Establishing section cohesion is vital to a unit and its mission, especially here in Korea with the rapid personnel turnover rate.
Soldiers from A Battery, 1st Battalion, 38th Field Artillery Regiment, 210th Fires Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division conducted section certification training Aug. 23 on Camp Casey which qualifies them to participate in upcoming live-fire exercises.
"We are practicing in the table five certification for multiple launch rocket system operation fire-direction specialists," said Staff Sgt. Justin Juada, of Houston, Texas, a multiple launch rocket system operation fire-direction specialist assigned to A Battery. "In that, we setup our full battery operations center, establish voice and digital communication, and get ready to fight tonight if we need to."
The battery operations center's sole responsibility is to pass on pertinent information received from battalion down to the multiple launch rocket systems in order to complete the fire mission process.
Not only is it important to train and quickly complete duties, but it is important to correctly interpret and communicate information to accurately engage or destroy targets to minimize collateral damage
"We have to know our job to contribute to the unit missions," said Juada. "The training is very important because I just got here in July and the rest of my crew has been in country for less than 90 days. So right now we are going over our crew drills, which pretty much outline what each and every Soldier is responsible for during setup operations."
The training is informative and structured to ensure Soldiers are proficient in their job.
According to Juada, the training provides Soldiers a chance to get familiar with the equipment like the Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System, or SINCGARS radios, computers, and basic setup of the battery operation post. At the end of each task they complete an after action review to see what they could have done better.
When A Battery Soldiers conduct training, their strengths outshine their weaknesses, but in their minds, weaknesses always stick with them the most.
"We need to cut our setup time down," said Pfc. Matthew Gonzales, an Alamosa, Colo. native, also a multiple launch rocket system operation fire-direction specialist assigned to A Battery. "We have to get quicker and more proficient in each task."
Each section is required to complete this training 30 days prior to going to the field.
"I look forward to going to the field and shooting," said Gonzales. "We get to go out to the field a little more here and train on things that will better us as a unit."
There is no other place on the globe where the potential for large-scale, full-spectrum conflict exists on a daily basis like it does on the Korean Peninsula. As the only permanently forward-deployed MLRS unit in the Army, the brigade maintains constant "fight tonight" readiness. Despite a challenging training and manning cycle, the unit completed multiple live fire qualifications, including a joint MLRS live fire with the Republic of Korea 2000th Artillery.
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