Soldiers sharpen artillery skills in attempt to cut Afghan deaths

By the Associated Press Comments 0
Published: November 17, 2009

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — Deep in the woods on the Kentucky-Tennessee line, infantrymen headed for Afghanistan are honing their precision with powerful weapons like mortars in a key element of the American military’s new mandate to reduce civilian deaths.

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Three soldiers from the Army’s 101st Airborne Division lie on their bellies on top of a berm on a forested Fort Campbell artillery range. A pair of Kiowa OH-58 helicopters circle around to the right to scout the enemy’s position, which in this training is an empty bunker.

Mortar rounds start whistling over the tree line and down toward an open field behind the bunker where a couple of old tanks painted bright yellow help artillery men precisely place the shots. The soldiers on the berm watch the rounds kick up clouds of dirt and rock, and a fraction of a second later, the sounds of the explosions echo back.

The 1st Brigade Combat Team is preparing for deployment to Afghanistan, and its training is going beyond using high-powered weapons like mortars and aerial bombs to fight an entrenched enemy.

A new directive to avoid civilian casualties is being pushed down the ranks from colonel to private through drills on how to get close enough to thoroughly assess situations and carefully gauge the impact of every weapon.

For several weeks, the brigade has been focusing on advanced artillery training with the new rules.

"All planning is based on where you can shoot and where you can’t shoot,” said Lt. Col. Randy Harris, the deputy commander of the 1st Brigade Combat Team.

"Of course the enemy has a vote on that, as well,” he said.

The Taliban and the insurgent fighters in Afghanistan "hug the population because they understand the side effects,” said Lt. Col. Douglas Vincent of 1st Battalion, 32nd Cavalry Regiment, the brigade’s reconnaissance group. "They know by doing that they put the civilian population at risk.”

The brigade has deployed three times to Iraq, where air strikes have drastically decreased from last year. But in Afghanistan, rough mountainous terrain and the lack of adequate roads mean ground forces need more assistance from the air.

According to the Air Force, the number of rockets, bombs and strafing runs in Afghanistan totaled nearly 1,200 compared to just four in Iraq this summer. Still, that’s down nearly 50 percent from last summer in Afghanistan.

Many of Fort Campbell’s units are staging large-scale weapons exercises with the Air Force through the rest of this year to better prepare. Mortars and bombs are capable of razing large areas and inflicting serious injury, so soldiers learn to carefully observe the enemy and the battlefield before pulling the trigger.

New platoon leader 1st Lt. Jonathan Fuller, 23, spends most of the morning inside a tent near the artillery range studying photos and maps of the terrain. He leads his platoon on a dry run of the battle, without using ammunition, then runs it with live fire and a third time after nightfall using night-vision goggles. Each time he and his commanders extensively review what went wrong and what went right.

The training teaches platoon leaders how to move soldiers around a battlefield while using air support and heavy artillery.