2004 state of the Field Artillery.

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.

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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.

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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.

The FA is growing as a branch, increasing the number of FA NCOs and enlisted Soldiers. The growth will lead to more opportunities for promotion over the next few years. At every grade from E-5 through E-9, we expect to see FA Soldiers promoted faster than at any time in recent history.

The largest increase will be in 13F Fire Support Specialists as we add more across the formation. In FY05, we will train an additional 900-plus fire support team (FIST) personnel to fill shortages in Army and joint organizations.

We also are making a concerted effort to increase the importance of the FA Master Gunner. In terms of his training and certification, he will be the equivalent of both the Abrams and Bradley Master Gunners. We are in the process of establishing an additional skill identifier (ASI)-producing course to ensure FA master gunners have the training and skills to advise battery, battalion and brigade commanders on all certification, range and resource requirements for all levels of gunnery and coordinate for the same.

Our artillery school is a professional, learning institution of high standards and Army values.

Joint Training. We are in the process of solidifying the FA's role as the Army's joint fires and effects integrator with a number of initiatives.

* Our Joint Fires and Effects Training System (JFETS) at Fort Sill opened its doors to resident training in September. You may recall from previous articles that JFETS is a state-of-the-art simulator that uses emerging technology to train military members from the US Army, Air Force, Marines and Navy to integrate and deliver joint fires and effects for the joint force. Comparing the new JFETS with its embedded call-for-fire-trainer to the guard-unit armory device, full-crew interactive simulation training (GUARDFIST) first fielded in 1994 is like comparing "apples to oranges."

Feedback from our first Redlegs to train on JFETS was overwhelmingly positive--one officer said, "Just lock the door, and let me stay in here and train all night."

* The 3d Infantry Division (Mechanized) out of Fort Stewart, Georgia; Fort Sill; and the Air Ground Operations School (AGOS) at Nellis AFB, Nevada, continue to make great progress toward training and certifying Army fire supporters in the application of joint close air support (JCAS). Just recently, the Air Force's Air Combat Command, Langley AFB, Virginia, concurred with the Army G3's request to formalize CAS training being conducted at Nellis AFB.

To date, 19 13Fs from the 3d Division have successfully completed CAS training. Graduates have mastered the skills of providing targeting information and terminal guidance of Types 2 and 3 CAS. (Type 1 CAS is when the risk of fratricide requires the controller visually acquire the attacking aircraft and the target. Type 2 is when visually acquiring the attacking aircraft or the target is not possible. Type 3 CAS is when the attacking aircraft imposes a low risk of fratricide.)

The near-term goal is to formalize the Army's participation in the Air Force CAS training program. Given the Army requirement to terminally control JCAS at the company level, we jointly must determine the JCAS training throughput at AGOS and the appropriate number of Army seats.

We must push our senior 13F NCOs to the "head of the training line" before officers because both initial certification and sustainment training for CAS is time- and resource-intensive. By training 13F NCOs in JCAS, the Army will benefit most by investing in those who make their living in the joint fires business. Trained 13Fs will serve the Army repetitively in their assignments.

As a long-term goal, we look forward to working with our sister services to resolve the critical issues surrounding joint terminal attack controllers' (JTACs') availability and training. We remain committed to training future leaders in the application of all joint fires and effects.

* Fort Sill hosted our first-ever Joint Fires and Effects Course (JFEC) from 27 September to 15 October. This ground-breaking effort is proving to be a monumental step toward training leaders to employ joint fires and effects better.

This first JFEC class consisted of 25 students from all services and was focused on teaching related joint doctrine and tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) for planning, synchronizing and executing joint fires and effects in support of a joint task force (JTF) and joint force commander (JFC).

Based on after-action review (AAR) comments from our first class--most enthusiastically positive--we will adjust the course and offer it quarterly. More to follow on this exciting new initiative.

Precision Munitions Organic to the Ground Force. To provide precision fires organic to the ground force to maximize responsiveness, we are developing precision-guided munitions for 155-mm and 105-mm howitzers and the multiple-launch rocket system (MLRS), some with accelerated fielding for GWOT.

* The Excalibur 155-mm unitary precision munition program has made some significant progress. On 16 September, the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff signed the Joint Requirements Oversight Committee (JROC) memorandum officially granting approval of the Excalibur Unitary Round Operational Requirements Document (ORD). The Excalibur unitary round is projected for fielding in 4th Quarter of FY06 in conjunction with the fielding of the lightweight 155-mm howitzer (M777Al).

