Fort Knox, Ky. – Not many Advanced Camp training exercises are held in a traditional classroom setting. Call for Fire training is.
Cadets from 5th Regiment, Advanced Camp, complete Call for Fire training on June 18 at Fort Knox, Kentucky. Call for Fire training teaches Cadets how to call in artillery fire on an enemy in a classroom setting; this training ends with a must pass exam at the end of the day. | Photo by Reagan Zimmerman, CST Public Affairs Office
Cadets from 5th Regiment spent Tuesday morning going through the Call for Fire training. This includes an instruction course in which Cadets are taught the proper procedures to call for effective fire, some practice simulations and then a must-pass exam.
The training is often the first exposure Cadets have to the Call for Fire process.
“I came into it kind of green and didn’t know exactly what we were doing but now but now that we have run it a few times, I feel ready to go,” Cadet Britney Schovajsa, from New Braunfels, Texas, who is attending Texas State University, said.
Cadet Austin Silva, from Paul, Idaho, a student at Brigham Young University-Idaho, is a prior service Cadet who served in field artillery.
Cadet Ryan Giallonardo, from Bucknell University, uses the binoculars during Call for Fire training on June 18 at Fort Knox, Kentucky. Call for Fire training teaches Cadets how to call in artillery fire on an enemy in a classroom setting; this training ends with a must pass exam at the end of the day. | Photo by Reagan Zimmerman, CST Public Affairs Office
“It is really cool that I got to see the forward observer part of it,” Silva said. “It is a different side of things, it is more top down and I prefer it honestly.”
Cadet Kaleigh Hawthorne, from Lexington, Kentucky, who is a student at Eastern Kentucky University, is interested in branching field artillery after commissioning and said it definitely motivated her through the training.
“I want to do Field Artillery so today is pretty important,” Hawthorne said. “It makes me pay attention a little more.”
Cadet Max Curtis, from Manhattan, Kansas, a student at Kansas State University, said the training is important not just for those wanting to branch field artillery but for everyone.
“When you combine fires, we are one team, one fight,” Curtis said. “Even if you are aviation or infantry, you still need to understand how artillery works and the parameters that go along with it.”
Silva said the training provided practice in leadership.
Cadets from 5th Regiment, Advanced Camp, complete Call for Fire training on June 18 at Fort Knox, Kentucky. Call for Fire training teaches Cadets how to call in artillery fire on an enemy in a classroom setting; this training ends with a must pass exam at the end of the day. | Photo by Reagan Zimmerman, CST Public Affairs Office
“Leaders have to keep calm in any kind of stress and make important calls,” Silva said. “If you don’t make the right calls in Call for Fire than you are shooting dangerous things in the wrong direction.”
Schovajsa said the training was important to create well rounded Army officers.
“I think it is really important for Army Officers to be well versed in many things, not just their branch but have little bits of information about each branch,” Schovajsa said.
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