Oregon's 2-218th lights up the skies at Ft. Irwin

Photo By Tech. Sgt. Tyler Meister | A cannon crew with 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team's 2nd Battalion, 218th Field Artillery, C. Battery, fires a 155mm explosive round from their M777 Howitzer July 27, 2018 during a field training exercise known as eXportable Combat Training Capability (XCTC) at Fort Irwin, California. The exercise is an instrumented brigade field training exercise designed to certify platoon proficiency across the brigade in coordination with First Army. “This exercise keeps our units trained and ready for federal missions 286and builds upon the brigade’s training from last year’s Warfighter Exercise,” said Col. Eric Riley, commander of the 41st IBCT. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Tyler Meister, 115th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment)  

CAMP ROBERTS, CA, UNITED STATES

07.28.2018

Story by Sgt. Tyler Meister 

115th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

CAMP ROBERTS, California – As the hot and arid breezes of the Mojave Desert sweep across the faces of howitzer crews with 2nd Battalion, 218th Field Artillery, the quiet morning air is abruptly disturbed by the booming shouts of a fire mission blaring through the radio. Every Soldier on the crew immediately repeated the command and any following radio call-outs as they worked like a well-oiled machine to prepare, load and fire ordnance on the target July 27, 2018 at Fort Irwin, California.

2-218th traveled over 1,000 miles from Oregon to California to be apart of 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team’s brigade field training exercise known as eXportable Combat Training Capability (XCTC) designed to certify platoon proficiency across the brigade in coordination with First Army.

Their first area of operation for training was at the National Training Center on Ft. Irwin. They were given an area of approximately twice the size of Salem, Oregon or roughly the size of Sacramento, California to work with to complete their howitzer platoon qualifications.

They completed a six-day live fire training session and then relocated to Camp Roberts to complete the rest of XCTC.

“This is my first annual training and the first time getting a chance to shoot the M119 Howitzer,” said Pvt. Brenton Edwards, a cannon crew member with 2-218th. “I loved it.”

This is also the first time that 2-218th has been to the NTC at Ft. Irwin to conduct training. Their usual training location in Yakima, Washington is completely different in size, environment and weather.

“The heat and harsh environment of the Mojave Desert were our greatest challenges,” said Lt. Col. Jason Marshall, battalion commander of 2-218. “These conditions provided our Soldiers the unique opportunity to be challenged and improve their field craft.”

Marshall explained that unlike Yakima, Ft. Irwin gave the battalion the ability to stretch out and train to their doctrinal distances. He said this realistic scenario provided the leaders a good understanding of the time-distance relationship when planning coordinated fires.

Being able to provide indirect fire support with howitzers is a multistep process that involved resources and input from multiple teams. All of these teams use constant communication and expert battlefield understanding to guide successful indirect fire ordnance and destroy the target.

A basic fire mission would play out like this: the forward observers request a fire mission after locating their target and pass this information to the field direction controllers. The controllers receive that data and compute it into trajectories for the gun crews. The crews verify the information is safe and input it into the howitzer. After completing their munitions loading procedures the crew fires the round to the target, explained Staff Sgt. Brett Naylor, an artillery section chief with C. Battery.

“Training on Fort Irwin has been challenging but the training value far outweighs any difficulties,” said Staff Sgt. Chester Thomson, a fire support noncommissioned officer.

All Soldiers of the 41st IBCT showed up to California and started training with limited acclimatization. The 2-218th had minimal heat casualties and they all returned to duty within a day during their stay in the Mojave Desert. Marshall feels it was proof that leadership was taking care of their Soldiers.

“This training experience has stretched our logistical planning and execution beyond what we are used to," said Marshall. "Our Soldiers proved they can overcome adversity to get the job done and they met every single one of my training objectives.”

Marshall remarked that XCTC will allow his battalion to retain the high standards of readiness the Army demands and at any time they will be able to support the 41st IBCT no matter where the fight takes place.

• Date Taken: 07.28.2018
• Date Posted: 07.29.2018 21:38
• Story ID: 286195
• Location: CAMP ROBERTS, CA, US