Our robovac got carried away this morning and tripped the power strip in my office shutting down my PC and a few other devices. So, I looked around and found something heavy enough to prevent further impromptu blackouts. This cold war era piece of field artillery was just sitting on a shelf was just the ticket. Anyone care to take a guess?

quote:

Anyone care to take a guess?

A Crossfit workout routine for eye muscles?

A magnifying glass calibration image?

A piece of modern art for ants?

()

Well, the first one I posted was three times bigger than my 28" monitor. I'm still fiddling with it.

I think I have one of those. I don't remember where it is.

It's a piece of field artillery. Most likely from the Cold War era.

It’s a fully functional paperweight.

Pantel or quadrant mount?

Possibility part of the breach block assy on a field artillery howitzer. ............ drill sgt..00F40.. field artillery, Ft sill, Okla.

well,

it is a thingamajig or a whatchacallit,

or maybe a widget,

^Possibly a doohickey as well.

The world's smallest table saw?

Ya'll are close...sort of. It’s one of the ‘rail shoes’ for an Honest John rocket. It’s upside down in this photo but the round feature on the right is a spring piston. There are two shoes that hold the rocket to the rail until it’s fired. Once it leaves the launch rail the pistons are released and the shoes are ejected from the rocket. This came off one I fired in 1969 (1/31 FA, Camp Casey, Korea).

Trapper, very well done! I tried to find a drawing like that but my Google-fu was weaker than your's. Thank you for posting it.

While stationed at Fort Sill with "The Board", I was told about an HJ launch from Mo-Way during a firepower demo. Aimed to impact into Quanah Range, the crew had failed to release the hold-down straps and on ignition, the whole thing, missile and truck, headed downrange bouncing along the ground until the rocket motor burned out.

I'd have paid some good money to see that happen

It’s a thingy..

I have surmised that there is not one...ONE...subject or question that has been brought up on this forum where NO ONE knew the answer. Who in the hell woulda thought a random (or not so random) hunk of metal would be arbitrarily known, let alone, someone post a detailed spec sheet of what that random hunk of metal is and what it goes to?

It simply astounds me.....

Thanks for that video CAS. At the 3:35 mark it mentions the 4 spin rockets. However, It didn't tell the whole story about them. Stop at the 2:27 mark and look at that backwards 'S' shaped device on the end of the rail. It's there to knock off a small metal bar that the crew attaches near the tail of the rocket (not shown in the video). Just as the tail leaves the rocket the bar gets knocked off and that ignites the spin rockets just behind the warhead.


The big puff of white smoke came out when the rockets ignited. Experienced firing crews would prank new 2LTs by not telling us that there was about a 3 second delay upon firing for the thermal batteries to heat up. That 3 seconds was the longest in my life and trying to figure out what to do next. The crew had a great laugh though!