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Dagger Brigade’s artillery battalion competes for Top Gun, Top FDC title
TORUN, Poland—Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 7th Field Artillery Regiment, ‘Lightning Battalion,’ 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, receive a special muzzle cover from Commander, Col. David Gardner, 2nd ABCT, for winning the Top Gun competition, Nov. 23 in Torun, Poland. Lightning Battalion conducted a ‘Top Gun/Top FDC’ competition, Nov. 19-23, to determine the best artillery gun crew and fire direction center in the battalion. The event was designed to promote esprit de corps and sustain their readiness and ability to deliver timely and accurate fires. (Photo by Capt. Orlandon Howard)
Photo by: Capt. Orlandon Howard
ZAGAN, Poland--The Soldiers of 1st Battalion, 7th Field Artillery Regiment ‘Lightning Battalion,’ 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, conducted a ‘Top Gun’ and ‘Top FDC’ competition to determine the best Howitzer gun section and fire direction center, Nov. 19-23 at Torun, Poland.
Top Gun and Top FDC are distinguished designations given to artillery gun sections and fire direction center sections that best demonstrate their ability to perform crews drills associated with their sections’ role in the canon firing process as well as other Soldier tasks that are critical to a section’s success.
The Lightning Battalion used the event to promote healthy competition and esprit de corps, and also to sustain their readiness and ability to deliver timely and accurate fires. They are deployed to Central Europe in support of Atlantic Resolve, a mission that provides a continuous U.S. armored brigade combat team presence in the region. The Lightning Battalion is comprised of six platoons with three M109A6 Paladin 155mm artillery sections per platoon. Each platoon is assigned a fire direction center to direct the fires of the Howitzer sections.
There were six FDC sections that competed and the competition was tight up to the very last event, said 1st Lt. Alex Plimpton, fire direction officer for the winning team.
Their events were the assembly and disassembly of their M-4 carbines and M240B machine guns, construction of an OE-254 antenna, the PMCS of their tracked vehicle, a short field exercise with pre-combat checks and inspections, and setting up a command post tent on the back of the truck along with their advanced field artillery tactical data system. The last event included four regular fire missions and one emergency. The events were graded on time and accuracy.
For the FDC, proficiency in a team’s crew tasks was the key to winning, said Capt. Daniel Faughnan, Battalion Fire Direction Officer.
There were also 18 Howitzer gun sections that competed in their respective version of the event.
The gun sections’ competitive events involved weapons assembly and disassembly, including the M-4 carbine, Mk 19 grenade launcher and the M2 .50 caliber machine gun, as well as the assembly and disassembly of the breech of their Paladin. Their field exercise activities included emplacing their gun at the firing point and conducting four regular fire missions and one emergency.
The gun crew competition also proved to be very close.
“I think what put us over was the ruck march,” said Staff Sgt. German Ramirez, section chief of the crew that won the Top Gun portion of the competition. “We came in at 2 hours and 40 minutes, and the next closest one was 2 hours and 50 minutes.”
Winning the competition was a big deal for the gun section.
“It’s a big boost of confidence,” said Ramirez. “We put in a lot of hard work and a lot of time into trying to win Top Gun and it showed up at the end with us winning.”
The winners received an Army commendation medal and a red muzzle cover signifying them as the ‘Top Gun’ in the battalion for the gun crew, with the FDC section receiving a red guidon to represent their achievement.
