Once, Present and Future King of Battle
Dragons Fire More Than 4,700 Tounds in Support of Combat Operations
Submitted by MAJ Miles Brown
September 5, 2007
Article by Staff Sgt. Jon Cupp
1st BCT, 1st Cav. Div. Public Affairs
CAMP TAJI, Iraq -- Since arriving in theater a little more than ten months ago, Soldiers from the 1st “Dragon” Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment have fired more than 4,700 rounds from their M109A6 Paladin howitzers in support of combat operations here.
For the month of August alone, the battalion’s Paladins fired over 1,000 rounds—more rounds fired than any other artillery unit in a given month in theater over the course of Operation Iraqi Freedom – Rotation 06-08, according to Las Vegas native Capt. Ken Heebner, battalion fire directions officer, 1st Bn., 82nd FA Regt.
But only a select few Soldiers in the battalion have actually had the opportunity to do the job that they were trained for as artillerymen-- firing the big guns as well as coordinating those fires.
“We have some hand-picked Soldiers here who are doing what they were trained to do in (Advanced Individual Training),” said Staff Sgt. Joshua Shackleford, a fire direction noncommissioned officer for the Dragon’s fire direction center who hails from Charleston, S.C.
“The last time I was here I mainly did force protection for a whole year in a guard tower. I stayed professional by reading my manuals but it wasn’t the same as actually doing the real field artillery job of shooting field artillery. The last time I was in theater, I only fired five rounds but that was just for training.”
“Here, we’ve fired more rounds in theater than any other Paladins in real combat operations,” added Shackleford. “I’m ecstatic for our Soldiers and I tell them in their counseling that (here in combat in Iraq) they ought to be proud because they are making artillery history everyday.”
During their ten months on Taji, the battalion has supported everything from counterfire missions to suppressive fire missions as well as hitting pre-planned targets. They have cleared routes for combat missions along with providing security and standing guard in the towers located on the base camp here.
The battalion has also seen its share of firsts for the deployment, said Heebner, with being the first-ever hot gun battery in theater to fire the Excalibur precision munitions in combat along with being the first to use the Modular Artillery Charge System. Both, said Heebner, are new technologies that vastly improve the accuracy of Paladin fires.
For about six months troops from Battery A, 1st Bn. 82nd FA Regt. fired the Paladins while troops from Battery B conducted force protection. Now the roles have been reversed with Btry. B firing the Paladins and Btry. A taking the base camp security role.
Troops working from the Dragon fire direction center control Paladin fires by coordinating with the Paladins on the firing line. In describing how each component operates, Heebner said the way the various elements function together is much like the organs of a body working in unison.
“Everybody always wants to see the Paladins, the big guns and the big show, but we’re (the fire directions center is) the part of the team behind the scenes that serves as the brain of the operation,” said Heebner, explaining that in comparison, the Paladin crews are much like the heart and soul of field artillery.
From the time the fire direction center receives a fire mission from a brigade to the time the howitzers fire can take as little time as 57 seconds to a couple of minutes, according to Douglas.
The fire direction center relays up to date target information from a brigade to the Paladin crews. The fire direction center also ensures that elevation and altitudes have been verified and that things such as weather conditions are right for firing.
Once information has been sent to the Paladin crews, they read the information back to the fire directions center to ensure that they are both on the same page.
“Our guns are always ready to execute any live missions that come down,” said Staff Sgt. Walter Douglas, senior fire direction noncommissioned officer for the 1st Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment and a native of Honolulu, Hawaii. “We always check safety first and then fire on the guys who may be on the ground attacking our brethren.”
Currently, the Dragons support fires for battalions within both the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division and the 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division.
“We’re essentially supporting fires for two divisions,” said Heebner. “We’ve taken on missions where we were firing for 4-2 and the 1st BCT at the same time with the tubes of the Paladins pointing in two different directions.”
The Dragon’s hot gun battery has effectively assisted in minimizing both indirect fire threats and improvised explosive devices (IED), according to Douglas, while also explaining that being fired upon by a Paladin’s 155 millimeter rounds can be a very convincing deterrent.
“We’ve taken out a lot of mortar teams and it feels good knowing that those guys won’t be able to send mortars onto our camp,” said Douglas. “We’ve also been very effective at lessening improvised explosive devices (IED) by hitting insurgents while they were emplacing IEDs. Once we have the guns laid on them, we’ll take them out the best we can, and we know they won’t be doing it again.”
“It’s very exhilarating and it’s good to know that we’re supporting the troops out there on patrols who are pounding the ground. I get excited every time I hear them say ‘we need your assistance and we need it now.’”
Douglas said that the fire direction center’s success is due mainly to the fact that it is manned with a very capable crew.
“I couldn’t do this without my Soldiers,” said Douglas. “Anyone of them at anytime could execute the missions on their own. They could step in and do my job if they had to.”
When it comes to firing the Paladins, Heebner said he believes that the unit will break more milestones as the deployment continues.
“We can see ourselves quite easily reaching more than 6,500 rounds by the time we redeploy,” said Heebner. “What we’ve seen here is that artillery still drives the battle field and is still the king of battle. It was always needed in the past and it will always be needed in the future.”
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Billowy clouds of fiery smoke hang in the air after field artillerymen from Battery B, 1st “Dragon” Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment fire their M109A6 Paladin howitzer on Camp Taji, Iraq Sept. 2 in support of an actual combat mission. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Jon Cupp, 1st BCT, 1st Cav. Div. Public Affairs)
During an actual combat operation in which rounds were fired against enemy targets, Capt. Ken Heebner (left), fire directions officer for the 1st “Dragon” Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment; New Washington, Ohio native Spc. Andrew Krebs (center) and Staff Sgt. Joshua Shackleford, a fire direction noncommissioned officer who hails from Charleston, S.C. verify targeting information which is then sent via computer to the crew of an M109A6 Paladin howitzer on Camp Taji, Iraq Sept. 2 prior to the howitzer firing. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Jon Cupp, 1st BCT, 1st Cav. Div. Public Affairs)
After a target is acquired and the artillery prepares to be fired, Sgt. 1st Class Juan Garcia, battle captain for the 1st “Dragon” Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment’s fire direction center and a native of Laredo, Texas, maintains communication with and situational awareness for senior leadership in the battalion for whom the Dragons are performing a fire mission on Camp Taji, Iraq Sept. 2. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Jon Cupp, 1st BCT, 1st Cav. Div. Public Affairs)
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