Oregon cavalry trooper reflects on gunnery cycle

Photo By Staff Sgt. Patrick Caldwell | Pfc. Zach Shively, assigned to Charlie Company, 3rd Battalion, 116th Cavalry Regiment, Oregon Army National Guard, stands next to his M1A2 System Enhanced Program Abrams tank on a gunnery range at the Orchard Combat Training Center south of Boise, Idaho. Shively and the rest of his company spent 11 days in June at the training center preparing for an upcoming training exercise at the National Training Center.  

BAKER CITY, OREGON, UNITED STATES

06.10.2015

Story by Staff Sgt. Patrick Caldwell 

116th Cavalry Brigade Combat Team

ORCHARD COMBAT TRAINING CENTER, Idaho – Inside a sweltering 60-ton high-tech mechanized machine, success hinges on speed.

Just ask Baker City Oregon’s Pfc. Zach Shively.

“It is all about speed, getting the gun loaded in under seven seconds and listening to your fire commands,” he said.

Shively, a member of Eastern Oregon’s largest Oregon Army National Guard unit, the 3rd Battalion, 116th Cavalry Regiment, knows a little more than most about how swiftness pays off inside an M1A2 System Enhanced Program Abrams main battle tank.

In June, Shively, along with more than 500 other members of the 3rd Battalion spent 11 days on the high desert south of Boise, Idaho conducting a critical exercise in preparation for training at the U.S. Army’s National Training Center (NTC), situated at Fort Irwin, California.

For many in the U.S. Army armor world, an exercise through the NTC is equivalent to an appearance in the Super Bowl. The three-week August training session will pit the eastern Oregon Guard combat unit in the toughest environment the U.S. Army can furnish that falls just short of an actual combat experience.

The 3rd Battalion will join sister units from Montana and Idaho in August – as part of the 116th Cavalry Brigade Combat Team - for its first trip to the NTC since 1998.

“I think it will be interesting. It is pretty rare so I’m excited,” Shively said.

The 11-day training cycle in June south of Boise was all about the battalion’s tankers and Bradley fighting vehicle crews conducting critical gunnery trials to prepare for NTC. The tests consisted of each tank and Bradley fighting vehicle crew successfully negotiating through a series of gunnery ranges. The final test – dubbed Table VI – demanded each Bradley and tank crew engage a set number of targets in a specific amount of time with either the Abrams’ big 120 millimeter main gun or machine guns. Sometimes the tanks fired from a set position and other times the big 60-ton metal giants traveled down a road at each range and engaged a target while moving.

The process may seem simple but it is not. Each crew member of the tank – driver, gunner, loader and tank commander – need to know their own job well. They must also communicate and perform as a team. Generally crews secure about 6 to 10 seconds to engage a target – a target they must hit to score points.

Shivley, who is assigned to Ontario, Oregon’s Charlie Company, 3rd Battalion, 116th Cavalry Regiment, and is a loader on an M1A2 Abrams tank, agreed that teamwork is the crucial element to success.

“For example, if you don’t have a good driver, it is hard to load,” he said.

The process to succeed in a tank on a qualifying gunnery range may seem simple but is complicated.

Shively, for example, must listen carefully as his gunner and tank commander call out a fire command. Then he must turn, pull a heavy silver 120 millimeter tank round out of the tank’s ammunition storage compartment and slam it into the breach of the big tank gun. He then shouts “Up!” and the gunner can fire at the target.

The whole process must occur within a five to seven second window. In that short time frame, the target must be identified, the proper fire commands delivered, the round loaded and then the gunner can fire the big main gun.

To be successful, each tank crew must work as an integrated team. The driver must hold his speed steady, the loader must load the correct kind of tank round – SABOT (a kinetic energy warhead) or HEAT (high explosive, anti-tank) – in a rapid manner while the gunner must lock on target.
Each tank, to be successful, must complete the process over and over again on a tank gunnery range and record a qualifying score.

Shively, who works for the Forest Service, said he enjoys the gunnery cycle.

“I like being a tanker. You are pushing rounds through,” he said.

Shively said he initially toyed with the idea of joining the military full-time but eventually decided against it.

“I had a pretty good job with the Forest Service. But I wanted to serve my country and the school benefits (with the Guard) were good,” he said.

• Date Taken: 06.10.2015
• Date Posted: 07.29.2015 14:25
• Story ID: 171447
• Location: BAKER CITY, OREGON, US