My first outfit
after MCRD San Diego, CA and 2nd ITR in 1958 was the 1st 75mm Anti-Aircraft (SkySweeper)
Battalion in 29 Palms, CA. The Marine Corps Base in 29 Palms is 994
square miles of sand and dried up lava flows with both flat deserts
and hills. The temperature was 120° up to 133° in the
summer and below freezing in the winter. What a fun place for me to
be stationed for almost four years.
The SkySweeper is a 75mm
Anti-Aircraft gun that was deployed in the early 1950s. It was the
first Anti-Aircraft gun to combine all the various systems needed
for effective use against high-speed aircraft into a single
carriage, namely radar, an analog computer for calculating "lead",
and an autoloader for high-speed fire.
Here are some old videos of the SkySweeper in action:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI1MqVqDKT4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPFJIKr3A38
Now, that sounds good - but
remember this was 50s technology. In live firing in the field, a
drone would fly over towing a wire mesh banner on a steel cable that
would give a bigger radar signature than the drone so that the gun
would lock onto the banner. That’s how it was supposed to
work. Frequently, when it was on fully automatic and firing at high
speed, it would hit the banner several times cutting off part of the
banner or twisting the banner so that it gave a smaller profile than
the drone on the radar. That would make the guns shoot right up the
cable and hit the drone which would then burst into flames and
usually crash into a nearby hill or canyon. It looked like some
special effect out of a movie. (The drones
weren’t supposed to be shot down, but it was pretty neat).
Since this was a live
firing range, aircraft were restricted from flying over, but every
now and then someone in a small plane or a commercial airline on its
way to Palm Springs would cut across the base. As we were firing and
the banner was being pulverized, the Anti-Aircraft gun would go nuts
and try to lock onto the plane. The plane was obviously giving a
bigger radar profile for it to fire at. Fortunately, the safety
officer was always able to stop it in time. Sometimes the guns would
even lock onto trucks on a hill down range - almost giving some lost
Marine driving around a really bad day.
In 1960 the 1st 75mm
Anti-Aircraft (SkySweeper) Battalion was disbanded and re-formed as
the 1st Light Anti-Aircraft Missile Battalion or 1st LAAM Battalion replacing
the 75MM guns with the Hawk Missile. I was in 1st LAAM until
1962. Part of the time I was TAD to Base Special Services
teaching photography until I left the Marine Corps.
Paul Prosise Bio Page
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