By Pfc. Payton Wilson, 1-30th Inf., 2IBCT UPAR
Artillery observers of 1st Battalion, 9th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division trained on walk and shoot lanes at Fort Stewart, Georgia, May 9-10.
Walk and shoot lanes consist of artillery observers moving to various locations determining where artillery and mortars will fire. Soldiers located targets while they performed the walk and shoot lane and determined their targets from direction and distance.
"Notional targets are already established and we are working with the gun lines to call out targets and fire upon them," said 2nd Lt. Vincent Teodoro, a fire support officer for 1-9 FA.
This field exercise is to reestablish lower tech skills, using a compass, map and radio rather than high tech electronics, to be able to determine where targets are on the battlefield.
"We are working old school, with compass and map," Teodoro said. "We are association training with the compass and map, that is helping the Soldiers with their observation skills."
The lane was designed to simulate a combat scenario, to allow the trainees to observe incoming rounds in close proximity.
"This training is to let the fire support teams better see what it is like to have artillery rounds impact closer to them," said Staff Sgt. Tad McGill, a fire support noncommissioned officer of 3rd Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, 2IBCT. "Because of safety concerns for artillery, the forward observers only get to see the impact around 6000 meters away from them, but here they can actually see where the rounds will impact at the minimum safe distance, as well as feel the impact."
The realistic training contributes to Soldier and unit readiness as the unit prepares for training at the Joint Readiness Training Center, Fort Polk, Louisiana, and beyond, according to McGill.
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