Mos-13b

[ANGRecruit]

I am interested in this field, can someone tell me a little more about modern day artillery and howitzers? My father was in Vietnam and did artillery with howitzers, but I'm sure its changed in the last 35 years since he last did it. To me its a great field because its very physically demanding from a lifting standpoint and many of your fellow soldiers depend on you for fire support and your precisiveness.

[ANGRecruit]

So is there anyone in this forum that is in Artillery? It doesn't have to be only in the Army, advice from the Marines would be just as good.

I’m a 13f but I should be able to field this one. Just like every other combat job in the army 13b brakes into two completely different worlds, mechanized and light. If your mechanized you will probably be driving around in 155mm paladin; a high-tech tracked vehicle with all the trimmings. The Big advantage of the paladin over anything else in the inventory is you can stop anywhere, have your gps forward your location to Fire Direction and Control (FDC), lode and fire in minuets. Now if you’re light life is not so simple. You will be running around with a 105mm (or more rarely a towed 155mm) howitzer which is a “dumb gun” without any electronics whatsoever. Ask your dad about aiming stakes and the like and you should get the picture of how complex and time-consuming gun setup is to the inexperienced.
The solders who operate them are stereotyped as dumb muscle heads known as “gun bunnies” with a “pull string go boom” mentality. From my standpoint in an arty unit this stereotype does indeed exist but is a minority. There are also plenty of men of any description on the gun line. If you have any more specific questions I’m happy to help.

I am a Fire Support Sergeant. The mission of the Field artillery hasnt changed, ...to suppress, neutralize or destroy the enemy using what ever assets are on hand.
I just finished Close Air Support(CAS) school. Love the fact that I have the ability to call in Rockets, Air Support, 155mm Artillery and also Mortars(currently a Fist Chief for 120mm Mortars!). The only drawback to the job, is that if you are not stationed with organic artillery you are basically bitched out(tasked out) with the menial duties of the attached unit, counterpart in a different company was tasked out to be the orderly room NCO. No love for the Artillery guys. You will use your skills downrange. You will use them but not as often as say the infantry guys or the MPs.

Originally Posted by ANGRecruit

So is there anyone in this forum that is in Artillery? It doesn't have to be only in the Army, advice from the Marines would be just as good.

Hello,
Even though I'm now 11b, I will always love my time as a 13b.
Here some info I hope helps.
I did time on the light guns. 102, 105mm to be specific. I call it the .38 special of artillery. If you get assigned to this, you will most likely be on the 119. The ammo is the same, 105mm. This ammo is what's called seperate loading ammo. In other words, is comes in 2 componates. The shell/canister, and the projectile. The canister looks like a big bullet shell. It has a long primer in the middle and come with 7 bags of powder in it. Dependinmg on the charge you will take out what's not needed. For example, if it's a charge 5 you will remove the 6th and 7th bag. Once the powder is set, the projectile is placed on the shell and loaded into the breach and is closed. The pojectile will have differant fuses screwed on top. They come in differant types, point detonated, verible time, delayed time ect. After the round if fired, the shell is ejected.
With 155 mm, you load the round and push it forward then add the bowder bags with a red bag being last, install the primer, attach the laniard, and fire. then swab the breach and your ready for the next round.
All guns are laid on target by the collimeter. This is an infenity site the you line up the PANTEL gunners site to. Once you get the deflection, the gunner turns the tube the that number. The quadrent is the number for elevation. The tube is raised or lowered to this number.
You will get all of this at AIT.
As for the intelligent level of those in the artillery, yes I have seen some rocks, but most are very intellegent. In my case, all my line scores are well over 100.

was it easy to make the switch to 11B from a field artillery MOS??

Originally Posted by SGTYOUNG

was it easy to make the switch to 11B from a field artillery MOS??

Actually, yes it was for me.
I already had most of the skills needed, as in land nav and such.
The new things were the Operation orders, METT-TCM, OCOCA. I never really had a need for these things on the gun line.
I new how to do a SALUTE report. As for the phisical aspect of it, no problem.
Patroling was no problem either. I did get time on the weapons, MK 19, 240 and the 249. I shot expert on the SAW.
I should get my cord this week, as well as the disks.