'King of Battle' rules over enemy in Fallujah

Marine Link ^ | August 21, 2004 | Sgt. Jose E. Guillen

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

'King of Battle' rules over enemy in Fallujah
Submitted by: 1st Marine Division
Story Identification #: 200482154027
Story by Sgt. Jose E. Guillen



CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq (Aug. 20, 2004) -- A deep, rolling boom echoed across the desert, quickly followed by another. This was no mortar or rocket attack, though. It was the calling card of the King of Battle: the 16,000-pound combat workhorse called artillery.

The artillerymen of the 1st Marine Division continued to shoot and communicate here recently, shielding their brothers-in-arms on the front lines near Fallujah.

"We're here to support all of our infantry units, but we support anyone who needs artillery out there," said Sgt. Felix A. Rocha, an operations chief for Battery A, 1st Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment. "Most of our missions have been from Marines near Fallujah."

Army infantry units also called for Marine artillery in March.

"They still had people out there. They needed fire support and we shot it," said Sgt. Andrew S. Hecker, a 28-year-old section chief from Miami, Fla.

Marines in Battery A are routinely committed to bringing down "the rain of pain" as their motto states, and they often get that chance when "fire mission!" is shouted. The result is like clockwork, according to the Marines.

"We make sure each fire mission is taken with speed and intensity because those grunts need arty - they need our help," said Lance Cpl. Joseph K. Arthur, an artilleryman from New York City.

A battle damage assessment of the effects the artillery rounds had on the target is collected after each fire mission. The BDA is relayed to commanders by forward observers or the unit closest to the target.

"We don't normally get BDAs, but we received one that we destroyed an enemy mortar platoon and Iraqis with RPGs," said Rocha, a 26-year-old from Hart, Texas. "We're pretty accurate."

Although the battery is not engaging the enemy as frequently as they did last year, their presence has been felt throughout the province and proven critical.

"Artillery has always been extremely vital because of their quick response to counter battery fire," explained Lt. Col. Sparky Renforth, operations officer for Regimental Combat Team 1, from Wheeling, W.V.

"Their fire support for offensive units maneuvering onto the enemy is also vital," Renforth said. "They've been timely, responsive and accurate. We can use artillery when we want to."

A lot of coordination goes into executing artillery missions.

"It takes time to have aircraft on station, as with artillery - it's just a faster means of returning fire to the enemy," said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Thomas D. Kircher, senior watch officer for the regiment's combat operations center.

"The battery is connected to every battalion. That allows them to directly communicate with each other," added Kircher, 34, of Swanville, Minn.

One way the regiment keeps the enemy on their heels is tracking the enemy's system of fighting, according to Kircher.

"There's a consistency of enemy," Kircher said. "We have points of origin - or places we're now firing back on."

Precision weapons like hellfire missiles fired from fixed wing aircraft and armed predator drones are often used to destroy confirmed threats when use of artillery is not ideal, according to Renforth.

"We don't want to shoot artillery into the city - that's stupid," explained Renforth. "It's so much harder to clear rubble than to clear buildings that are already standing."

-30-

 

Photos included with story:

	Lance Cpl. Joseph K. Arthur, an artilleryman with Battery A, 1st Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment, turns a wheel to ensure total balance of a howitzer in preparation for a fire mission directed at targets near Fallujah, Aug. 18. (USMC Photo by Sgt. Jose E. Guillen) Photo by: Sgt. Jose E. Guillen
	Lance Cpl. Richard Escobar, an artilleryman with Battery A, 1st Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment, aligns 95-plus pound artillery shells for a fire mission directed at targets near Fallujah, Aug. 18. (USMC Photo by Sgt. Jose E. Guillen) Photo by: Sgt. Jose E. Guillen
	Lance Cpl. Jeremiah S. Adkins, an artilleryman with Battery A, 1st Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment, positions 95-plus pound artillery shells closer to a M198 howitzer in preparation for a fire mission directed at targets near Fallujah, Aug. 18. (USMC Photo by Sgt. Jose E. Guillen) Photo by: Sgt. Jose E. Guillen
	Lance Cpl. Joseph K. Arthur, an artilleryman with Battery A, 1st Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment, manually pumps the howitzer off the ground to shift the direction of the gun in preparation for a fire mission directed at targets near Fallujah, Aug. 18. (USMC Photo by Sgt. Jose E. Guillen) Photo by: Sgt. Jose E. Guillen
	Cpl. Sajjad R. Naqvi, an assistant section chief with Battery A, 1st Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment measures for accurate gun-direction through a scope in preparation for a fire mission at targets near Fallujah, Aug. 18. (USMC Photo by Sgt. Jose E. Guillen) Photo by: Sgt. Jose E. Guillen
	Marines with Battery A, 1st Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment, rotate the 16,000-pound M198 howitzer to a new direction in preparation for a fire mission directed at targets near Fallujah, Aug. 18. (USMC Photo by Sgt. Jose E. Guillen) Photo by: Sgt. Jose E. Guillen

	Marines with Battery A, 1st Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment, wait for the order to begin a fire mission directed at targets near Fallujah, Aug. 18. (USMC Photo by Sgt. Jose E. Guillen) Photo by: Sgt. Jose E. Guillen

[Cannoneer No. 4]

They don't use paper maps near as much as they used to. They have GPS and Plugger and Blue Force Tracker displaying information electronically.

