As the morning light shines down on 4th Regiment at Fort Knox, Cadets pair together and kneel in front of a small pile of sandbags while preparing to be tested by Cadre on Call for Fire.
Call for Fire is when Soldiers call for support through a radio from field artillery units, or a Fire Direction Center, to suppress an enemy with cannon fire by giving target location and description.
Cadets from 4th Regiment exercised their Call for Fire skills during a warrior skills training on June 12, 2021 at Cadet Summer Training Advanced Camp in Fort Knox, Ky.
Whether they learned Call for Fire from a job, ROTC, or the day of training, there are a variety of requirements that Cadets need in order to earn a “go.”
“It’s one of those learning experiences where you gauge the Cadet’s leadership skills on the fly,” said Cadet Khai Dinh, in Alpha Company. Dinh is part of the ROTC program at California State University out of the University of Southern California.
“I enjoy reading the maps,” said Dinh. “It’s something I’m pretty comfortable with.”
Almost like a conductor in an orchestra, Cadets must bring a variety of skills together while being accurate and timely to achieve the goal in front of them.
Cadets need to know how to read a map, identify themselves and their target through a radio, give a location and describe their target, and perform other communications in order for artillery to precisely hit the designated target.
“I think it is a really good exercise to kind of get us all on the same sheet of music,” said Cadet Carl Peterson, in Alpha Company and from Texas State University, while also being in the Army’s Green and Gold Program.
According to Peterson, since Cadets come from different universities and have various instructors, it is easy for someone to have an offbeat understanding.
“It’s good for us to pool all of our knowledge together and conduct a class,” said Peterson.
Due to being prior enlisted, both Dinh and Peterson were confident with the exercise.
“It’s really good to get back out here and relearn some of these techniques and keep beating on that craft so that I can be proficient when I have to execute it,” said Peterson.
