Btry. A, 2-3 FA, culminates training with the DART

Photo By Winifred Brown | Pfc. Jhamori Samuel, assigned to Battery A, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, Division Artillery, 1st Armored Division, pulls the lanyard of a M777A2 howitzer during a live-fire exercise at Dona Ana Range, N.M., Aug. 28. The exercise was a part of the Division Artillery Readiness Test, or DART, which ensures readiness for combat. (Photo by Wendy Brown, Fort Bliss Bugle)  

DONA ANA RANGE, NM, UNITED STATES

09.02.2016

Story by Winifred Brown  

Fort Bliss Public Affairs Office

By Wendy Brown
Fort Bliss Bugle Editor

DOÑA ANA RANGE, N.M. – Soldiers with Battery A, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, Division Artillery, 1st Armored Division, culminated months of training with the Division Artillery Readiness Test here Aug. 28 and 29.
“It’s a test to ensure the battery, at the DIVARTY level, is able to go out and push out to our brigade maneuver units and be able to provide them with accurate and timely fire,” said Capt. Trey Tidwell, Btry. A commander. “It’s DIVARTY’s way of ensuring that the product they’re giving the maneuver units is adequate and vetted and we’re good to deploy.”
Not only did the exercise include a variety of live-fire tests – time on target fires where four howitzer sections must fire at once, illuminating night fires and several low-angle fires, for example – but tests of the battery’s defenses and ability to move to another fire box under stress, Tidwell said.
Col. Andrew Rendon, commander, DIVARTY, and Command Sgt. Maj. John Condliffe, senior enlisted adviser, DIVARTY, helped oversee the test. Both said the unit was performing well.
“I think 2-3 FA is executing their mission,” Rendon said. “We understand in everything we do we provide responsive and accurate fires to the supported force. In this case, it’s the ‘Ready First’ Brigade Combat Team, and the Soldiers are excited about it. They’re excited about demonstrating how well they do their mission.”
Condliffe, meanwhile, praised the unit for their performance on low-angle firing positions.
“They have 30 seconds to fire, and they’re making it,” Condliffe said. “These guys are doing well. So it just shows us that in their week of training and preparation for the DART, they did a good job. They were doing the right things.”
The unit must finish 18 tables to certify as combat ready, and this exercise completed the tables through Table XV.
Once the battery finished the DART, the unit’s Soldiers became ready to take on the Battalion Artillery Readiness Test, or BART, the following week, Tidwell said.
That test would certify the battery through Table XVIII, meaning they’re ready to deploy to the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana, or deploy overseas, Tidwell said.
The battalion’s Battery C also completed the DART Aug. 30 and 31, Tidwell said.
Rendon said the DARTs are important because they ensure DIVARTY’s units are up to Army standards on time, accuracy and overall mission. They also standardize units throughout DIVARY, Rendon said.
“It allows the Division Artillery headquarters to do an external evaluation two levels down,” Rendon said. “We do the DARTs for the batteries, and from our vantage point we are able to standardize across all of Division Artillery and across all the three supported brigades with the three battalions.”
The tests also provide valuable experience.
First Sgt. Daniel Beltran, Btry. A first sergeant, said the DART is important because it is the first test of its kind for many of the unit’s Soldiers.
“A lot of these Soldiers are new, straight out of (Advanced Individual Training), so it’s the first time they’re experiencing this,” Beltran said. “They get to see what we can do as a battery. They get to see their leadership, what they can do as well. Everything is going pretty well so far.”
Pfc. Jhamori Samuel, an Army artilleryman for two years, said the DART keeps all the Soldiers ready.
“It helps us to perform our job better and increase unit morale,” Samuel said. “We come to the field, and we look forward to shooting the artillery piece. It’s something we all love to do … What I like the most about my job is probably shooting the artillery piece.”

• Date Taken: 09.02.2016
• Date Posted: 09.02.2016 11:44
• Story ID: 208804
• Location: DONA ANA RANGE, NM, US