Photo By Staff Sgt. Russell Bassett | Soldiers of King Battery, 1st Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment fire an artillery...... read more read more
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By Russell Bassett
4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division
BAQUBAH, Iraq – Boom ... Boom ... Boom.
The earth-shaking sound of artillery fire is nothing new to residents of Diyala province. It's practically a daily occurrence, with rounds fired at all hours of the day and night.
Whether or not those loud booms are comforting or scary depend on who hears them. For the enemies of peace and security, those sounds and the resultant explosions are an anathema, but to coalition and Iraqi security forces, along with civilians working for a stable Iraqi, the sounds of King Battery firing their M109A6 Paladin Self Propelled Howitzers are sweet music.
Battery K, 1st Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment (King Battery) arrived in country in November, and immediately began providing artillery support to the 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, the coalition unit responsible for Diyala province. In the battery's first five months, they have already fired just under 5,000 rounds, on pace to decimate the record of most rounds fired by a battery in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. In fact, they are only a few hundred shy of the record, one that was set by a battery who was in country for more than a year.
"We fire an average of 30 rounds a day, close to 1,000 rounds a month," said King Battery commander Cpt. John Fritz. "Pretty much every mission artillery does – terrain denial, troops in contact, counter fire, and illumination and smoke for coalition and Iraqi security forces – we do here in Diyala. We help shape the battlefield, deny escape routes to the enemy, and show we can get on top of the enemy in a hurry."
The unit's top non-commissioned officer, 1st Sgt. Theodore Durand, noted that all the firing his battery has done has helped his Soldiers improve their skills.
"For armored cavalry artillerymen, we don't often get to practice our prime artillery craft," he said. "Here in Diyala we are contributing to the big fight and are working side by side with Soldiers of an Infantry division. This has been a lethally effective reunion – a reunion of the King and Queen of Battle"
The unit already has 30 confirmed enemy kills under its belt; but as important as enemy kills are, King Battery provides much more than that.
"We often use terrain denial fires in the brigade to shape the spheres of influence and shape the way the brigade deals with the local communities," explained Maj. Jody Miller, 4-2 SBCT executive officer. "For example, FOB Warhorse was recently attacked by an AQI element that was shooting rockets at the FOB. They were not from the local community; however, they were given approval from the community to fire those rockets as well as cache their weapons and equipment. After we shot three nights of terrain denial fires of upwards of 100 rounds fired each night in vicinity of the rocket firing point of origin, all the villagers came forward and said 'enough' and said 'we don't support these guys,' and they actually turned over the AQI and their caches."
While lifting 100-pound rounds into the howitzers during 24-hour shifts is exhausting work, the artillerymen are happy they get to do their job as much as they do.
"I've been with this battery for three years and this is the first time we have actually done an artillery mission," said Staff Sgt. William Proctor, a King Battery section chief. "I haven't shot this many rounds ever in my 13 years in the military. Being able to shoot this many rounds in Iraq in combat is what we came in the Army to do."
"We are making history every time we fire," agreed Staff Sgt. Thomas Robinson, fire direction center chief. "We fire more rounds on a daily basis then any other artillery battery that has been here. The Soldiers in this unit are privileged to be able to do that every day, and it will help them in future operations because these Soldiers are the future of the Army, and it is important for them to be able to do their job in a combat zone."
The Soldiers of the battery are very competitive. Like a sports team that thrives on competition, not only against other teams but also against each, the Soldiers constantly push each other to excel.
"As a section chief, you train your guys to have a high rate of fire to compete against the other sections," Proctor said. "When we have two guns up, we compete to see who shot the most rounds ... and who got the gun laid the fastest. My section set a goal to shoot at least 1,200 rounds during the deployment, and we have already surpassed that. We've fired 1,300 at five months. That gives us bragging rights over the entire artillery community."
And while the Soldiers of King Battery are proud of their individual, section and battery accomplishments, they are even more proud of the positive effects those accomplishments have had on the battlefield.
"A lot of it is about how many kills we get and how many rounds we've fired – that's bragging rights, but for me its more about how many American lives we saved by destroying weapons caches or terrain denial taking out enemy positions," said Cpl. Christopher Rice, artillery gunner.
The media continues to call Diyala province "restive" and "volatile" or "the most dangerous province in Iraq," but those titles have become something of a misnomer. Since last summer, violence has decreased throughout the province by almost 80 percent, and while the enemy is still capable of carrying out headline-grabbing spectacular attacks like suicide bombings, those attacks are about all it has left. The enemy's former favorite weapon of choice, the improvised explosive device, has been rendered almost completely ineffective in Diyala province, and much of that success is directly due to the Soldiers of King battery and their loud, earth-shaking booms.
"They have been exceptionally effective," Miller concluded. "It's a fair statement to say that the brigade would not have done as well as it has without the fires and effects of King Battery. They have done an outstanding job."
| Date Taken: | 04.26.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 04.26.2008 01:42 |
| Story ID: | 18799 |
| Location: | BAQUBAH, IQ |
| Web Views: | 1,477 |
| Downloads: | 1,254 |
This work, The King of King of Battle: Diyala battery on pace to decimate OIF rounds-fired record, by SSG Russell Bassett, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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