#the gunnery

[pedroam-bang]

Full Metal Jacket (1987)

[thatsrightice]

Even Colonel Kidd went home.

That was as it should be. For the entire war so far, Jack Kidd had been carrying the 100th. He was the best air leader, and he flew all the tough missions when the 100th was out in front of task force. Until Bennett came, he was the Air Exec and Group Ops. To the degree that Harding and Kelly let him, he was the Group Commander. He was the Group.

At twenty-three when he looked eighteen, he was one of the handsomest men I had ever seen.

Now, after months of war, he looked fifteen years older. He was gaunt. His regulation hat, not the hundred-mission crush type, was too big for him. His uniform hung on him. Al Dahn, the Group Dental Officer, told me that Jack's gums were withdrawing from his teeth. He was exhausted.

Since he flew only when we were task force lead, he had not completed a tour. When Tom Jeffrey came on the base, he knew how great Kidd had been, but he knew that a man can only take so much.

"Jack, you have had enough. You are going home."

"Thanks, Jeff."

[asparklethatisblue]

Never meet your heroes, and most certainly don’t sleep with them

James found out within a few months of setting out to the arctic, and he will be a bitch about it for years

[possumcollege]

Automated gunnery's made our sailors lazy as shit. Look at him down there. Useless swab doesn't even know how many cheese wheels it takes to send a party hat downrange anymore. "tHe GuN KnOWs, WhY sHouLD i hAve t0?"

PICK UP A BROOM OR SOMETHING FUCKSTICK.

[edains]

If you speak to Samesh without Ashley present but Kaidan in your party, he suggests to bring her to meet him. Later, they have this alternate interaction

Cute fact: Ashley and Samesh (which suggests Nirali and the rest of her squad did this) pronounce it "two twelve" while Kaidan pronounces it as "the two one two"

[vintagepipemen]

David Kern, a teacher at The Gunnery School in Connecticut, 1978.

[alolanrain]

I’m just going to start piling my Ta!au quotes into one post instead of spamming everyone's timeline with it. 

----------

(after a missions, Ash had a nightmare and can’t sleep and neither could Rowan)

Ash: That’s a terrible story.

Rowan: not all of us fight Gods and win, my boy. so take what I have. 

Ash:.... tell me how you survived the Dragalge again? 

----------

(later in the Alola timeline-think before Kukui announces the first league)

Ash: You're an asshole, you know that?

Lillie: Mankey see, Mankey do.

Ash: *flashbacks to all the times he’s used the exact phrase* *deep sigh* fair enough. 

------------

(on a simple date after a long stake out mission)

Ash:*tired AF* Are you going to keep looking at me like that or are you actually going to kiss me?

Raihan: Can’t I enjoy looking at my meal before digging into it? 

Ash... *tired, flustered and now angry because he’s flustered*

Raihan: *too pleased, the smug bastard* that’s what I thought. 

------------

(after noticing Meowth working at the new malasada truck outside of school, completely ignoring James and Jessie who ignore him in return)  

Ash: hey-not here to pick a fight, put your claw’s away-do you know Lillie’s brother?

Meowth: *suspicious but interested* the emo kid? 

Ash: yeah.

Meowth:... why? 

Ash: would it be insulting to you if I call him a ragged wet Meowth? 

Meowth: *instantly relaxing* if you don’t call him that I will. 

Ash: *grabbing the malasada's James hands him without making him pay* let’s tag team him then. 

Meowth: sounds perfect to me, now get going. you’re holding up the line Twerp. 

-----------

(meeting and conversing with Goh and Chloe for the first time)

Goh: my mission is to catch Mew and then go on my first Pokémon journey!

Ash: *bites tongue and thank the legendries he’s where sunglasses to hide his uncontrollable flash of anger* 

Chloe: Don’t listen to him-

Goh: Hey!

Chloe: -he’s the dumb one

Ash: *silently already picking favorites* I see. 

------------

(after a prank war) 

Gary: does my life truly mean so little to you? 

Ash: *w/ neon green hair and permanent marker on his face* YES!

------------

(on a random Tuesday in Alola) 

Ash:*swinging in a hammock with sunglasses and his hat* Are you here to kill me? *slurps annoyingly loud at his drink*

Mewtwo:... no but I’m thinking about it now.

--------------

(after loosing the kids in the forest for a while)

Ash: where have you been!?

Lana: *sopping wet*

Mallow: *beginning of a rash on her lips* 

Kiawe:*looks like he got into a fight with something and lost*

Sophocles: *also looks like he got into a fight with something and lost*

Lillie: *covered in flowers with a few Cutiefly buzzing around her* 

Lana: I think you already know. 

-----------

(Champion meeting in Kalos-Lance is sick and Ash is his second by Orange Isles proxy)

Diantha:  You're late. As usual.

Ash: *not high as a kite but not sober either* be happy that I’m even here in the first place. 

Rose: it’s really innapro-

Ash&Diantha: not a word out of you. 

