I agree. It would be fantastic to build one of these on the "disappearing mounts" that would raise the tube above the parapet, fire, then lower back down for reloading. In San Pedro CA, at the old Ft MacArthur complex, Batteries Osgood and Farley mounted these guns on the disappearing mounts as they covered the sea approaches to LA harbor. The concrete emplacements are still there, and you might see them from time to time as backdrops in movies and TV. I understand the historical society there has been attempting to acquire one of the 16" guns and disappearing mounts from a location in the Phillipine Islands.
A short historical note: as the threat of sea invasion faded away in the 50's, the Coastal Artillery units were replaced by US Army Air Defense Artillery units on the same sites, using at first Nixe-Ajax, then Nike-Hercules missles. The last of these uits closed down in the late 70's.
Jim Peterson
