Joint forces practice naval gunfire at Lejeune

News: Joint forces practice naval gunfire at Lejeune

II Marine Expeditionary Force

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Cpl. Bryan Nygaard

Lance Cpl. Jacob Earnhardt (left), a forward observer with 2nd Air-Naval Gunfire Liaison Company, reviews his target information with Capt. Ian Plummer, a fire control team leader with 2nd ANGLICO, during a naval gunfire exercise aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, N.C., April 27-28. Forward observers from the Army, Navy and Marine Corps trained to call for indirect fire from naval gunships belonging to the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Strike Group in preparation for upcoming deployments this summer.

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. - Marines with 2nd Air-Naval Gunfire Liaison Company and the 10th Marine Regiment practiced calling for naval gunfire aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, N.C., April 27-28.

Seven soldiers with the Army’s 82nd Airborne and 10th Mountain Divisions, who are preparing for an upcoming deployment with the 18th Airborne Corps, also took part in the training.

The training consisted of forward observers from each unit taking turns calling for naval gunfire provided by six ships with the U.S.S. Dwight D. Eisenhower Strike Group. The strike group is currently participating in its final exercise in preparation for an upcoming deployment scheduled for this summer.

Each observer team conducted a fire support mission where they would call for indirect fire on an assigned target. After identifying the target’s coordinates, the order would get relayed to a fire support coordination center, where Marines would double-check to ensure the rounds would not land in an area that, in a real life situation, would harm friendly forces or civilians. The coordination center would then tell the ships they were cleared to fire on the target. After a ship would fire at the target, the forward observer would mark where it landed and make adjustments as necessary.

Each ship would fire 30 salvos of 5-inch high explosive controlled variable time rounds.

One of the forward observers from 2nd ANGLICO, Lance Cpl. Jacob Earnhardt, said he was grateful to receive this training as opposed to experiencing it through a computer simulation.

“This is real training,” said Earnhardt, a native of Richland, N.C. “In computer simulations, everything is perfect. You don’t have the wind blowing. On a computer, I can hit steel on steel 100 percent of the time if I do my theories right, but here, nothing. I can get close, I’m within 100 meters, but that’s not steel on steel.

“The more I practice (naval gunfire) the better I get. That’s why this is important. It saves lives down the road.”