The Madison journal. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1888-current, 1917-09-29

tirfpat, things before Grin~. \ dr'r
Of men came ON board 20 @ru-1uH0-h'
the other day ThuG-h Wil'ur. they
had only n mere td,.a Of naval di~'i-
pin, they had only ro,u ~ r," train
ing station for few weeks. They
didn't ask who th, "tnp>tde @ny was
walking up and down the deck Wl'h
an opera gl;$~ under his arm doing
no work They knew rhat hn WAS
the officer Of the deck. Eur IN man-".-
War terms they We're Just green.
The first thing was to show 'h"m
gun. The second. which WAS the bust
ness end of the gun. AMI whore The
=,ln was loaded. Aud in the doing IN"
loading machin" was Introduced.
( contrivaucr which Stimulates ;h'
/ hreech of gun. i'm which the blue
| jacket lad is taught to pump In pro
/ iectileS and powder at the rate ot H.
Il minute. Then >uh-caliher work.
which mems that small gun clawped
on the big one i fired ut Il small tar
get close aboard
With all hands properly Keyed mp
and full of pep and hope, there was
the first target practice. Not one az
the rockies had ever heard anything
bigger go off than a Fourth OF July
firpCrackcr. Three gun crews were I"
fire at the target in what is known ~
short-range practice. which consists ot
firing mt mark not very large ami M
moderate distance. The doors OF each
p,In commandment were closed, so that
each gun was comparatively isolnted
from the other and from communirh-
ton with the entire ship except by tel
ephonp or voice tube. Several runs
were made across the course; ranges
were taken down; the sight-setter SET
his sights. and outside Of actually mr.
: ing the pieces il was the first t0uch
K in the test.
J. One of the precautionary measures
which is aIwatS taken in target prnc-
n tice * that after a round Is fired the
r first Ioader looks through the bore ot
a the gun tn see that there are no I'M
o burned powder grains or parts ot the
pov,ler bag or any smoke or flame lri'
!. in the gun. An automatic alr-blaS'
drives the gases ont of the muZZle
:: thereby preventing premature exp"
m sion. Neither the shell nor the pow
y. der charge are put in the br"ech UNI
=, this man sings out "bore clear. Bn
N M this practice the wind was on th'
~ bow and drifted the smoke into IN
ot gun parts and the muzzle of the gun
nt taking ii longer 10 clear the bore.
The Youngsters knew and had bee
# fold what farebRcks meant and tina
a any premature explosion would sch
he all hands to kingdom come. The orde
he commence firing" had been given. y
ID, most instantly the gun pointers foun
their range and had the croSS-wires !
,ot the sights. right on it. Number on
,et gun fired right after number two. y
he the breech of number TWO was throw
,ot omen some smoke and powder gaS'
roI from number one were blown into u
cir muzzIe. The zecond loader, who's
a duty II was To exalaine the bore. roo
the II good look through it, and. Seeil
lin that the bore was apparently tiil'
ave with smoke, sang out: Bore II
eir clear
the Now. the lad with the powder char
felt inS,inctively that something Z"
has wrong. Anyway, his routine was
ing terfered with In his arms he had I
hat powder. He knew It's potential eners
ing He knew the danger. So h" thr'
ing himself fiat on the deck and wrapp
rom himself around the powder bag II
raw like an elephant wraps his tru
! to around "a peanut He hal to Shi'I'
iber He believed that the life of the -
rry. depended upon him.
RIDER With only months training
ully boy had rlready the Instincts OF
.om- man-o'-war's man. He was willing
nave sacrifice has life to save the ship q
he did it upon his own resp"nsibH
gun without auybody'~ Say-So. He hnd
an ready learned initiative.