A Rare Honour to Receive

Heroes Remember

A Rare Honour to Receive

Transcript

Door gunner is a really rare honour to receive. We get to become a part of Tac Hel which is the Griffins in Canada and on the left side or right side they either have a 50 cal or a Dillon and a Dillon is 762. It shoots four thousand rounds in 88 seconds. The 50 cal or GAU 21 shoots eighteen hundred rounds a minute which is incredible because it has two buffer springs. Fantastic piece of kit, really long barrel, really accurate. Beaten zone is a bit big when plunging fire. That’s where the Dillon is more volume and it’s quicker so it’s a tighter beaten zone which is good for the plunging fire so that’s why those weapons are on there. And then our role is to first of all guard Chinooks. Chinooks are big targets when landing. They have to bring up, well I shouldn’t even say that. They have to do neat things tactically to ensure that they don’t, they are not a target as long as possible. And our job as the Griffins is to make sure we do circular patterns around the Chinooks and watch for possible pop up targets even scan the ground beforehand for IED’s, mines, any kind of stuff like that and then when we are in the air we stay low so that we can attract fire first from the ground as opposed to the Chinook because the Chinook has all the troops. My job as weapons maintenance and for me I would feed the crew. I would fold my entire crew’s kit. And I am shaking because I love it so much and I would fold it and put it in front of their doors and I would put all the weapons on. And I used to play this game where I would try and make every motion as perfect as possible. So when I grabbed, all the weapons were named so when I grabbed Rebecca it was right foot, left foot, hands both coupled, swing to the left, placing the Gator ever so gently. Grabbed the Dillon in the same motion then walk on the left hand side perfectly enter my seat on my Gator, drive it to the choppers. I would put the pin mounts in, mount the weapons. I would make sure I checked the head space and timing of the 50 cal because to me what weapons maintenance was the most important because if we got a stoppage and troops needed us, a stoppage in the air was about five minutes because you needed a screw driver. You have to take the feeder tray out and then, or sorry, needle nose plyers and break the link, pull the links and now you’re also flying so gravity, you know, is taking around so you have to be careful you don’t drop anything for the safety of the aircraft first of all and then everybody else in the crews so it takes a long time. So I take great pride and we all did, every door gunner, took great pride in the weapons maintenance so when we got in the air we knew we could fire it and it won’t stop and we’re safe and the guys on the ground are safe.

Description

Private Larimee describes his roles and responsibilities as door gunner/weapons technician and relays the pride he had in this position.

Arthur Larimee

Mr. Arthur Larimee was born January 23, 1986 in Edmonton, Alberta. Growing up in Alberta and being involved in sports, Arthur always understood the importance of camaraderie and with this, was drawn to the idea of joining the military. With the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, Arthur trained as door gunner. He was a weapons technician and deployed twice to Afghanistan. After his second deployment Arthur left the military and together with his spouse Brittany, a fellow PPCLI, fulfilled his aspirations of opening a gym with the desire to have a place for countless service men and women to come together for support both mentally and physically, maintaining that bond of friendship experienced during service time. He and his wife have opened a clothing line and are proud entrepreneurs of the Iron King Gym Ltd in Kingston, Ontario.

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