Mission ready: Kansas unit trains at Fort Bliss

Photo By Winifred Brown | Staff Sgt. Hendrik Rijfkogel, bottom, returns equipment to a rocket launcher while practicing loading and unloading rocket pods at Orogrande, N.M., May 4, 2017. Spc. Dustin Feldman, top, looks on. The Soldiers are assigned to Battery A, 2nd Battalion, 130th Field Artillery Regiment of the Kansas National Guard.  

NM, UNITED STATES

05.11.2017

Story by Winifred Brown  

Fort Bliss Public Affairs Office

By Wendy Brown
Fort Bliss Bugle Managing Editor

OROGRANDE, N.M. – Nearly 100 years after the federal government officially recognized the 2nd Battalion, 130th Field Artillery Regiment of the Kansas National Guard, members of the battalion’s Battery A proved they are still going strong with a live-fire exercise here Friday.
On July 13, 1917, the government recognized the unit, according to Master Sgt. Jeremy Byers, command historian, Kansas Adjutant General’s Department. Since then, the unit has fought in World War I, World War II and Operation Iraqi Freedom, and individual augmentee Soldiers fought in the Korean War and the Vietnam War, but the unit has not conducted its field artillery mission overseas since World War II.
That fact has the “redleg” Soldiers assigned to Btry. A, 2nd Bn., 130th FA Regt., extremely enthusiastic about their upcoming deployment. They practiced with the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System at Fort Bliss under the guidance of the 2nd Battalion, 362nd Field Artillery Regiment, “Task Force Kodiak,” 5th Armored Brigade, First Army Division West, which oversees the training of deploying Reserve and National Guard units.
“We’re all really excited because it’s been quite a few decades since our Kansas unit has gone on our own skillset, our own job, to go overseas,” said Staff Sgt. Travis Lamer, a section chief assigned to Btry. A, 2nd Bn., 130th FA Regt. “A lot of prior missions have been details where we protected the base or things like that, but this is the first time in a long time that we’ve gone to do our field artillery mission.”
Byers said the unit has always trained for its artillery mission, but has been focused more on providing domestic support. During Operation Iraqi Freedom, the unit’s Soldiers largely provided convoy security and VIP escorts, he said.
“For them this is a really cool mission because they actually get to go overseas and do artillery,” Byers said.
The M142 HIMARS is mounted on a specially equipped Army medium tactical vehicle, and Btry. A, 2nd Bn., 130th FA Regt., brought their systems and vehicles from Kansas, Lamer said. The systems hold one missile or six rockets.
During the live-fire training Friday, Soldiers practiced shooting Reduced Range Practice Rockets, used in training. They have a maximum range of 15 kilometers, said Staff Sgt. Felix Mena, a fire direction specialist assigned to 2nd Bn., 362nd FA Regt., 5th Armored Bde.
A crew of three Soldiers operates each vehicle loaded with the HIMARS, and they stay in the specially equipped vehicles when the rockets shoot, Mena said.
Second Lt. Thomas Denn, a platoon leader assigned to Btry. A, 2nd Bn., 130th FA Regt., said the unit, from Holton, Kansas, (about 25 miles north of Topeka), had already completed its annual certification before coming to Fort Bliss, but the live-fire here allowed the unit to work out any kinks and become even better.
“We were happy to get the mission to go deploy and actually shoot what we’ve trained on,” Denn said. “… It’s great to get a chance so these guys can do something they’ve been training for. Some of them have been training for 20 years to shoot these missions.”
Capt. Michael Sprigg, commander, Btry. A, 2nd Bn., 130th FA Regt., said the training was exceptionally helpful.
“I think most of the Soldiers are really excited,” Sprigg said. “They want to get done with the training and get downrange and actually fall in and do the mission that we actually have.”

• Date Taken: 05.11.2017
• Date Posted: 05.11.2017 11:21
• Story ID: 233457
• Location: NM, US