Photo By Staff Sgt. Steven Schneider | Soldiers from the 4th Squadron, 7th U.S. Cavalry Regiment participated in a combined...... read more read more
RODRIGUEZ LIVE FIRE RANGE, South Korea - Troops from 4th Squadron, 7th U.S. Cavalry Regiment and 3rd Platoon, C Company, 1st Brigade Special Troops Battalion with 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division conducted an annual combined gunnery exercise with 6th Squadron, 17th Cavalry Regiment, 16th Combat Aviation Brigade, 103rd Mechanized Infantry Battalion, Republic of Korea army, and U.S. Air Force, Oct. 1 at Rodriguez Live Fire Range, South Korea.
The 64th annual live-fire exercise employed both American and Korean weaponry and bolstered the alliance between U.S. forces and the Republic of Korea.
“It is through tough, realistic training like this where we show our trust in each other by firing all of our weapons together in support of each other, that we demonstrate the strength of that alliance,” said Lt. Col. Jeffrey Gottlieb, commander of 4-7th Cav. Regt.
In the weeks leading up to this exercise, Soldiers of 4-7th Cav. Regt. prepared for this mission through extensive training to include vehicle crew evaluator training, information operation training, a crew proficiency course, Bradley advanced training system, as well as gunnery skills training and testing.
Under the direction of Gottlieb and master gunners Sgt. Brandon Osborne and Staff Sgt. Zachary Schertz, Soldiers collaborated with the Republic of Korea army in order to complete the complex obstacle reduction mission and qualify all crewmembers.
The range was divided into four lanes, lined with strategically placed Humvees, M3 Bradleys, and K-21 fighting vehicles. The main objectives of the exercise included securing the position, obscuring enemy view, providing suppressive fire, reducing the obstacle and assaulting through.
“The U.S. platoon will identify an obstacle, the engineer asset will come up after the U.S. platoon secures the nearside obstacle,” said Osborne. “After that happens, they will call for fire and there will be a smoke mission to obscure. This will keep the enemy forces that are in the hill from seeing our engineers reducing the obstacle. After we obscure the enemies view, we will engage and suppress them to keep their heads down while our engineers move up. Also we will have the Kiawa suppressing with .50-caliber, then the engineers will place the explosive charge and reduce the obstacle. And then once we reduce the obstacle, the K-21’s are going to push up as fast as they can and secure the far side of the obstacle by assaulting through.”
Both U.S. and Korean officers shared the responsibility of sending missiles, high explosives and rockets downrange. Communication played a vital role in the successful collaboration amongst the elements of six battalions, two squadrons and the Air Force with 10 different weapons systems all firing together, said Gottlieb.
“There is a device that allows our secure radios to talk to each other, so no matter which encryption technology is being used, American radios can talk to Korean radios and vice versa,” said Gottlieb.
Commands for the training were given in English, utilizing both military technology and the Korean Augmentation to the U.S. Army soldiers.
“The way around this problem is to use our Korean Augmentees, they are Korean soldiers who serve within our units and make up about 10 percent of our strength as translators,” said Gottlieb. “This program has been around since the beginning of the war in 1950 when many Korean soldiers were used to augment U.S. forces and since then they have been a great benefit to our force.”
Using the strengths of both U.S. and Korean forces, the combined gunnery exercise simulated the execution of a realistic mission and prepared both forces for combat against a common enemy.
“Cooperation is important because in any contingency here on the Korean Peninsula, the Korean army and the American Army will have to work together, whether it is during flooding such as we have had in the past or other natural disasters, everything up to and including war with another power,” said Gottlieb. “This cooperation will allow us to accomplish much more than we could by ourselves and it will allow us to accomplish it faster and more efficiently.”
| Date Taken: | 10.01.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 01.04.2015 20:19 |
| Story ID: | 151340 |
| Location: | RODRIGUEZ LIVE FIRE RANGE, KR |
| Web Views: | 140 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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