Photo By Sgt. Apryl Bowman | Soldiers assigned to 2nd Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Armored Division...... read more read more
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The training focused on honing the skills necessary to sling-load M777 Howitzers to a CH-47 Chinook helicopter to prepare the artillerymen for conducting air-assault missions in the future.
During the training, a Soldier was either on the hookup team that attached the load to the helicopter, a rigger who prepared the Howitzer, or an inspector who made sure the Howitzer was rigged correctly for safe transport.
Air assault missions allow field artillery troops to move quickly in the battlefield to conduct suppression of the enemy aerial defense missions.
“The ability for artillery assets to be able to move using aviation is crucial, and it is a skill that gives artillerymen a far better reach to support and accomplish a mission,” said Spc. Devan Hesson, an artillery crew member assigned to Battery B, 2-3 FA, 1AD.
If Soldiers are unable to get to a specific area, due to terrain features, they can use air assets to transport them there.
“If we need to get on top of a mountain to shoot fire missions down into a village, we cannot take a tactical vehicle up the side of a mountain, so we take a helicopter and let it drop us down,” said Hesson.
Air-assault qualified personnel were responsible for guiding the helicopters in with hand and arm signals, performing and supervising the slings, and acting as the hook-up crew for the chinook.
“The ability to perform sling-loads with success, serves an important purpose in enhancing military readiness,” said PVT. Caleb Collier, an artillery crew member assigned to Battery B, 2-3 FA, 1AD. “The ability to perform sling loads is important not just for moving loads in a combat environment but humanitarian efforts as well.”
Conducting multiple training iterations of sling-loading is not only preparing the artillerymen for real world missions, but also for a two-gun air-assault raid with live fire training exercise they have coming up.
“We are going to the field next week and we are going to conduct a two-gun air raid for a calvary unit,” said Hesson. “The calvary unit is going to come to our firing point, pick up our howitzers with the CH- 47s, fly us out to one of the other firing boxes and we’re going to shoot a couple of firing missions for them.”
| Date Taken: | 09.13.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 09.28.2017 01:17 |
| Story ID: | 249832 |
| Location: | EL PASO, TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 339 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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