Nestled in the rolling foothills of the Wichita Mountains, Fort Sill is a post with a lot of history. It is designated as a National Historic Landmark, and is the only remaining active Army post on the Southern Plains built during the Indian Wars, as well as the final resting place of Geronimo, the famous Apache warrior.
31st Air Defense Artillery Brigade leadership held a staff ride July 31 to share the post's history and increase cohesion and teamwork with their higher headquarters, the 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command, from Fort Bliss, Texas.
"The commander's intent was to have a team building event which reinforced the concept that we are a profession of arms, serving something greater than ourselves," said Lt. Col. Jeffrey Rothermel, 31st ADA Brigade deputy commanding officer. "The face-to-face interaction helped to solidify bonds of trust that will pay dividends as the geographically separated commands face potential adversity in the future."
The staff ride started with a visit to a range, where participants fired replicas of antique and modern day firearms, starting with a musket and ending with a Special Operations Command version of the M14 carbine.
"Firing weapons from different periods in history allowed me to understand the impact that technology has on warfare," said Maj. John Brock, a 69th ADA Brigade operations officer. "You could appreciate how hard a Soldier in 1864 worked to fire three shots a minute while a Soldier in World War II could achieve the same rate in a matter of seconds with relative ease. It was also evident the volume of firepower allowed by new firearms made warfare much deadlier, and why maneuver became so important over gun lines."
The troops also toured the Army Air Defense Artillery Museum. Brock said it was interesting to see the evolution of air defense tactics and equipment.
"The most interesting thing was air defense transition from volume of fire with gun weapon systems to accuracy with missile weapon systems," said the major. "However, oddly, some of the newer technologies are reverting back to volume fire systems such as the Phalanx weapon used by C-RAM or Counter Rocket, Artillery, and Mortar."
Rothermel added the changing tactics and equipment showed the adaptability of the air defense profession of arms on the modern battlefield.
"The success of U.S. air defense searchlight batteries in World War II led to powerful searchlights that could illuminate night into day for a range of 16 miles during Vietnam," he said. "While the development of searchlight batteries was for a counter air mission, during Vietnam there was a continuous battery level employment of searchlights from mountains directed against enemy ground infiltration routes. It highlighted how technology and units, particularly at the battery level evolve and are employed to deal with the current threat. Air defense artillery is an incredibly adaptive combat arms branch."
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