FORT SILL, Okla., July 26, 2018 -- Junior officers in the Field Artillery (FA) Basic Officer Leader Course (BOLC) had the rare opportunity July 19-20, to train with AH-64 Apache helicopter crews.
Approximately 70 second lieutenants in BOLC Class No. 4-18 engaged with their rotary-wing training partners at Mow-Way Forward Arming and Refueling Point (FARP).
The fire support coordination exercise marked the first time the lieutenants got to apply what they learned in the classroom out in a field training environment, said Maj. Michael Koller, operations officer for B Battery, 1st Battalion, 30th FA.
The exercise represents the "walk" phase of their "crawl, walk, run" learning curve, battery commander Capt. Christopher Guthrie said. As such, it's a precursor to their capstone exercise, Redleg War, coming up three weeks from now. That five-day final exam will be the "run" phase.
As the lieutenants went through a couple of maneuver lanes this week, they demonstrated that they could integrate fires into the actual maneuver.
"It helps to show the students how Fires supports the maneuver element as they seize objectives, attack objectives, secure objectives. And it just helps them conceptualize what we've been training them over the last few months," Guthrie said.
The BOLC lieutenants called for indirect fire from a gun line at Mow-Way FARP. They also integrated rotary-wing aircraft from 2nd General Support Aviation Battalion, 211th Aviation Regiment, a National Guard unit wrapping up a month's worth of predeployment training at Fort Sill prior to deploying to the Middle East.
Maj. Gen. Wilson A. Shoffner, Fires Center of Excellence and Fort Sill commanding general, observed the same thing. Also, from the ground a small group of West Point cadets in Cadet Troop Leader Training observed training.
Koller said the lieutenants would learn a couple things during the exercise: principles of fire support in the lanes and, at the gun line, fire direction center and howitzer operations.
"Pretty much the entire sensor-to-shooter process that we use in field artillery," he said.
Learning how to call for fire from a helicopter has practical applications, as Guthrie discovered during his deployment to Iraq. There, it leaned more toward urban operations than what the BOLC students were doing.
Has he ever called for fire from helicopters?
"Yes, sir, actually I have," Guthrie promptly replied. "Apaches. These same types of helicopters."
It worked, he confirmed.
What the captain wants the students to get out of the training is "to understand how we as field artillerymen can use fire support to enable maneuver commanders to dominate on the battlefield."
Guthrie said half of the approximately 70 lieutenants conducted maneuver lanes while the other half operated howitzers. 2nd Lt. Matthew Sayger, platoon leader for B Battery, 1-30th's Gunline Platoon, said there were two M119A3 howitzers and one M777A2 firing for the exercise.
2nd Lt. Taran Samaroo is a naturalized U.S. citizen from the South American nation of Guyana who's training to be a field artillery officer. He was already a U.S. resident before he enlisted in the Army in 2008, but his military service did fast-track his path to citizenship.
"When I was deployed, I became a citizen," he said.
Samaroo said he got out of the Army and worked for a while in accounting. Eventually, though, he decided to get back in.
"I missed it a lot, actually. Being part of a team, team-building, all that stuff," he said.
Samaroo described his training experience July 20 as being "mainly JFOs (joint fires observers) -- so we're working with aviation to clear a route for us as we move ahead and secure an objective. This is the first time we're actually working with the aviation, so it's kind of exciting."
The training taught him to use both air and land assets, which will help while he's deployed, Samaroo said.
Regarding the 110-degree heat, Samaroo said it didn't bother him. Being from Guyana and playing outside a lot, he's used to hot weather. As acting first sergeant, he carried a bit more than the others, but he didn't find it difficult.
"We're training to all be leaders here, and we should be able to take a little bit extra load," he said.
Instructors safeguarded student Soldiers from the scorching heat in a variety of ways. Soldiers used Camelbaks. They dipped water and sports drinks flowed freely. Soldiers also dipped their arms into icy immersion tanks, or went into a cooling tent to escape the burning sun for a while.
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