Comments by "Helium Road" (@RCAvhstape) on "USS Iowa - What it's like to actually command a battleship" video.

  1. In the Marine Corps we had the 11 General Orders for sentries. Our drill instructors also told us about "General Order 12": To walk my post from flank to flank, and take no shit from any rank.
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  2. I was involved in field artillery years ago, and it was similar stuff. Each gun has its own logbook, and everything that is done with that weapon gets recorded. How many shells it fired, what the charges were, etc. These are all inputs to the computations, along with wind, temperature, humidity, and so on. The computations are mostly done with software, but, at least in my time, all artillerymen are trained to do things old school using firing tables and slide rule computers, which don't ever break down. The gunnery, when done right, is supper accurate. Batteries would sometimes write their name in the sky using illumination rounds and timed fusing at the end of a field exercise. The scariest thing I saw was a regimental time on target, when the entire 14th Marine artillery regiment timed all their guns to hit the same target at the same moment, resulting in a massive mushroom cloud. I'd hate to be on the wrong end of that.
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  3. A battleship doing 37 kts. [Darth Vader voice] "Impressive." Also not the first time I've heard of this. A guy I knew served on New Jersey and told me they were doing 35 kts one day.
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