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By Staff Sgt. J. TaShun Joyce’
FORT POLK, La. - More than 1,700 Paratroopers from 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, jumped in to participate in the first force on force Joint Readiness Training Center rotation in more than eight years and provided Paratroopers from 1st Battalion, 319th Field Artillery Regiment, 3rd BCT, with a unique opportunity.
As a result of 3rd BCT shifting combat focus from counter-insurgency operations to combined arms operations in preparation for its new role as the head of the Army’s Global Response Force, its field artillery assets will actually perform field artillery tasks for the first time in years.
As combat engineers dug trenches and pushed around dirt to fortify, conceal, and protect the defensive fighting positions that 1st Battalion would occupy, soldiers patiently waited and provided security.
“Younger soldiers like myself are getting a chance to do what we joined the Army to do,” said 1st Lt. Craig Osbeck, 1st platoon leader, Battery A. “It’s a great learning experience.”
Going from artillery to maneuvers was a different animal to conquer, said Sgt. 1st Class Gregory Seymour, gunnery sergeant with 2nd platoon, Battery A. It was up to experienced non-commissioned officers to train and mentor junior soldiers to keep them proficient at their job.
“Cross training is the key to our success,” Seymour said. “Maneuver is not a core competency of artillery, but based on deployments and training we were able to make the transition.”
Staff Sgt. Clifton Ragland, howitzer section chief, 2nd platoon, Battery A, is one of the few Paratroopers in the unit that has been able to do field artillery his entire career.
“Since I’ve come to this unit, we’ve improved a lot and are improving every day,” Ragland said. “We shot a number of different fire missions and everyone is getting some good training.”
By operating two separate fires elements in the same location, 1st and 2nd platoon are able to conduct a unified training effort, Seymour said.
“We are capable of firing all of our guns simultaneously,” Seymour said. “We can combine fires with our brother batteries and shoot together.”
It takes less than two minutes to process indirect fire, Osbeck said.
For prior targets it can be performed in as little a 20 seconds, he said.
“We have to be as fast and as accurate as possible,” said Sgt. Jesus Delacruz, Howitzer section chief, 1st platoon, Battery A.
The only downside was using simulation rounds for training instead of the real thing, Ragland said.
“There are no blanks in field artillery,” Seymour said. “Usually when we train we are aiming at real targets and using real rounds."
Despite the differences in the type of ammunition used, Battery A Paratroopers had nothing but praise for the training and expressed their happiness to be training and performing tasks associated with their true military occupational specialty.
“Before this field problem I’d never experienced training like this before,” Delacruz said. “It’s pretty realistic and it gives us an idea of being what it’s like downrange.”
“It’s good to get everyone back to the fundamentals of what field artillery is,” Osbeck said.
| Date Taken: | 10.25.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 10.25.2010 21:02 |
| Story ID: | 58797 |
| Location: | FORT POLK, LOUISIANA, US |
| Web Views: | 115 |
| Downloads: | 3 |
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