Photo By Sgt. William Hill | Pennsylvania National Guard Pfc. Dustin Shaw from Franklin, Pa. a field artillery...... read more read more
EDINBURGH, Ind. — More than 275 Pennsylvania National Guard soldiers, with the 1st Battalion, 107th Field Artillery, called the fields of Camp Atterbury home during their annual training exercise.
Sgt. 1st Class Jarett Buchanan from Grove City, Pa., chief of smoke for the Bravo Battery of the 1st Battalion, 107th Field Artillery, said it has been a tradition during annual training for the soldiers to sleep in the field rather than in barracks.
“We kind of got away from the age of training where you come in and draw barracks,” Buchanan said. “I think the past couple of years we have not drawn barracks, we are just are out in the field the entire time.”
The mission of their training is to effectively provide indirect and direct field artillery fires by utilizing the M119 towed howitzer, and sleeping as a team builds team cohesion and allows them the ability to immediately fire the weapon system at any given point in time.
“I think it helps build team work for our sections, and we have an eight-man section and they all live underneath one tent,” said Buchanan. “Living together helps build team work on the gun line, because it takes a team that is in synch to operate the howitzer effectively.”
Sleeping among the gun crews is Pennsylvania National Guard 1st Lt. William Mitro, the fire direction officer for the 1st Battalion, 107th Field Artillery, who said the gun crews experience live firing the howitzer only once a year. They have fired approximately 800 rounds.
“We only get to fire once a year, so these gun crews practice dry fire drills all year, but it does not simulate actually firing the tubes and add the stress of the Fire Diction Center, so it gives us real world training,” said Mitro.
Mitro said they are taking advantage of valuable training time that Camp Atterbury provides that other training facilities do not.
“At home station we have only one place we occupy there, and here, this is our seventh occupied location,” he said. “Plus Atterbury’s range is open until 2 a.m., which allows us to complete night moves, and those are huge. We do not do those at home station at all.”
Along with moving at night, the longer hours provide the soldiers with the capability of coordinating complex fire operations.
“For the first time in recent history we coordinated firing two types of ammunition simultaneously with one battery, which means two guns shot [illumination] rounds, and the two inner guns shot [high explosive] rounds underneath it,” he said.
Another first was for Pennsylvania National Guard Sgt. Ryan Koehler, from Oil City, Pa., a cannon crewmember for the 1st Battalion, 107th Field Artillery. This is his first year as a gunner and his training has been very effective, he said.
“I am the gunner, I am the one who aims the howitzer, so this training has been very effective because this is my first year as a gunner,” Koehler said. “I have learned a lot, and I have been able to motivate the soldiers in my section to exceed the standers that we set.”
Training among the male cannon crewmembers was Sgt. Sara Shultz from Franklin, Pa., a wheeled vehicle mechanic with the 1st Battalion, 107th Field Artillery and her training has consisted of multiple tasks, such as firing the 119M howitzers.
“They have been letting me do all kinds of things, I have been on the gun line, since I’ve been here,” said Shultz. “Firing the one-one-niner howitzers has been an un-describable moment.”
At the beginning of this year, the military lifted the ban on women serving in combat specialties such as armor, artillery and infantry, so Shultz felt honored and privileged to train on the howitzer.
“I am honored to be able to part of that. It is a great honor especially being a female,” she said. “It is hard to describe, but it was very exciting and I am honored and it is a great privilege to be able to work with these guys hand-in- hand and have them accept me as one of them.”
Along with training on the howitzer the soldiers completed a stress-test firing lane, consisting of soldiers sprinting approximately 40 meters to the first firing point of four, executing a series of exercises, which elevated their heart rate before firing at targets, and then repeating the process for each firing point.
“This kind of stress shoot definitely gets these soldiers prepared,” said Buchanan. “It gets you away from traditional lying in the prone-supported firing position, were you have a calm heart rate. These kind of stress shoots get your heart pumping, get you moving.”
After living 14 days in the field and completing annual training successfully, the Pennsylvania National Guard soldiers secured their equipment, packed their rucksacks, rolled up their sleeping bags and anticipated being reunited with their beds.
| Date Taken: | 08.16.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 08.20.2013 16:22 |
| Story ID: | 112292 |
| Location: | EDINBURGH, IN, US |
| Hometown: | FRANKLIN, PA, US |
| Hometown: | GROVE CITY, PA, US |
| Hometown: | OIL CITY, PA, US |
| Web Views: | 175 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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