Quote Originally Posted by Pete View Post
In retrospect that's something I should have been doing as the XO of a four-gun 175mm battery in 1980. The four M548 tracked cargo carriers in the firing battery had M2 .50-cals. Our main concern at the time was keeping the 175 rounds within 50 meters of our targets.
Jeez, Pete, don't you mean the M35 Deuce and a half? I only know of one other person herein that drove the M548 when Christ was a Corporal (Ken)

With that, a little history...


INTRODUCTION
The author’s introduction to the “fifty-cal” was the opportunity to fire a few rounds for familiarization during infantry training in 1967.

That was after we had been shown the basics of its operation: how to load, cock, fire, and clear it. Such was the extent of our exposure to the legendary “MaDuce,” officially known as “Machine Gun, Caliber .50, Heavy Barrel, M2.”

The instructor explained that the M2 had been in use since 1933. Some of the trainees, including myself, gazed curiously at the guns placed before us, thinking that they didn’t look that old.

Observing a US mechanized rifle company “trim the tree line” with a dozen “fifties” made me appreciate that the receiving end of such fire was a place no-one would want to be.