JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. -- Sergeants and officers from across 2nd Battalion, 17th Artillery Regiment, recently conducted a two-week long training course event with the intent to establish tactics, techniques and procedures standards across the battalion.
The course is called the Steel Fires Leaders Course 2.0. This training was different from any training the leaders had encountered in the past. It was a way for leaders to show each other how they had completed operations in the past and as a collective whole, decide what was most effective.
“The good thing about this course is that we were able to pull these key leaders from all of these different batteries and come up with new ideas to standardize things across the battalion,” said Staff Sgt. Christian Almeida, a senior section chief assigned to Alpha Battery.
The class was small with eight participants from senior section chiefs, gunnery sergeants, platoon sergeants and platoon leaders and everyone brought something to the table.
The first week of the course focused on conducting a Reconnaissance Survey of an Occupied Position.
2nd Lt. Geoffrey Wilson, a participant of the course, said the course covered how to move the M777 Howitzers and jump the guns from one location to another. He also explained how they get to a new position and what they are looking for in that position. This was a way to show what the gunnery sergeants as well as the platoon sergeant and platoon leaders are looking for during the transition.
Most of the leaders agreed it was a good “shoot and move” situational training.
The second week of the course included convoy operations, reacting to enemy contact and improvised explosive device attacks.
Fine tuning what the leaders already know so that they can take what they have learned back to their batteries and know for sure these TTPs are the standard for each battery.
Almeida said this course is beneficial to all of its participants. There isn’t a leader from this course who doesn’t have something to take back to their unit to make them better.
“My favorite part of the training was the RSOP – as a senior section chief it’s good knowing what a gunnery sergeant actually does and how they operate because you don’t really get to see that,” said Almeida. “It’s also a way for me to see what’s going to be expected of me when I make it to that position. It’s all about readiness.”