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| A Guard CH47 lifts off with a civil war era cannon slung under its belly (Photo courtesy John Carrington, Savannah News) |
Civil War era cannon
April 12, 2007 – Aviators of the Georgia Army Guard’s Company B, 169th Aviation Regiment, based at Savannah’s Hunter Army Airfield, airlifted a Civil War cannon and its gun carriage from inside Fort Pulaski National Monument for an upcoming battle re-enactment.
The move was conducted by one of the unit’s CH-47D Chinook helicopters and Soldiers on the ground.
A fully functional, reproduction Civil war cannon is to have been positioned on the other gun’s carriage at Battery Park on Tybee Island. It will be fired during a two-day celebration commemorating the 145th anniversary of the battle during which Union forces destroyed the 7-foot-thick brick walls that surround Pulaski, said the monument’s superintendent Charles E. Fenwick.
While the operation seemed to only take a few minutes, the maneuvers involved in moving the first gun, and then repositioning its carriage took months of planning, Fenwick said.
Georgia Army Guard Warrant Officer Tim Ladson was at the controls of one of the Chinooks as it hovered over Pulaski’s parapet. Ladson said he took his helicopter down toward members of the 169th on the ground who connected a lifting strap to the Chinook’s cargo hook. Once the gun tube was secure, it was taken to a nearby maintenance facility, he said.
Ladson and his twin-bladed chopper returned a few minutes later to move gun carriage to Battery Park.
Guard Warrant Officer Jeff Hutchinson said airlifting cargo of any kind always looks deceptively easy, but..."One has to remember that the pilot can't see the cargo underneath him.
"He has to follow directions given by the flight engineer who’s leaning out the helicopter’s side door," Hutchinson said. Another reason why team work between pilot and his crew and personnel on the ground is so important, he added. It’s that coordination, Hutchinson said, that makes missions such as this a success.
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