BAGHDAD - Soldiers of Battery A, 113th Field Artillery Battalion, 30th Heavy Brigade Combat Team, Multi-National Division-Baghdad, man an M109 Palladin self-propelled howitzer 24 hours a day at Forward Operating Base Mahmudiyah.
The cannon is ready to support U.S. and Iraqi Soldiers by destroying the enemy with explosives, firing smoke to mask advances and illumination rounds that light up several square blocks at a time.
"Fire mission, fire mission, fire mission", announces the radio as Soldiers rush aboard the 32-ton howitzer.
The crew takes their stations inside the nearly eight-foot diameter turret of the vehicle, which is dominated by the breech of the several-ton cannon suspended in the center. Instantly the Soldiers begin preparing to fire.
Staff Sgt. Aaron Goodwin, of Lincolnton, N.C., the gun chief, confirms the mission and calls out the type of round and number bags of explosive powder needed to fire the shell to the target.
Pfc. David Laws, of Statesville, N.C., manhandles a nearly 100-pound high explosive shell into the back of the cannon from a rack bolted to the side of the turret.
Spc. Jason Wenzel, of Lincolnton, places bags of powder by hand behind the shell and closes the breech.
Goodwin enters the coordinates of the target into the onboard computer and turret and cannon move in unison, aiming the weapon.
The driver, Pfc. Michael Thomas of Belmont, N.C., of revs the engine, providing the power needed for the tons of steel that are moving into aiming position.
"Prime," says Goodwin over the engine noise.
Laws takes the finger length primer used to ignite the powder behind the shell. He sets the primer in a small hole at the back of the cannon.
The crew braces against the walls, clear of the path of the cannon's recoil.
"Fire," Laws pulls the lanyard, turning his body away from the cannon.
Flames shoot out the front of the cannon as the round flies to its target many miles down range.
Everything moves, the cannon recoils three feet back inside the turret, the vehicle rolls several feet backwards. The crew is shaken and anything not bolted down is thrown about the turret in a haze of smoke and dust.
"End of mission," Goodwin says.
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