Gaseous protonated acids fragment in the first drift region of a double focussing mass spectrometer to yield the corresponding acylium ion and water. The metastable peaks for this fragmentation reaction have been recorded for the protonated acids from acetic to valeric and the kinetic energy release distributions evaluated from the metastable peak shapes. The protonated acids were produced by dissociative ionization of the ethyl, propyl, and butyl esters. The results provide evidence for two structures for gaseous protonated acids. Fragmentation of the hydroxyl protonated structure, a minor contributor to the metastable peak intensity, shows a low kinetic energy release (T(most probable) = 0.02 eV) as would be expected for a simple bond fission reaction. Fragmentation of the carbonyl protonated acid, which represents the major part of the metastable peak, is accompanied by a muchlarger kinetic energy release (T(most probable) = 0.30 to 0.43 eV). This result is interpreted in terms of an activation barrier for fragmentation of the carbonyl protonated acid which is considerably greater than the reaction endothermicity, with the excess energy being partitioned between internal energy and kinetic energy of the fragments. The results indicate that the addition of the acylium ion to water in the gas phase to produce the carbonyl protonated acid has an activation energy barrier.