Does LWMA still fire "Big Bertha", the 75mm howitzer, every time the Rangers score, or have they stopped doing that?

In my junior year I was Battalion Armor, I got to fire the cannon at the parades, and at the football games every time we scored. Once during a game there was an ambulance near the cannon and the nurse with the ambulance was very beautiful. I was talking to her during the game when I was supposed to be paying attention to the game. I didn't know if I had any other chance to see her again and I was pretty much excited about it.

Suddenly, I heard the crowd scream and I saw our team was about to score! I took off running to "Big Bertha" and got a hold on the rope, place the ring at the end of it on the trigger. The crowd was screaming really loud and our runner jumped and lots of players from the other team fell on top of him. It was a big mess on the goal line I couldn't see much, I decided to pull on the string, and it went BOOM! Our player was stopped about one or two yards from the goal line.

Then I saw Sgt. Melton and Sgt. Frank from the ROTC department came running down from the stands with unfriendly faces. I knew I had messed up and didn't know what to do next. The only thing that occurred to me to do was to reload the cannon as fast as I could. So I opened the cannon's breach and grabbed the red-hot shell with my left hand. I burned the hell out of my hand, and it was pretty bad. When Melton and Frank saw what I did they rushed over with a different expression on their faces. Probably they thought "What a stupid guy!" I knew it was dumb, but they put me in the ambulance with "THE NURSE" and put the S-2 in charge of firing "Big Bertha." Almost nothing was said to me because of the miss-fire, I saved myself that time, but there was a price to pay in pain, but it was worth it because the nurse and I became friends.

Parts of this story were deleted to protect   the innocent and the guilty. Edited by Brian V. Brunner('64)

Return to the Stories Contents Page.

Return to the Alumni Home Page.