Courtesy Photo | The suns sets behind a Stryker manned by the Company A, 52nd Infantry Regiment, fire...... read more read more
SGT RACHEL BRUNE
101ST SUSTAINMENT BDE
A fire support team from Company A, 52nd Infantry Regiment, traveled outside the wire Nov. 19 to act as forward observers during a live-fire artillery certification here.
"We're the eyes of the artillery," said Capt. Patrick E. Shepherd, fire support officer, of Tampa, Fla.
The team supported the Battery C, 4th Battalion, 11th Field Artillery Regiment exercise, which the unit must perform every three months. The same team supported the Battery A, 4-11th FA exercise Nov. 5.
Traveling via Stryker, the team rode out to clear the impact area. Using hand signals and some Arabic he picked up in a 12-week course at the unit's home station of Fort Wainwright, Alaska, Shepherd informed a local Iraqi he would have to move his flock of sheep out of the zone.
The actual fire support team consists of Staff Sgt. Andrew Thomas, fire support NCO, of Waterloo, Iowa, and fire support specialists Spc. Greg Werthmann, of Quad Cities, Ill., and Spc. Robert Toretta, of Hopewell, Va.
After clearing the impact area, Shepherd used a compass and map to shoot an azimuth and plot the target points. On this exercise, the artillery battery directed its rounds to a 'safety box" within the impact area, which is a smaller aiming area, according to Shepherd.
"Our end â?¦ is to find the target and calculate distance and direction," said Shepherd.
Once Battery C set up its M198 Howitzers, the team began calling in "missions" over the radio. The missions were situations in which artillery might be needed, such as a suspicious vehicle in an intersection or a platoon in a defilade, or narrow gorge.
Shortly after the fire support team called in the mission, rounded plumes of dust appeared in the impact zone, accompanied by smaller mushroom plumes from shrapnel and ricochets. Moments later, the sound waves caught up with the impact.
From the observation point, the team could hear a whistling sound that approached quickly. The actual sound of the impact thundered through the steel floor of the Stryker vehicle, causing more of a vibration than the impact itself.
Sometimes a round would land slightly too far in one direction. Toretta observed with a pair of binoculars and used a compass to calculate the azimuth to the impact, informing the team of where the 'splash" landed in relation to where the team thought it would land.
"We adjust fire onto the targets," said Toretta. "If they're off, we'll call in corrections."
The battery must adjust fire for such variables as temperature, wind speed and propellant temperature.
"There's a lot of math on the gun side," said Shepherd.
After the mission, the forward observer radioed back to the battery the accuracy of the shot and estimation of "casualties."
At one point, the radioman called in a mission on a "platoon of sheep in defilade." After a successful mission by Battery C, he radioed back an estimate of "zero three lamb chops."
As night fell, the team prepared to call in illumination rounds, also known as flares. The illumination rounds burned brightly enough to provide light over the entire impact area.
"It turns night into day," said Shepherd.
The battery practiced firing illumination rounds followed by high-explosive rounds. The grand finale was a "range and lateral," in which the battery fired three simultaneous shots which hovered next to each other as all the howitzers fired together.
"When we come out here, we're training for the lethal side [of our mission]," said Thomas.
The forward support team usually participates in the "nonlethal side of the job," which includes support for civil affairs missions outside Q-West.
The unit's regular mission is to help to the Iraqi community in any way possible, according to Werthmann.
The team also conducts cordon and knock as well as entering and clearing procedures, said Toretta.
Pfc. Christopher Sims, Stryker driver, of Lapeer, Mich., watched the proceedings while reading a Stephen King novel. Sims joined the Army about two years ago.
Sims came into the Army with Cpl. Ross Wade, vehicle commander, from Sarcoxie, Mo.
Wade is in charge of keeping the company commander's vehicle running.
"These are the best guys I've ever worked with," said Thomas, who has served in the Army for 14 years. "I pretty much tell them what to do and turn them loose."
| Date Taken: | 11.28.2005 |
| Date Posted: | 11.28.2005 13:41 |
| Story ID: | 3886 |
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| Web Views: | 223 |
| Downloads: | 17 |
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