Photo By Staff Sgt. LaShic Patterson | U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Marcus Parker and 1st Lt. Shane Smith are selected as the top two...... read more read more
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VILSECK, Germany - The 2d Cavalry Regiment conducted the Joint Fires Observers Competition at the Rose Barracks in Vilseck, Germany, Jan. 9, 2019. The top two Soldiers earning the highest competition scores will garner the opportunity to represent 2CR with the 1st Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group and Joint Terminal Attack Controllers in the close air support exercise at the Monte Real Airbase, Portugal.
Entering the competition included the following 14 Soldiers: Spc. William Brown, Spc. Jakotay Miller, Spc. Carlos Pardo-Garcia, Pfc. Justin Quaider and Sgt. Caleb Swedenburg from 2nd Squadron, 2CR, Staff Sgt. Sean Gorga, Sgt. Cory King, Staff Sgt. Marcus Parker, 1st Lt. Shane Smith, Sgt. Joshua Teague and Sgt. Conner Walcher from 3rd Squadron, 2CR and Spc. Reno Averill, 1st Lt. Rita Graham and 1st Lt. Jacob Patcher from 4th Squadron, 2CR.
While the running cadence, “what’s the sound of artillery, boom boom, raining down on the enemy,” often motivates first formations during physical training, these Soldiers have hands-on experience with the sounds of fighter aircrafts and artillery as JFOs, working with both air to surface capable aircraft, as well as, surface to surface indirect fires.
The Army Field Manual 3-09 defines a JFO as a service member who can request, adjust and control surface-to-surface fires. A JFO provides targeting information in support of the Type II and III close air support terminal attack control and performs autonomous terminal guidance operations.
“It’s our job to provide targeting data, basically what targets, where they are, at what times, how to provide guidance on how we believe they should be attacked and [with] what munition,” explained Smith, a field artillery officer serving as a fire support officer with Iron Troop, 3rd Squadron, 2CR.
According to Smith, because JTACs are not in the forward position and are unable to see the battlefield, JFOs speak through the JTAC to effectively give targeting data up to the aircraft.
“We just give the JTACs real time what’s [happening] on the battlefield, where the friendlies are, where the enemy is, what kind of disposition they are [in], what kind of vehicles there are, their elevation, their grid [and] basically everything,” said Parker, a fire support specialist serving as a joint fire support NCO for Iron Troop, 3rd Squadron, 2CR. “So, the pilot can just come into the grid square, he can find the target and JTAC can clear.”
Field exercises that include training with pilots from the U.S. Army Attack Aviation [also known as Triple A], pre-courses that lead up to the JFO course, JFO simulations and competitions provide Soldiers with the necessary training for essential readiness and enhancing capabilities during deployment missions.
“When I deployed, I actually wasn’t even a JFO, yet,” added Parker who would learn a lot of his JFO knowledge from coursework and from his forward observer prior to his deployment to Kandahar, Afghanistan. “I had been through a couple of pre-JFO courses, so I knew what to do. My FO would let me control the rotary wing, and he would control the fixed wing when we were working with the CCT [Combat Controller] JTAC.”
Parker continued, “I’m glad that they’re putting together a pre-JFO course here because it’s good for the lower enlisted guys to definitely know those skills and know what to do in the event that a qualified JFO is not there.”
The Soldiers began the JFO competition with a six-mile ruck march followed by a 25-question written exam, testing their JFO knowledge. For many, the written exam proved to be the most challenging event.
“It was intended to weed people out,” said Smith. “It was written by an NCO [non-commissioned officer] up at regiment who picked some really hard questions in order to separate people within the competition.”
“The written exam for sure was pretty tough,” agreed Parker. “He made the questions intentionally very hard. He dug real deep into the manuals and the pubs [publications] just to make sure that the people that did score the highest on the written exam were the people that were more knowledgeable than the rest.”
Smith and Parker, along with Patcher, Graham, Teague and Quaider, advanced to the final event, the JTAC simulations at the 2nd Air Support Operations Squadron. It was the first time that many of the Soldiers had been in a dome version of the simulator, having done the simulator on a flat screen prior to this event.
Known as the Virtual Battlespace Simulator, the simulation was led by Staff Sgt. Neiko Gullory, a U.S. Air Force Airman with the Tactical Air Control Party, 2nd ASOS. The simulator consisted of a dome screen with a compass on its display and range finder on a tripod; the range finder was connected to a radio and a defense advanced GPS receiver and is used to pull grids and lase targets for aircrafts.
Gullory briefed the four areas that each Soldier was to complete. Using a protractor, notepad, calculator and pencil, they were to provide an observer line up, a JFO target brief, terminal guidance operations with lasers to include designating targets for laser-guided munitions, and a target correlation. Receiving a go or no-go in each area, Gullory graded the six finalists on their JFO practical execution to determine the top two.
Compiling the highest scores and going on to become the top two Soldiers to represent 2CR at the CASEX in Portugal was Smith and Parker, both of whom attended the JFO course in November 2018 and July 2016 respectively.
“I enjoyed it,” shared Parker on his overall feeling of the competition. “I think the next JFO Competition needs to be even more in depth. It should be like a couple of days long with all kinds of ‘Fister’ [fire support specialists] and JFO skills.”
It is not often the JFOs receive the opportunity to train with the JTAC while assigned to 2CR. The CASEX allows for the JFOs and JTACs to work with NATO countries, increasing fire power superiority and interoperability between the partnerships.
| Date Taken: | 01.15.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 01.15.2019 02:04 |
| Story ID: | 307028 |
| Location: | DE |
| Web Views: | 681 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Always Ready: 2CR conducts JFO Competition, by SSG LaShic Patterson, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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