Photo By Sgt. Mike MacLeod | Capt. Lou Guzman, squadron fire support officer for 3rd Squadron, 73rd Cavalry...... read more read more
Subscribe
FORT BRAGG, N.C. - With live howitzer rounds streaking overhead and mortar shells exploding within 600 meters, platoon leaders and their fire-support elements practiced calling in live artillery during a brigade Walk and Shoot exercise, June 9-11.
Brigade "fires" of 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, hosted the training event for their company-level counterparts - forward artillery observers - and the platoon leaders of all of the brigade's maneuver battalions during three days of intensive training on an artillery range, said Maj. Jason Yanda, brigade fire support officer.
"Our objectives were for the platoon leaders to learn fire support planning at company level, for the P.L. and forward observer to conduct a mission, and for them to maintain the minimum safe distance during the exercise," said Yanda.
"For instance, the MSD for 105mm rounds is about 400 meters," said Yanda. "That's still close enough for them get a feel for what it's like to be near incoming artillery, which is another goal," he said.
Forty-two platoon leaders and their forward observers were trained during the event, said Yanda. Approximately 1,500 mortar and artillery rounds were fired, he said.
The 3rd Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment fired 105 mm howitzers, the 3rd Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment fired 120 mm mortars, and the 2nd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment fired 81 mm mortars, said Yanda.
The Walk and Shoot allowed platoon leaders to see what field artillery could do for them, said Capt. Timothy Blair, mortar platoon leader for Headquarters and Headquarters Company of 2-504th PIR, whose squads worked the 81 mm mortars.
"It gives maneuver forces the opportunity to call in danger-close fire missions and to experience what effects are like at different ranges with different weapons systems, all the way from 105s and 120s all the way down to 81s," said Blair. "It gives those forces an idea of how close they can really walk those rounds in," he said.
"I've never had the jolt under my feet like that before," said 2nd Lt. Joe Fix, fire support officer of A Troop, 3rd Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment. "It was nice to see what kind of smoke and aftereffects the artillery was going to bring up," he said.
Troop commander Capt. Adam Greene said that many lieutenants don't get a chance to call up fire or see live artillery rounds before they are commissioned, noting that the two West Point cadets that accompanied A Troop would now be ahead of their peers.
"In today's environment, it's easy to forget about the indirect assets. This training event is a great way to remind us what they can do for us," added Greene.
Fix agreed that, often when platoon leaders are scaling fire back as the target is approached in what is termed "echelon of fire," indirect fire can be forgotten, he said.
"Because of population density and terrain, mortars are often easier to utilize in Afghanistan than in Iraq," said Blair.
"By the nature of our destructive power, we're not as surgical as we'd like to be against some insurgency forces," Blair added.
| Date Taken: | 06.11.2009 |
| Date Posted: | 06.24.2009 11:38 |
| Story ID: | 35566 |
| Location: | FORT BRAGG, NC, US |
| Web Views: | 900 |
| Downloads: | 580 |
This work, Call for fire: training platoon leaders with live artillery, by SGT Mike MacLeod, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
LEAVE A COMMENT