FA NCOs—lead, follow or get the-hell out of the way!

FA Journal, Sept-Oct, 2004 by Tommy A. Williams

"Lead, Follow or Get the-Hell out of the Way!"--Okay, you've heard that before. But I can't think of another time in my 28 years of Army service that it applies more than it does today. The Active Army (AC) and Army National Guard (ARNG) always have looked for ways to transform into a more lethal and effective fighting force and have constantly changed during the past 229 years; however, at no time in our history have we been asked to change as many things that affect Soldiers and families as quickly as we are today and while executing a war.

We are in the process of rapidly redesigning and restructuring our Field Artillery formations across the Army to be lighter, more expeditionary and more modular to face contemporary operational environment (COE) threats. That affects how you operate in those units.

We are changing the way you are trained and developed in the NCO Education System (NCOES), both in terms of length, contents and numbers of courses.

The Army is changing the way and length of time you will serve tours in one unit or at one installation, also affecting your career development. This stabilization of Soldiers and leaders for longer tours for more in-depth experience is changing the opportunities you will have to serve in leadership positions. (For more information on stabilization and its affects on you, read the article "FA Branch: Manning a Force in Transition" by Lieutenant Colonels Dennis J. Jarosz and Raymond L. Bingham in the July-August edition.)

If you are uncomfortable with change, then you can hardly stand yourself now. If you are comfortable with change, then you are flexible, have positive energy and are open to ideas that will meet the challenges of rapid change--see those challenges as opportunities to improve the Army and the Field Artillery. Although there will be some "growing pains," Artillerymen should be excited about, not scared of, where these changes and transformation will take us.

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New FA Units. Most of you have served in brigade combat teams (BCTs) at one time or another in the past few years. The BCTs, recently reconfigured as units of action (UAs) in the 3d Infantry and 101st Airborne Divisions, are the new fighting formations in our Army. Other AC divisions will follow suit. When all is done, the number of BCTs configured as UAs in the Army, both AC and ARNG, will be more than the number of BCTs in the Army today.

To fully man and equip these new FA units in the BCTs, called fires battalions (cannons), we are reorganizing Field Artillery units--reorganizing AC FA units rapidly with ARNG FA units reorganizing over time. Although there will be more ARNG BCTs and each will have a fires battalion, overall the number of ARNG FA units will decrease with a decrease in ARNG multiple-launch rocket system battalions and some converting to other branches, such as Military Police.

When it is all done, the target is for the remaining ARNG FA units to have the same equipment and weapons as their AC sister units--be fully modernized and combat ready at C-1 status. So for the first time, the AC and ARNG FA truly will be "A branch of one."

All BCTs will be capable of deploying either independently or as part of larger formations. To achieve that level of modularity, fires battalions (those cannon battalions in the division artilleries, or Div Artys) are becoming organic to the BCTs and belong to the BCT commanders--that is a "done deal."

To accomplish our mission, we, the Field Artillery Senior NCO Corps, must ensure we train and certify all FA crews, sections and individuals at all levels of delivering FA fires and fire support as part of the fires battalion and BCT. And to do this, you won't have the Div Arty command sergeant major (CSM) to provide the standardization and evaluation guidance that you've become accustomed to.

Battalion CSMs assume that role within fires battalions. You have an opportunity for greater impact on your Soldiers, but you also have greater responsibility to be technically and tactically competent to train, develop and protect them.

In the future, a unit, known as the fires brigade, will serve in a unit of employment (UEx), which will be roughly the size of a division, with BCTs subordinate to it. Some of the fires brigades will not reside with their affiliated UExs; all fires brigades will be tailorable and modular, able to be weighted by weapons systems and assigned to whatever UEx needs them. The fires brigades can add FA battalions, based on their missions.

The first fires brigade to stand up will be the one in support of the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Hood, Texas, on 16 December.

New Missions, New Training. Historically, as the first-line leaders of Redlegs, NCOs have ensured cannons, rockets and missiles engage and destroy our enemy at great distances and in close combat, helping to set the conditions for fires and maneuver to defeat the enemy decisively. You still have that mission; but you also must be prepared to execute more nonstandard and joint fires missions than in any time in US history.