17th Fires Brigade

Story by Spc. Maurice Galloway

CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE BASRA, Iraq – 12 Soldiers from 1st Battalion (Air Assault), 377th Field Artillery Regiment and 1st Battalion 130th Infantry Regiment, Task Force Panther, teamed up to conduct an air support live fire exercise at a detonation range outside of COB Basra.

The old adage "Send in the Cavalry" used to refer to a group of Soldiers on horseback that would come to the aid of their fellow comrades who found themselves hunkered down in a battle with the odds against them.

Today, we use joint operations to accomplish missions that U.S. forces face. So that same call for backup can be made a lot quicker and with much more devastating effects.

The training provided leaders with the opportunity to gain valuable experience and increased their proficiency in calling for fire during close combat scenarios.

After days of orchestrating the layout, boundaries and procedures of the exercise, the two taskforces conducted training sessions to familiarize the Soldiers with the different steps involved in the call for fire process.

"The hardest part of the training for me was being able to determine the distance of each of our projected targets from such a long distance away," said 1st Lt. Mike S. Robinson, Bravo Co. 177th Armored Cavalry, infantry officer and native of Spokane, Wash. "You have to take into account that there are two perspectives, what we see from the ground and what the air support team sees."
Soldiers had to direct two AH-64D Longbow helicopters from their position on the ground to the hostile targets located on the ground and have them deliver an airstrike using their choice of the techniques taught during the training.

Some Soldiers used the compass method, shooting an azimuth to gain the distance and direction of their target, while others tackled the difficult task of navigating the airstrike verbally without any target marking.

"This event gave our platoon leaders an opportunity to see what the Apache is capable of doing for us if we ever need more firepower," said Lt. Col. James W. MacGregor, 1st Battalion (Air Assault), 377th Field Artillery Regiment, commander. "They are routinely coordinating operations with the Air Weapons Team during their patrols not only as a secondary source of firepower, but also to expand their field of view."

A lot of different factors come in to play when trying to acquire a target and it's because of this that communication is so important.

"The two teams have to constantly talk," said MacGregor. "The platoon leader has to identify his target and help the pilot see what he is looking at. Both may be looking at the same thing, but from a much different perspective."

When multiple targets are in close proximity of each other it makes target identification all the more difficult. One strategy is to have troops on the ground use small arms fire to mark their target.


"My objective was to identify the target for air support, using the 240 Bravo light machine gun," said Pfc. Ian D. Favro, 1st Battalion (Air Assault), 377th Field Artillery Regiment, gunner and native of Phoenix, Ariz. "I basically shot rounds in short controlled increments just short of their intended target to knock dust into the air so that the AWT could properly identify their objective and destroy it."

MacGregor said with all the objectives destroyed and each of the platoon leaders getting the opportunity to become more familiar with the process of calling for fire, the event was definitely a success.

"This experience offered our platoon leaders a chance to talk to the pilots and gain insight on their perspective from both a fixed and rotary wing standpoint," he said.

"All in all this was a great professional development experience for these young leaders and as artillerymen any day we get to blow something up is a great day," said MacGregor.

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