Master gunner

Master gunner is an appointment of the warrant officer rank in the British and United States armed forces.

[1] Initially, master gunners had executive command of their guns in times of battle, but this responsibility ceased when commissioned Artillery officers began to be appointed to coastal forts and garrisons.

It is noted that every master gunner listed had served a minimum of sixteen years in the Royal Artillery prior to being appointed to that position.

[2] Until its dissolution in 1855, the Board (or Office) of Ordnance provided and operated all artillery pieces used in the field of battle and in defensive garrisons.

Proof testing initially took place in an area known as the 'Artillery Garden' just north of the Tower of London (the Board's headquarters), and the Master Gunner of England was provided with an official residence nearby.

In 1685 the Artillery Garden was sold, and the Master Gunner himself moved to the Warren, where he was housed on site (along with the local Ordnance Storekeeper) in a Tudor mansion known as Tower Place.

(Proof testing of guns and artillery continued at the Woolwich site until the mid-19th century, at which point this activity was (once again) moved to a larger and less populated area: to Shoeburyness on the Essex coast.)

The office of Master Gunner of Great Britain became obsolescent after the Board of Ordnance established its Regiment of Artillery at Woolwich in 1716; in that year, the Master-General recommended its abolition as part of a series of economies, and it disappeared with the death of the last incumbent (Col. James Pendlebury RA) in 1731.

Master gunner, commonly referred to as "Mike Golf," is also an advanced skill of the armor, infantry and artillery branches of the U.S. Army, and the tank and assault amphibious vehicle occupational field (OccFld 18) of the U.S. Marine Corps.

"Master gunners are trained in methodology... What it boils down to is knowing the standard and being that person in the unit to enforce the standard, and to make sure that people are qualifying correctly... We're also experts in current gun maintenance so we can troubleshoot and fix a lot of problems and issues that may occur at the range, on the spot, instead of having to fall back to unit mechanics," explained Sergeant 1st Class Nathan Quarberg of 1st Cav.

[5] The primary mission of the Army master gunner is to aid and assist commanders at all echelons in the planning, development, execution, and evaluation of all crew-served weapons related training (individual, crew, and collective).

Examples of their duties are:[4] The master gunner's main responsibilities are listed above, but may change in scope, depending on the level that he is assigned.