F86D at Wyoming National Guard Headquarters, Cheyenne Wyoming
M7 105 Howitzer Carriage
These displays are at the Wyoming National Guard Headquarters in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Both displays commemorate the Wyoming National Guard, Air and Army, during the 1950s.
The M7 was an outstanding weapon in its day but in c. 1958 when I was commanding a battery of them it’s day had long passed. At AFT we drew them from the NJARNG installation on Fort Drum and put them in a convoy headed for the field. On day as I was training the column I saw what appeared to be white smoke come from one of the M7s. I dashed up and found that a hose leading to the radiator had burst, hence the white vapor, not smoke. They were unreliable. Sometimes, when they were immobile, we would pull them into position and fire them. Other times they were replaced by a towed 105. We got the shells out but it was a totally unacceptable situation.
ReplyDeleteLater we received the M109 from Germany where the howitzer had been remanned, not the carriage. That’s another story.
Jay