fencer24
Well-known member
Just got to thinking that it's been 30 years since we brought the cannon into the stadium. I was a newly assigned Captain in the ROTC detachment when cadet Dan Ashcraft let us know that his father wanted to donate a cannon for use in the games. Because I was Air Defense Artillery, I got the job of developing the procedures for its use.
It was kind of a safety nightmare because we used black powder (black powder!!!?)
with toilet paper wadding to shoot. My biggest fear was that we were going to try and reload too early and watch someone eat a facefull of burnt powder. So we set the requirement that it was only to be used at the end of the national anthem and then for each TD or FG, but not extra points because it wouldn't cool in time to reload.
We used to shoot it out over the grass of the North End Zone but we usually had to run the little kids off who were rolling down the hill instead of watching the game. Where were their parents?
My favorite memory had to be that 70 to whatever shellacking that caused us to run out of powder before the end of the game. I also spent a lot of time telling cadets not to consider loading a golf ball into it and shooting it at the then score board. Although, it would have been kind of cool.
I also remember trying to talk Gary Hughes to send the cannon to Georgia Southern for the playoff game, but he turned us down. I still say that was the reason we lost, not their triple option.
Thirty years - I can't believe it's been that long, but looking at the aged person on my driver's license, I guess it's right.
It was kind of a safety nightmare because we used black powder (black powder!!!?)
with toilet paper wadding to shoot. My biggest fear was that we were going to try and reload too early and watch someone eat a facefull of burnt powder. So we set the requirement that it was only to be used at the end of the national anthem and then for each TD or FG, but not extra points because it wouldn't cool in time to reload.We used to shoot it out over the grass of the North End Zone but we usually had to run the little kids off who were rolling down the hill instead of watching the game. Where were their parents?
My favorite memory had to be that 70 to whatever shellacking that caused us to run out of powder before the end of the game. I also spent a lot of time telling cadets not to consider loading a golf ball into it and shooting it at the then score board. Although, it would have been kind of cool.
I also remember trying to talk Gary Hughes to send the cannon to Georgia Southern for the playoff game, but he turned us down. I still say that was the reason we lost, not their triple option.
Thirty years - I can't believe it's been that long, but looking at the aged person on my driver's license, I guess it's right.
