After three years of active duty I joined the Colorado National Guard. I was Air Defense Artillery and assigned to a M110 self propelled 8”howitzer unit they sent me back to Fort Bliss and had me train and qualify as a Redeye gunner which is pre stinger shoulder held missile. At summer camp at Fort Carson they had me deliver chow to the firing batteries in the field and I was mesmerized watching these big guns fire. On one a company safety officer asked me if I’d like to pull the lanyard on one and with a little training and nervousness I got to touch off an 8” projectile it was pretty darn exciting!
And little did I know that a few years down the road I’d start my 33 year career with Department of Energy and in the early 80s I was working on the W79 an 8” nuclear projectile for the M110 it was a nasty little nuke!👊🏻🇺🇸