2004 state of the Field Artillery

FA Journal, Nov-Dec, 2004 by David P. Valcourt, Robert T. Bray, Tommy A. Williams

It has been an incredibly challenging year for both the Field Artillery and our joint force. We are fighting a protracted Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) while converting to a modular structure and transforming to meet the demands of evolving national security needs--and we're doing it with an all-volunteer Army. This is the first time we have fought a protracted war with the volunteer force.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

We are proud to note that our Army's and joint force's ability to accomplish the world-wide missions is, in large measure, due to the awesome adaptability and professional excellence of our Active Component (AC) and Reserve Component (RC) Field Artillery Soldiers and Marines. US Field Artillery units remain the most adaptable and well led of the land formation units, as evidenced by their adeptness in handling a myriad of standard and nonstandard tasks in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Never since World War II have Army National Guard (ARNG) Redlegs been mobilized and deployed at greater percentages. They stand side by side their AC counterparts in Iraq and Afghanistan as an Army of One. They perform the same missions--the only distinction between them is the left shoulder patches the Redlegs wear.

Field Artillery at War. Along with the talent and innovativeness of our Soldiers, the Field Artillery's success in GWOT is due to high-quality branch training; an emphasis on joint fires and effects training--the way we are fighting; the development of precision attack capabilities organic to the ground force; and special initiatives, such as the CounterStrike Task Force (CSTF).

Artilleryman's Standards and Values-Based Training. If there is one thing that differentiates Army and Marine artillery outfits from others, it is our incredibly high standards. Our tradition of and reverence for maintaining the highest of standards has its roots in the very nature of our business. With the smallest of errors in the world of indirect fires, our land force can pay a catastrophic price.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Most Soldiers divide a circle in 360 degrees, but that is not good enough in our business. Our higher standard is to describe a circle in 6400 mils.

Why is that, you may ask? Because we teach our "young'uns" from day-one that at the ranges FA fires, one mil can make the difference between killing the enemy or allowing him to continue his mission to kill us. One mil can be a matter of life or death.

The older or more "seasoned" reader may remember our nuclear surety inspections and the pristine deuce-and-a-halfs sheltered in our battery motor pools as our "mission vehicles." Thankfully, those days of nuke surety are gone, but the fact is that artillery's penchant for the highest of standards remains at the core of our Warrior Ethos as a branch.

You can see these standards in action as you visit any post in the Army and pass through the division artillery or FA brigade motor pools. They cannot help but set the standard for readiness and pride for the rest of their posts.

Here at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, our resident courses of instruction enjoy a similar reputation. A good friend once shared that "Gunnery instruction was the intellectual version of Ranger training for the Army." In that regard, the FA traditionally experiences some failures in gunnery instruction--albeit a low rate of failure.

FA Officer Basic Course (OBC) classes historically have a gunnery failure rate of about 10 percent. This low rate should be no surprise as not every lieutenant in FA OBC has a math and science educational background or the motivation to master the foundation skills of becoming an artilleryman. The FA School makes every effort to provide each young officer the coaching and instruction necessary for his success.

But at the end of our day, FA OBC graduates who leave Snow Hall must meet prescribed standards because they will go into the Army and lead howitzer and rocket platoons. They must join the Army ranks with competence and confidence in their individual skills, knowledge and abilities.

Along with the expectation that artillery Soldiers master the tasks they will perform, they all are taught that values are the rock every warrior stands on. Each must live the Army's values with his word his bond.

We remain zeromils on anything short of growing lieutenants--all Redlegs--to be branch-capable leaders who model Army values. As our Army transforms, we will continue to ensure that high standards and values-based training remain the foundation of our FA training and education system.

It is a fact that we all learn best "by doing." Therefore, we have aggressively built in experiential training in all our programs of instruction (POIs). Again, OBC's POI is an outstanding example. Today's lieutenant has had far more opportunities for hands-on training on tasks he is expected to perform when he arrives in his unit than the lieutenant of yesterday.

We are transforming all FA instruction to meet the requirements of modularity, grow competent and adaptable leaders, and resource the evolving demands of an Army at war. Our POIs are a baseline plan, but we will not allow plans to become our tyrant. We must be ready and willing to routinely "FRAGO" POIs for all our training to reflect lessons learned from operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.