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Posted: 9/9/2024 2:49:43 AM EDT
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I recently met a very young 03XX and was talking about 81mm mortar platoons. He was surprised when I mentioned how 81's platoons always carried their mortars everywhere. Even in unit with working M-274 Mules we had to have our guns on us everywhere. It was my turn to be surprised when he told me that today 81's platoons have trucks which carry their guns for them. When did this change? |
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In the 80’s I was in a reserve infantry company in the weapons platoon. I was an 0331 with an M60e3. Our 41’s only had 60mm at the company level. I’d see the 81s and M2 heavy MGs humped on the Bn exercise of the year. 1stBn, 25 Marines, now reflagged 2/25. The heavy machine guys had a two wheeled cart to drag the receiver but I only saw that used once. That cart was very limited in usefulness. Great on a road or packed road. Real shitty in soft sand. I watched that whole video about the MoH awardee that joined at 14 during WW2 where he talks about retrieving a M2 on a cart in the Okinawa sand and it was all they could do to drag it in the loose sand. I related to that right off. During the Bn exercise near Cape Cod I bumped in to a fellow machine gunner I went to SOI with. He was one of the poor bastards pulling the MG cart like a donkey on a sand path. We humped the mark19 from Geiger to the range. that sucked. A 4.2”? NFW, I did those in the guard. We were mech in a track but we had guys take were AD and did them off of trucks. Literally crew drill was dropping the base plate off the back of the rolling truck followed by the bridge then the tube, etc. No one is humping a four deuce baseplate or bridge. I’ve humped the 60mm base plate for a short bit to give the 41s a break, they suck. Iirc they talked about the 81 bipod legs being the sucky payload when humping the 81 in school. I never had the pleasure of working on an 81. 60mm in the Marines in just fam firing sitting on the base plate and trigger firing and a 60mm insert inside the 4.2 for training in the guard. Being OJT on mortars and Not having attended a real mortar school I missed out on the 81. |
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Yup. Humping a 4.2 is not something that any unit would ever try to do. Carrying it from a vehicle to a nearby shooting position is possible but actually humping it for any real distance is not feasible. And the M-2 cannot be broken down into components which could be practically carried for any distance. The weight of the components of the 81 are really at the edge of human capability. I served when we were using the M-29 - the older 81 with the threaded outer surface. At that time most units in CONUS had the one-piece aluminum baseplate. On Okinawa some units still had a few of the two-piece base plates - an inner, center piece which fit into the middle of a larger outer ring. The one-piece baseplates weighed 25 lbs while each of the two-piece baseplate halves weighed 25 lbs. Most units required us to carry these either in our hands or balanced on our shoulders - we weren't allowed to strap them onto our gear. The bi-pods were the worst, weighing at 40 lbs. The best you could do was tighten your shoulder straps so the frame would take the weight and distribute it (unevenly) to your shoulders. |
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Originally Posted By Ronin76: And the M-2 cannot be broken down into components which could be practically carried for any distance. We took them on a 20 miler in ITB. Rarely saw them humped in the fleet though (I went medium guns). |
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Originally Posted By dogsplat: 0351 (82-86 Dragons) Our mortar platoon humped those tubes and plates. Added a 50 cal platoon around…. 84 maybe. They brought them on a hump once. Once. Holy crap I was 0351 82-86. OUR 81’s humped all their shit. OUR 50’s humped their shit at Pickle Meadows. Epic really. |
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Originally Posted By Ronin76: I recently met a very young 03XX and was talking about 81mm mortar platoons. He was surprised when I mentioned how 81's platoons always carried their mortars everywhere. Even in unit with working M-274 Mules we had to have our guns on us everywhere. It was my turn to be surprised when he told me that today 81's platoons have trucks which carry their guns for them. When did this change? 0341 here. 2004 to 2012. We had the capability to hump the guns, ammo, etc. We often jumped them in training. We generally did not do so downrange because the nature of a counter insurgency requires a level of responsiveness you don't get from a battalion level asset having to be humped. Trucks were routine. |
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Originally Posted By LineOfDeparture: 0341 here. 2004 to 2012. We had the capability to hump the guns, ammo, etc. We often jumped them in training. We generally did not do so downrange because the nature of a counter insurgency requires a level of responsiveness you don't get from a battalion level asset having to be humped. Trucks were routine. Originally Posted By LineOfDeparture: Originally Posted By Ronin76: I recently met a very young 03XX and was talking about 81mm mortar platoons. He was surprised when I mentioned how 81's platoons always carried their mortars everywhere. Even in unit with working M-274 Mules we had to have our guns on us everywhere. It was my turn to be surprised when he told me that today 81's platoons have trucks which carry their guns for them. When did this change? 0341 here. 2004 to 2012. We had the capability to hump the guns, ammo, etc. We often jumped them in training. We generally did not do so downrange because the nature of a counter insurgency requires a level of responsiveness you don't get from a battalion level asset having to be humped. Trucks were routine. This. In training, almost always carried them. Bridgeport was a lot of fun  . I never saw anyone hump 81s deployed. The weight gets pretty unreasonable when you add in ammo and armor. |