[MarkL]

Although they didn't belong to the Marines, I passed a convoy of these "big guns" on 71hwy in Missouri last year. I counted 35 guns being towed, along with support trucks.

All I could think was "GodSpeed," and "Give 'em Hell!"

Mark

[doodad]

Oh how cool. So the arc to parabola computations are all figured. Dang, why did I think the service was so uncool in 1981 when I finished high school. Well, it was unfortunately due to some people's behavior coming home from tours and folks like Carter in office.

I would have made a good artillery man since I could not fly like DAD due to glasses. Thanks all who responded.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

You can eyeball a 6-digit grid with practise. Protractors don't last long outside of a map case. Never saw anybody try to pre-mark grids on a map. That would be more trouble than it was worth.

You don't give them windage. Just give them a good grid, or polar plot, or shift from a target reference point, and they will put it where you told them to put it. Infantry is the Queen of Battle, and the reason Artillery is King is because Artillery puts the balls where the Queen wants 'em.

There are occasional short rounds, but there isn't much you can do about them.

[freedumb2003]

That is sooo funny! Even my wife,who doesn't know anything about artillery and the like, was ROTF!

[Cannoneer No. 4]

U.S. Army Capt. Dave Bottoms - Redleg Chaplain

[RedlegCPT]

I could but it would hurt your brain.

[Darksheare]

I dunno why they continue to drag the 198 around.
But the 119 is fun to drag about.
;-)
Or strap INSIDE a CH-46, or sling underneath, or..
*chuckle*

[LincolnLover]

This is a great thread. Thanks for posting.

[xone]

Arty deserves it, but it sucks that they got the 'King of Battle' moniker. It is the coolest name and can never be topped. If you want arty, you gotta call "the King"

[blackie]

We are winning ~ the bad guys are losing ~ trolls, terrorists, democrats and the mainstream media are sad ~ very sad!

~~ Bush/Cheney 2004 ~~

[M Kehoe]

Everyone is an 11 bang bang when the excrement hits the oscillator. ;^)

5.56mm

[EternalVigilance]

I wonder why that is? I would just make smaller rubble.

Hard lessons learned in WWII. One example: The Russians were able to hold Stalingrad and break the Wehrmacht because the Krauts leveled the city, providing almost limitless cover for the Russians to fight from.

When we leveled the Benedictine monestary on top of Monte Cassino in Italy with a huge bomber strike, we totally detroyed the structure, but killed few Germans. When the dust settled, they simply had a million new fighting positions.

That's what is being referred to, I think.

[AndrewC]

That's what is being referred to, I think.

Yes that is probably true. But we did not bomb the rubble and the Germans didn't have B-1B's and B-52's.

[RedlegCPT]

Yup we are the Balls of the Queen.

[Chuckster]

ROTFLOL!!

I served in the 2/11FA 25th ID, my last hitch in the Army. I was chief computer in the FDC. That's funny!

[AngryJawa]

Please enter your battalion, company and platoon passcodes, each followed by the pound sign. As soon as we verify your passcodes, we will begin processing your request.

LMAO!

It's about at this point where the the "customer" usually starts calling you a mother$%^*&# and banging his radio handset against a rock.

[Chuckster]

I know this is a late reply, but we used to calculate corrections to the basic ballistic data, azimuth and distance to the target and differential in gun/target altitude, for propellant temperature, air temperature and density and of course wind speed and direction through the several layers of atmosphere through which the projectile traveled through its arc on the way to the target, plus the rotation of the earth while under the projectile during its time of flight and for the different weights of the various types of projectiles like high explosives, smoke, white phosphorus etc. We also applied corrections for wear and tear on the tubes of the individual cannons based on registration data from actual firing tests.

During the time I was in the Field Artillery, 1966 through 1980, we did it with slide rules and paper and pencils. We had tabular firing tables, and graphical firing tables which were specialized slide rules. We did have a primitive comnputer called a FADAC (Field Artillery Digital Automatic Computer) that rarely worked and when it did was slower getting the data than a good Spec4 with a slide rule.

We received meteorological data periodically to update our met corrections and calculations had to be done to properly apply the met data which we used for a brief period of time. the met calculations took about ten or fifteen meinutes to complete and we would use the met data for a couple of hours until we got a new set of data.

IIRC it took us about three minutes from receiving a call for fire to getting initial data worked up and transmitted to the guns. Subsequent data for adjusting rounds and fire for effect took under a minute.

We did a lot of math without calculators or computers and took a great deal of pride in our speed and accuracy.