The battalion fire control NCO

FA Journal, May-August, 2002 by Robert M. Castillo

My first experience with the Field Artillery battalion fire control NCO (FCNCO) was as a young soldier in a battery fire direction center (FDC) during the battalion "Best FDC Competition." I was the FDC advance party man in a 105-mm battery and had just pulled into position with the rest of the battery advance party.

As I began to enter the initial gun data into the back-up computer system (BUCS), I heard this gruff voice asking, "What are your priorities of work as the advance party man?" Before I could answer, he took the data and BUCS and entered the data in a few seconds. His final words were, "It's getting ready to shoot!"

During the rest of my first tour, I experienced the wrath of that old, crabby, knowledgeable, chain-smoking, coffee-drinking manual fire direction guru many times. He dictated what we trained on and when and where we trained it.

The battalion FCNCO has remained essentially the same for the past 12 years--although with the introduction of digital systems to the Field Artillery, the scope of his duties has increased and will increase even more in the next three to four years.

This article addresses the duties and responsibilities of the FCNCO and outlines some tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) for his increasing the effectiveness of the battalion.

Duties and Responsibilities. The primary duty of the FCNCO is to be the premier trainer of all the Military Occupation Specialties (MOS) 13E Cannon Fire Direction Specialists and 13C Automated Fire Support Systems Specialists in the direct support (DS) FA battalion. He determines the "gate" training strategy for all 13E/C tasks in the battalion; manages the 13E/Cs; mentors battery and platoon FDC soldiers, section chiefs and fire direction officers (FDOs); guards FDC Sergeant's Time training; and develops the roadmap for digital training in his battalion.

In addition, the FCNCO brings much to the DS orders process in the military decision-making process (MDMP). With his shooter's and executor's perspective, he can serve the battalion well.

Training. While I was the FCNCO for the 2d Battalion, 320th Field Artillery (2-320 FA), 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, the battalion instituted an aggressive training program to introduce ex-Paladin FDC chiefs to the world of manual FDC secondary checks and computations. We did this via FDC consolidated training in Sergeant's Time and the commitment of the command group to a liberal training program.

However, the FCNCO responsibilities and input are just as important in the mechanized artillery battalion. The FCNCO's ability to understand both the light and heavy fire direction worlds is an asset to either battalion.

Our gate strategy began with prioritizing the basic fire direction tasks based on our mission essential task list (METL) and then training them in standardized crew drills supplemented with informally written standing operating procedures (SOPs). These SOPs had step-by-step procedures to enhance understanding. The training culminated in gunnery field exercises with advance party procedures, occupation crew drills and fire mission processing.

Later, as the FCNCO in 4-27 FA, 1st Armored Division, Germany, we established a training strategy to build the gunnery knowledge of all FDC soldiers based on feedback from a rotation to the Combat Maneuver Training Center (CMTC) in Hohenfels. The soldiers attended basic manual gunnery classes once a month during consolidated Sergeant's Time. Determining soldiers' training needs on an implied task--manual gunnery--is the FCNCO's responsibility.

The FCNCO's time should be spent with the battery and platoon FDCs concentrating on simple step-by-step drills at the lowest levels. This enhances and standardizes soldier knowledge at every level.

The time spent with the battery and platoon FDCs is beneficial in two ways. First, it ensures the training conducted at the battalion and section levels is useful and realistic and standardizes the battalion. The endstate is soldiers can be "plugged into" any battery because they all were trained in the same manner.

Second, the FCNCO learns the strengths and weaknesses of each of his battery and platoon FDCs, which makes him a better advisor to the commander in all matters concerning the FDCs.

Managing. The FCNCO gives the command sergeant major (CSM) a monthly "snapshot" of the FDC soldiers and where the battalion stands in team building. With the help of the personnel actions NCO and the battery first sergeants, each FDC soldier is tracked using a simple spreadsheet software program containing his name, rank, duty position, arrival date, previous duty position, departure date and battery.

This form allows the FGNGO to make recommendations to the chain of command and the NCO support channel on moving soldiers and replacing soldiers leaving the battalion. It also enhances the battalion's ability to promote soldiers from within, align new leaders with sections based on their abilities and that of their prospective sections, and create an environment for soldiers to strive to become leaders.