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This unitary round has had some technical successes in recent tests. The Guided Series 3b Test conducted on 17 September demonstrated the proper functioning of the inertial measurement unit (IMU), global positioning system (GPS), mission computer and canard covers while exhibiting the stable flight of the projectile. Tentatively scheduled for early FY05, the Guided Gunfire A Test will demonstrate the round's ability to navigate to a point on the ground.

The Excalibur program is important to the Army as it will give our fires battalions precision capabilities in the close support fight, increased range and a steep terminal trajectory that will allow them to attack targets in urban and complex terrain while minimizing collateral damage.

* The Projectile Guidance Kit (PGK) will bring a precision capability to 105-mm and 155-mm howitzers. The PGK is a fuze device with fins that is applied to an existing 105-mm or 155-mm round to improve its accuracy. This will reduce the amount of ammunition required for missions and enhance the current and future forces' indirect fire accuracy. The Army anticipates PGK will achieve initial capability in FY09, with fielding in FY 10.

* The future guided-MLRS (GMLRS) rocket is progressing along two axes: the dual-purpose improved conventional munition (DPICM), or GMLRS-D, and the unitary warhead, or GMLRS-U.

GMLRS-D began live-fire operational testing at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, in October and continues on into November. The high-mobility artillery rocket system (HIMARS) fired the rockets while also undergoing operational testing. 2d Battalion, 18th Field Artillery from Fort Sill was the crew for the HIMARS testing.

GMLRS-D has a greatly reduced sub-munition dud rate and, with its precision capability, costs significantly less than the M26 free-rocket to attack targets. GMLRS-D will be available in war reserve stockpiles in early 2006.

GMLRS-U has had two highly successful test firings to date in the point-detonating fuze mode. Future testing also will include the proximity and delay fuze modes.

Congress has funded and we are working to accelerate limited fielding of GMLRS-U for ongoing war operations, also in FY06, with force-wide fielding in FY08, as currently projected.

GMLRS-U is important to the Army as it allows the rocket battalions of the fires brigades to attack at long range with precision for shaping and counterstrike operations with the added benefit of its unitary warhead's being effective against targets in areas of collateral damage concern.

Counterstrike Task Force (CSTF). Enemy indirect fires, primarily rockets and mortars, have become the number one cause of injuries to Soldiers and Marines serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OIF). Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and direct action account for most other hostile action injuries. The insurgent OIF/OEF indirect fires are characterized by low-volume, shoot-and-scoot delivery.

The Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) Futures has focused the efforts of the TRADOC schoolhouses, particularly the FA School at Fort Sill and the Air Defense Artillery School at Fort Bliss, Texas, to work with in-theater leaders and the Department of the Army staff to find holistic solutions to defeat the insurgents and protect our Soldiers.

Initial efforts include a wide array of developmental capabilities. These are providing early warning of incoming rounds to individual Soldiers, improving overhead protection at base camps, intercepting the rounds, improving radar acquisitions of indirect fire and improving counterfire response times.

What is clear is that there is no one solution to defeating enemy fires and protecting our servicemen and Coalition Forces. Our strategy must be layered and redundant.

The CSTF is looking for innovative ideas from the FA, Army and the joint services to defeat OIF and OEF enemy indirect fires--I strongly encourage you to share any expertise you might have to help resolve these challenges. A secure Internet protocol routing network (SIPRNET) will give you more information about the CSTF and the ability to contribute solutions at the CSTF's classified website: https://counterstrike.army.smil.mil. A nonsecure website that provides background information on the CSTF is http://sill-www.army.mil/counterstrike. If you have questions, you can contact a CSTF representative in the Office of the Deputy Commanding General at the Field Artillery School, Fort Sill, at DSN 639-5830 or commercial 580-442-5830 or email the representative at atsf-1 @ sill.army.mil.

Modularity and Transformation Update. The past three Chief of Field Artillery magazine columns ("Crossed Cannons on Your Collar" in the March-June, July-August and September-October editions) have dealt with modularity and, to some degree, transformation. This Red Book edition includes the article "NLOS Systems for the Modular and Future Forces" by Majors Jack Emerson and Mark Laflamme and Colonel (Retired) Jim Cunningham that provides updates.

But several modularity issues are still outstanding, a couple of which we discuss in this article.

Number and Locations of Fires Brigades. A fires brigade allocated for each unit of employment, called a UEx, is required to guarantee a ready fires capability for the Total Army. At press time, we did not have the critical decisions regarding the number and locations of our AC and National Guard fires brigades.

