Steel Rain Downrange
Twentynine Palms Artillery ‘Lights Up’ Niland, Calif.
Story by Lance Cpl. Michael S. Cifuentes, NILAND, Calif.
Hailing from the harsh and barren terrain of Marine Air-Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, Calif., artillerymen and logisticians trekked across a desolate and unwelcoming Southern California desert to assist would-be instructors attending a four-week weapons and tactics course. Explosions ensued.
M Battery, 3rd Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment, composed of roughly 100 Marines, brought five M-777 Lightweight Howitzers, crew-served weapons and their infantry skills to Niland, Calif., neighboring the Salton Sea.
Their mission was to provide artillery support to Marine pilots attending the Weapons and Tactics Instructors Course, which is basically a Marine aviation schoolhouse, said Capt. Kevin M. Stout, commanding officer of M Battery.
Squadrons throughout the Marine Corps send pilots to the course for training on close-fire combat and call-for-fire missions.
The battery’s mission was to provide artillery support when students needed it, said Stout. Artillerymen fired nine out of 29 days.
“With only nine training days out of the 29-day evolution, you have to come up with your own things to do,” said Stout.
The battery also trained for firing missions not in support of the course to further sharpen their infantry skills.
“We did three separate emergency fire mission shoots,” said Stout. “There were times when the battery convoyed down a road and the (executive officer) of the battery would give a fire for effect call. We’d just basically pull over to the side of the road, about 10 to 15 meters out, set up the [weapon systems] and get ready to shoot. In the final emergency fire mission, we had rounds out of the gun 14 minutes after the mission was called. It went really well considering we haven’t done this before.
“From there we rolled into a hand grenade throw,” said Stout. “Each Marine of the battery received one live hand grenade and two (practice grenades). We spent half of the day on grenade exercises and then moved on to a 50 caliber [heavy machine gun] shoot. Every Marine in the battery fired 100 rounds of 50 caliber ammunition.”
The battery then transitioned into a three-day training period for squad leaders. The battery broke down into squads and trained for live-fire and maneuvering drills. They executed the drill successfully under horrible, windy weather conditions, said Stout.
“Our purpose in the field as artillerymen is to try to make timely and accurate impacts on targets, and to make targets for air support,” said Sgt. Michael E. Gilliland, a 23-year-old artilleryman with M Battery, from Chula Vista, Calif. “We are also trained to do infantry work. When we are not firing rounds downrange from our guns, we must be prepared as (infantrymen). We’re always up for any call.”
During Operation Iraqi Freedom I, M Battery deployed to Iraq as an artillery unit; during OIF II, they deployed as a convoy security unit, and during OIF III, their mission was detainee operations.
This training evolution was very important to the battery, said Stout.
“It’s easy to say every Marine is a rifleman, but unless you practice it, that’s usually not the case,” said Stout. “With all the provisional missions artillery has been tasked with, such as convoy security, detainee operations and being a provisional rifle company, there needs to be some level of expertise in the battery to take the fight to the enemy. That’s the biggest training I believe we got out of this.
“The reason why this battery is so successful is because of the leadership that is exhibited by the NCO’s in particular,” said Stout. This is a well-built team with a lot of talent in a lot of different positions. That is why we are capable of doing the great things we do.”
