWELL (DD-686).  Another one of our Naval Reservists was a 3rd Class Fire Control Technican (FTG3) and assigned to the Mk 37 gun director.  A Fletcher-class destroyer has five 5"/38 single guns arranged two forward and three aft.  Most of the time these guns are aimed and fired under automatic control of the Mk 37 gun director. 

 

On this particular day, I was assigned as mount captain for Mount 54 (fourth gun,aft).  We were doing an air shoot on this day.  We'd broken out 55-pound VT fuzed, non-frag [proximity fuzed, non-fragmenting AA shells ], 38-pound powder cases and loaded them in the carousel for the gun.  The ready rounds were taken from the carousel and fed to the projectile and powder hoists.  From there, the shells and cases were fed to the gun.

 

The plan was for each gun battery -- Mounts 51, 52, 53, 54, and 55 -- to fire a set number of rounds per gun against a radar reflective sleeve towed by a target tug aircraft at a fixed altitude, course, and speed.  Grading was done by the number of white smoke puffs that came closest to the sleeve for each gun.  Each of the guns was to be under control of the Mk 37 gun director.  To do this, the gun director sends out a series of gun order electical signals.  These orders are synchronized by the gun's synchros and the synchros drive hydraulic power drives to position the gun in traverse and elevation.  The problem is that to synchronize with a minimum of shock to the occupants of the gun mount, the director and the gun mount should be pointing on roughly the same bearing (for example: 090 or directly off the centerline of the ship).  If there is small mismatch, the synchos will match-up to the gun order signals of the director without a lot of motion and over-travel.  However, if there is a large error -- say, the director was pointing at 090 and the gun at 180 -- the gun would rapidly swing through 90 degress to match-up with the director.  The acceleration and deceleration is not pleasant for the gun crew, nor is the over-travel correction, where you travel past the 090 point, and you have to come back.  The occupants of the gun house are slammed around the interior like ping-pong balls.

 

On this day we were pointing at roughly 160 and the gun director was pointing at 045.  When we synched-up, it was every man for himself to grab onto anything solid.  Mount 54 synched-up with only a couple of over-travel jerks and things proceeded more or less smoothly.  Once done, Mount 54 tracked the sleeve as the plane passed down our starboard quarter.  We fired 10 rounds in rapid fire and good hits were observed on the sleeve.  Mount 55 fired last and then the exercise was secured.  The ammunition remaining in the carousels was removed and the shells and ammunition was restowed in the ship's magazines. 

 

For the powder cases, it was a simple matter to reverse the power hoist to lower them back to the magazine where they could be put back into their metal storage cans and restowed.  For the shells, we had to stow them manually and lower them by hand.  This is not something to be taken lightly or for fumble-fingers.  As one of the 5-inch projectiles was being man-handled down the magazine scuttle, the upper man lost his grip.  The guy at the bottom made a double armed hug around the falling shell.  He caught it and the inertia took him to his knees.  Fortunately, the fuze did not hit the steel deck.  Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.  I discovered that your life does flash before your eyes in cases like this.

 

The rest of the cruise was spent doing maintenance on the 5-inch guns and we did not shoot any more.  However, our FTG3 was razzed for many a day after we returned to the Reserve Center for his misalignment of the gun director to the gun mounts.  As for the dropped 5-inch projectile, I was glad one of my guy's reflexes was very good -- or I might not be writing this story today.