FORT SILL, Oklahoma, Feb. 27, 2020 -- The last Green Tab PT of Maj. Gen. Wilson Shoffner's Army career was a fitting tribute to the Father of United States Field Artillery, Maj. Gen. Henry Knox.
"Hard Knox -- The Noble Train of Artillery" combined history with current training. Commanders and senior noncommissioned officers from across Fort Sill assembled on the historic Old Post Quadrangle for their monthly round of functional fitness, one of the Fires Center of Excellence (FCoE) and Fort Sill commanding general's priorities.
Instead of using modern equipment, though, they developed their agility and flexibility the way America's pioneering artillerymen would have: pushing howitzers back and forth across the quad; carrying water jugs, kettlebells, and sandbags, and dragging skids.
The event began before sunrise, when the temperature was a frigid 24 degrees F with a wind chill of 14. The command teams kept warm by exercising to the piping of a fife played by Staff Sgt. Jorge Zepeda and the rat-a-tat of a snare drummed by Spc. Karsten Burns, both with the 77th Army Band.
"Hard Knox" commemorated the Knox Expedition that took place during the winter of 1775-76. Then-Col. Henry Knox led "the noble train of artillery" on a 300-mile movement of equipment captured from the British at Fort Ticonderoga, N.Y. Over the course of three months the troops hauled 60 tons of cannons and other armaments all the way to Boston, Mass., without losing a single gun.
Using boats, horses, ox-drawn sledges, and manpower along poor-quality roads, across two semi-frozen rivers and through the forests and swamps of the Berkshires, these master logisticians gave the Continental Army the firepower it needed to put Boston fully under siege. Their route is now known as the Henry Knox Trail, and Fort Sill's former Armaments Building has been renamed Knox Hall in honor of the bookseller who led this Revolutionary War game-changer.
After the guns were emplaced on the Dorchester Heights, British commander Gen. William Howe ordered a withdrawal from the city as his position had become untenable.
The British forces and several hundred loyalist colonials departed the city March 17, 1776, for Halifax, Canada.
Capt. Peter Mitchell, commander of the FCoE's Headquarters Detachment, said leaders wanted his unit to put together a different PT session for this occasion, so he coordinated with the Army Artillery Museum, Fort Sill director of museums Frank Siltman, and his team.
"They brought out the cannons that the museum has in storage and demonstrated for them. So, (we) just wanted to share that you don't need fancy gym equipment or anything like that to have a good workout and also learn a bit of history. You don't have to travel too far or watch TV. It's right here in our backyard," Mitchell said.
The "Hard Knox" PT used cannons all the way from the little 3-pounder of the American Revolution up to the 3-inch ordnance rifle of the Civil War.
"We used the whole array of pre-1870 American artillery," Mitchell said.
The legacy term "Green Tab" comes from the old green Army dress uniform. The officers used to have an epaulet on their shoulders, and anyone who was a battery, company, battalion or brigade commander -- and the commanding general as well -- wore a piece of green cloth underneath their rank. That was to designate their command position.
For the CG's last Green Tab PT before he retires from the military, Siltman invited Shoffner to come forward and pull the lanyard to fire a ceremonial round from the Fort Sill Gun Detachment's Model 1841 6-pounder. Everyone then huddled for Shoffner's closing remarks to post command teams.
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