The summer of 1930
In the U.S., 70 percent of projects fail for management related issues. This article reflects on one of my father’s experiences with an improperly managed project.
In the summer of 1930, my father, his brother and about 50 other high school guys arrived at Fort Pickens on Santa Rosa Island near Pensacola, Florida, for six weeks of cadet training. For years, summer cadets would travel to Fort Pickens, attend classes and perform maintenance or repairs around the fort in exchange for food and board. As this was during the great depression, it was a bargain. This summer was to be different as the new commander ordered the cadets to be trained to aim and fire an M1895 12-inch coastal defense gun at a moving target about 3 miles off-shore. The challenge for cadets was to track, plot, predict, aim and fire the cannon such that the shell would hit the moving target boat that would be towed 300 yards behind a tugboat.
The cadets were divided into crews for training. Each day Dad’s crew learned how to transfer a 12-inch diameter 1,046-pound projectile from the underground magazine to the manual elevator where the projectile was hoisted to the top floor and rolled onto a cart. The heavy cart was pushed to align with the cannon’s breach so the projectile could be inserted into the barrel via a manually operated piston and winch. After this, a similar procedure would insert 318 pounds of gunpowder behind the projectile before an ignition cap was inserted and the breach closed and locked. The barrel was then cranked into the up position. Dad’s crew was now ready to aim the gun by manually setting the barrel’s azimuth and elevation. The word manual was significant as the gun weighed 115,000 pounds, the gun’s barrel was over 36 feet long, and the only electricity available was for limited lighting. Firing the cannon would be performed via a lanyard. While some cadets practiced loading and aiming the cannon, another crew learned how and where to drive the tugboat while dragging the target barge. If the barge was towed too fast, it could nose down and destroy the wooden billboard target. To make the challenge reasonable, the target was to be dragged in a straight line.
To track the target, two of the younger cadets were at the tracking telescopes spaced about 200 yards apart. These two cadets used the headphones and microphone to communicate with cadets in the plotting room which was underground. Once the target was sighted, they tracked the tugboat’s wheelhouse as it moved across the horizon. When a cadet in the plotting room called “Mark” through the headphones, each cadet would release the telescope and tell the plotter the angle to the tugboat. After triangulating three readings, cadets plotted the distance, direction, and speed of the tugboat. A second crew of cadets would calculate where the boat would be in 30 seconds and call settings for the cannon crew to set the azimuth and elevation via hand cranking for the shot. When the seconds counted down, the plotter would call “Fire” and Dad’s crew would pull the lanyard to fire the cannon. During practice, the ignition cap would pop like a firecracker and the procedure was repeated. Several officers evaluated their performance, made corrections and assured that standard procedures were followed. Note that for accuracy, the wheelhouse on the tugboat was used to sight the target rather than the big billboard target on the barge. The plotters were to compensate for the 300-yard cable to aim for the target barge and not the tugboat. Unfortunately, the plotters were uninformed.
Over several afternoons, they assembled a set of bleachers that were positioned about 40 feet to the left of the cannon’s muzzle to provide 70 dignitaries and other elite onlookers an upfront view of the cadet’s exercise.
After several weeks of practice, the performance day arrived. The cadets stood at attention as the dignitaries in white hats, suits, dresses, umbrellas, purses and shoes walked past making idle chat to take their positions in the observation bleachers. Once they passed by, the cadets took their positions while the commander and his officers followed the visitors into the bleachers while talking about the value of planning and training.
The tugboat was soon seen coming from the east about two miles off shore. As trained, the cadets worked the telescopes and soon were calling angle readings to the plotters. The cannon was loaded and the breach closed. The plotters called the azimuth and elevation to the cannon crew. With considerable effort the cannon was aimed and all was in readiness waiting for the countdown to pull the lanyard.
Several things occurred when the lanyard was pulled. The cannon fired and the 36-foot barrel recoiled back to its loading position, which is normal, but it had not been explained to the cadets. Dad’s brother had run out to see the cannon fire as the lanyard was pulled. Amazingly, his brother only lost his front teeth.
The muzzle blast sent hats, umbrellas, purses and small people flying out of the bleachers. White outfits instantly turned dark grey with gunpowder burns. In addition, the blast sent sand high into the air so that it rained sand for about a minute. Amazingly, no one was permanently blinded, but hearing recovery was in doubt. By the time the sand stopped falling, the bleachers were empty, the dignitaries were in rapid exit, and the commander was being helped into a jeep. Most of the terrified cadets had assumed that the gun had exploded.
About 4 seconds after the cannon fired, the projectile passed between the two cadets in the tugboat’s wheelhouse showering them with splinters. Luckily, it was not an explosive round. Perhaps the tugboat crew made the best management decision of the day when they cut the barge loose and headed for deep water zigzagging at high speed.
Here was a project in which the young cadets performed flawlessly as trained, but critical elements of training were not addressed. Plotters did not know to compensate for the tow line, Dad’s crew did not know the cannon would recoil back to the loading position when fired, and few cadets had any concept of what other crews were doing. None of the cadets and apparently these officers had no concept of what would occur when the lanyard was pulled.
My dad did not return to Fort Pickens until he took me there in 1956 to walk me through his experience. The guns were removed in 1934. The M1895 coastal defense cannon can be seen at http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/12-inch_Gun_M1895.