Ideally, each fires brigade would be collocated with its UEx to facilitate training and certification with the fires battalions organic to the UEx's BCTs. However, the infrastructure and training ranges at some UEx locations are limited, requiring that several fires brigades be maintained at Fort Sill. This clearly fits within the logic of expeditionary modularity.

Battlefield Coordination Detachment (BCD) Commanders. To better solidify joint fires coordination between the Army and the Air Force, we are proposing to establish and collocate an Army BCD at each of the Air Force's five combined air operations centers (CAOCs). In the initial coordination of this proposal, other Army agencies and the Air Force have been overwhelmingly supportive.

To ensure a highly qualified, fires-experienced Field Artilleryman leads each BCD, we have proposed this position continue to be filled with a 13A colonel and be a command-selected brigade-level position that is designated as joint duty.

We will keep you updated on this initiative.

A Farewell to "Gray Beard" Heroes. As we close this year, we must acknowledge with heavy hearts the passing of two of our great retired Redlegs who were Field Artillery leaders of the past and who continued to serve the branch. Army and our nation in retirement. These Gray Beard advisors and FA and Army advocates in the Washington, DC, area were Lieutenant General (Retired) David E. Ott and General (Retired) Donald R. Keith.

Eighty-one-year-old General Ott died 21 June at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, DC, after a short illness. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. General Ott was Chief of Field Artillery and Commanding General of Fort Sill; he went on to command VII Corps in Germany before his retirement in 1978.

General Keith died at the age of 77 at his son's home in Bristow, Virginia, succumbing to brain cancer on 9 September. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. He also was a Chief of Field Artillery and Commanding General of Fort Sill. His final assignment before he retired in 1984 was as the Commander of the Army Materiel and Readiness Command in Alexandria, Virginia.

Both of these distinguished Gray Beards were Chairmen of the Board of the US Field Artillery Association and served on many other civic and military boards. May God rest their souls and shine on their beloved Field Artillery, Army and America to which they contributed so much.

A Congratulations to Our New Brigadiers. The new brigadier general's list is out, and we want to send hearty congratulations to our new Redleg flag officers. These distinguished colonels are Rodney O. Anderson, Executive Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon: Mark A. Graham, Deputy Commanding General and Assistant Commandant of the FA School, Fort Sill: David D. Halverson, Commander of the US Army Operational Test Command, Fort Hood, Texas; and Richard R. McPhee, Assistant Division Commander (Forward) of the 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) and Deputy Commander (South) of the First US Army at Fort Jackson, South Carolina.

As we begin 2005, we all can share great pride in what we have accomplished as a branch and Army. As we support the continuing war on terrorism, we believe the artillery will continue to be called upon to provide the Army with traditional joint fires and effects while executing non-traditional missions.

The FA will be able to accomplish these multiple missions as effectively as we are able to grow adaptive, professionally competent junior leaders. The artillery is not an equipment-centric branch. We are about Soldiers and Marines ... about people. Leader development will remain our most essential mission task.

Create the Thunder!

By Major General David P. Valcourt, Brigadier General Robert T. Bray, ARNG, and Command Sergeant Major Tommy A. Williams

Major General David P. Valcourt became the 35th Chief of Field Artillery and Commanding General of Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in December 2003. In his previous assignment, he was Director of Strategy, Plans and Policy in the Office of the G3 at the Pentagon. Among other assignments, he served as Assistant Division Commander (Maneuver) of the 2d Infantry Division in Korea and commanded the 4th Infantry Division (Mechanized) Artillery, Fort Hood, Texas, helping to lead its transformation as part of the first digitized division.

Brigadier General Robert T. Bray is the Deputy Commanding General for Army National Guard (ARNG) at the Field Artillery Center, Fort Sill. In his previous assignment, he was the Deputy Assistant Commandant for ARNG in the Field Artillery School. He commanded the 147th FA Brigade, South Dakota ARNG, and two battalions and three batteries, all in the 147th FA Brigade. He holds an MA in Strategic Studies from the Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.

Command Sergeant Major (CSM) Tommy A. Williams became the CSM of the FA in January. He served as CSM of the 25th Infantry Division (Light) Artillery, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, and CSM of two FA battalions, one in the 25th Division and one in the 4th Infantry Division (Mechanized) at Fort Carson, Colorado. He also was a First Sergeant for two batteries. During his 28 years of service, he has held every FA NCO position from Gunner through CSM.