------------

(Kiawe and Lillie hanging out with Ash even though he’s cleaning all his knives)

Ash:  Put that down! You're like a child.

Kiawe: *pouting and placing down a sheathed knife* I’m a teenager, not a child. 

Ash: uh-huh. 

------------

(Ash begrudgingly letting Lana indulge the rain before class one day)

Ash:  Well, don't stand there in the rain all day. Come on.

Lana: but I like the rain.

Ash: okay-let me rephrase then so you understand. Don’t make me give you detention-

Lana: *darts on past* 

Ash: *smirking and start to trail behind* that’s what I thought. 

-----------

(after being trailed by some mercenaries from a Gala) 

Rowan: we’re safe now, aren’t we boy? 

Ash: *checks around corner of the alleyway they ducked into to loose their trackers* Yeah... yeah I think so old-

Goons: *appearing on the other side of the alleyway* there they are!

Ash&Rowan: *in unison* fuckshitfuckingtitballs-

----------

(in Hisui) 

Ash:  I swear it wasn't me.

Cyllene: *annoyed but in a motherly way* now why don’t I believe that? 

Ash:.... because I’m your favorite survey member? *Growlith eyes and slight cheeky smile*

Cyllene: get out of my sight.

Ash: *squeaks* yes, Captain!

---------------

(after an intense debrief after a mission going tits-up as Ash was unknowingly stalked by another mercenary)  

Gary: Who did you piss off this time?

Ash: *slumping down in a chair next to Gary and the large as computer screens* it’s more like who I haven’t pissed off. 

-------------

(after first trimester of finals)

Kukui: *walks into the classroom, see’s Ash blank face and staring at the other doorway where Kukui originally left though* 

Ash:

Kukui:

Ash: 

Kukui: you gonna keep staring or what? 

Ash: *broken out of the strongest dissociation spell in a long time**jumping out of his seat and making a fool of himself while falling down onto the floor* cheese and crackers on balls, you motherfucker- 

[nocternalrandomness]

2022 Hawgsmoke Comemoritive Poster by noted A-10 Aviation Artist Rick Herter

[the-cryptographer]

So I bascially did two runs of Virmire for reasons, and I got to see this subtle script change depending on the party and I have to say I'm really impressed with Ashley revelling in the sadism of watching this freaked out scientist lady run for her life vs Garrus calling me out on revelling in the sadism of watching this freaked out scientist lady run for her life.

[ltwilliammowett]

Gunnery ship in a storm, by Marshall Johnson (1850-1921)

[walkingthroughthisworld]

M1A2 Gunnery Table 5 (Engagement 55)

[the-golden-vanity]

So, I've really been enjoying Angus Konstam's Blackbeard, and been learning a lot in the process. The fact that very little is known about his central figure gives him time to get into all of the wonderful immersive background details, like how the sinking of the Spanish treasure fleet gave rise to the pirate haven of Nassau, or the way the pirate threat caused and was affected by the political tensions between 18th century Virginia and North Carolina.

HOWEVER.

(This is really picky, but @cosmicdesserttrolley is about to feel SO vindicated for assigning me "gunner" when the "assign prev a ship rank" post was really making its rounds.)

Konstam consistently conflates bar shot with chain shot, and langrage with grapeshot.

Uhhhh... my knowledge of Age of Sail gunnery comes from having been to Fort McHenry and to the North Carolina Maritime Museum one time each, and I know that while bar shot and chain are both for damaging masts and rigging, and langrage and grapeshot are both antipersonnel rounds, they👏🏽are👏🏽not👏🏽the👏🏽same👏🏽

It's something petty and trivial, but it does make me wonder how much else in this book I can't take seriously.

[clove-pinks]

The gunner was the one man whose carelessness could destroy the ship in a moment, and the Regulations showed that the Admiralty was well aware of it: there were twenty-six instructions for the lieutenant, thirty-eight for the master, eleven for the bosun, but thirty-three for the gunner. They ranged from not swabbing a gun with water 'when it grows hot, for fear of splitting' to coating guns with a mixture of tar and warm tallow if they had to be carried into the hold. [...] The last instruction said: 'No person shall be warranted as gunner before he has passed an examination before a mathematical master, and three able gunners of the Navy, and from them procure a certificate of his qualification'.

— Dudley Pope, Life in Nelson's Navy

Art from "Uniforms of The Royal Navy - HMS Victory Gunner, 1805" (1980s postcard series).

[ciuffoblu93]

Full Metal Jacket

[doolallymagpie]

trying to figure out how far the FedSuns newtype project (for want of a better term) got in the Firefly BattleTech AU

like, we’ve got River, we’ve got Early (dollar store River in terms of enhancement), they gave Early a proper SLDF Spector precisely because getting River back is that vital

so basically I’m gonna go with “failure but if they can crack River’s head open to see what went right with her, they might find a way to reproduce the Phantom ‘Mech Ability and other woo-woo shit”