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Today's gunners are the inheritors of a proud lineage.
This article is my attempt to clarify and bring to light the misconceptions and, in some cases, lack of knowledge about the Marine gunner program. I have been asked numerous times, not only by Marines but also by civilian workers on base (which is easier to understand), "Excuse me, Sir, what's that bomb on your left collar?" or worse yet, "What's that 'thing' on your left collar?" I have also been asked why the other warrant officers who don't wear the "bursting bomb" are called gunners? One time I was asked by a Japanese ground self-defense force colonel to describe what I do. After trying to explain to him what a gunner is, he finally understood when one of his aids translated my job by saying that I was a "weapons master." Although that sounds humorous, it really wasn't far from the mark when you consider that the current Marine gunner program states that we are "advisors to the infantry commander on all aspects of organic weapons employment and training."
To explain what a Marine gunner does, I first need to explain the origins of the program. Just prior to World War I, the Commandant of the Marine Corps recommended to the Secretary of the Navy that the warrant grades of Marine gunner and quartermaster clerk be created. Those selected for such positions would be appointed from the noncommissioned officer ranks of the Corps. By act of Congress on 29 August 1916, to increase the Corps' strength, it provided for the rank of "warrant officer." In 1917, 41 quartermaster clerks and 43 Marine gunners were appointed. Henry Lewis Hulbert was believed to have been the first to pin on the bar and bursting bomb. Under the pressure of officer shortages in World War I, all but three of the appointees of 1917 were commissioned temporary second lieutenants. The warrant grade of pay clerk was added in 1918.
In the middle of World War II, Congress abolished the lengthy titles of chief Marine gunner, chief quartermaster clerk, chief pay clerk, Marine gunner quartermaster clerk, and pay clerk and established, in lieu of them, the grades of commissioned warrant officer and warrant officer. Attention was again focused...