This article warms the cockles of my old Redleg heart. Comes now the misty memories of the GFT and TFT issued to us at FA Officer Basic Course, the TFT full of columns of mysterious figures and GFT appearing to be the easier solution, only to face learning how to apply MET data to the GFT for a better firing solution. Then, off to missile school to compound the learning with trig and log tables to get the manual solution within the performance standard time.
I’d be surprised if anybody below the rank of E-8 has actual experience in setting up firing stakes, the infinity collimator, or using the sun filters on the M2 aiming circle to lay the battery using the sun as the EOL.
Over 35 years ago, I recall a conversation with my battalion commander (I was S-3) about the lack of manual gunnery skills as the Army was putting the TACFIRE system in the field. Even then, manual FDC was on its way out. TACFIRE was a forerunner to AFATDS and was a huge computer in a 5 ton air conditioned van. Anyway, my colonel opined that someday in the future the Army would ask around for us old guys to teach them how to do manual gunnery when all the computers wouldn’t work.