Daniel Brown/Business Insider
FORT BLISS, Texas - I stepped into the rear hull of one of the two M109 Paladin self-propelled howitzers parked on a section of the desert training grounds at Fort Bliss.
As the six-person Paladin crews, which were partaking in an exercise called Bulldog Focus, waited for the go-ahead to test fire, they showed me a dry run of how it loads and shoots.
Then I jumped out and set up two cameras before watching the 155mm cannon fire, which, when it did, sent out a shock wave so strong that it felt like someone lightly punched me all over my body.
Here's what I saw: