13F Fire Support Specialist
Bravo Battery, 1st Battalion 78th Field Artillery
13F Class 09-23
Class 09-23 begin learning the fundamentals of Land Navigation. Land Navigation instills the groundwork of the 13F MOS by allowing the Soldiers the necessary skills of how to read and utilize a military map. Unlike regular street maps or google maps, these military maps allow them to determine up to eight digit grid locations for themselves or other things on the battlefield.
Class 09-23 conducting simulated Calls for Fire using the final skills of Polar and begin their introduction into the Grid method of Call for Fire. While polar missions required trainees to know their location, a grid call for fire relies on the rapid identification of a grid for a target without necessarily knowing their own position.
Class 09-23 conducting simulated Calls for Fire by using the Shift from Known Point method of Call for Fire. Shift from known point means based on a known location which has been coordinated with the fire direction center, the observers can then engage a target a rapidly near that location with minor corrections. The equivalent of knowing where row 1, seat 1 is, and telling the fire direction center to shoot ten feet left to hit what they see in row 1, seat 10.
Class 09/10-23 conducts adjust fire grid missions for their graded sim exam. This graded simulation is one of the major checkpoints for 13F’s on the way to being certified observers. They must within 90 seconds identify a target, plot its location, and call for fire within 500 meters of accuracy.
Class 09/10-23 establishes an operations center near OP Apache during their Culminating Training Exercise. Once established, Soldiers will then begin observing artillery rounds on the hill.
