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Cdn Airborne Arty in Afghanistan (from: Airborne Engineers)

Bzzliteyr said:
.....might have been an American artilleryman?
I don't know of any ad hoc US 'fire support-R-us' type organizations, and I was pretty well situated to have heard about such a group.


"When you've eliminated the impossible".....I'm sticking with the BS premise.
 
Here is a thread on Airborne arty in Canada

http://forums.army.ca/forums/threads/1585.0

Little airborne history
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Airborne_Regiment

 
Brihard said:
The only jump I'm aware of in Afghanistan was the American 75th Ranger Regiment in 2001.

Elements of 3rd Battalion,  75th Ranger Regiment jumped into Kandahar 19 Oct 2001
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Rhino

Raid on Kandahar

While the campaign was under way in the north, U.S. forces also struck in the southern part of the country in the heart of the Taliban movement near Kandahar. On the night of 19-20 October Rangers and other Special Operations Forces (SOF) soldiers conducted airborne and air assault operations against several sites in Kandahar. Four MC-130 aircraft dropped 199 Rangers of the 3d Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment (-), onto a desert landing strip southwest of Kandahar, code-named Objective RHINO. Assisted by circling AC-130 Spectre gunships, the Rangers quickly secured their objective. Then the soldiers and attached psychological operations (PSYOP) loudspeaker teams moved toward a nearby enemy compound and cleared it without resistance. Having secured the landing zone, they assisted follow-on helicopter forces of SOF soldiers that had additional raids to conduct in the area. In all, the Rangers and SOF soldiers spent almost five-and-a-half hours on the ground with only a few minor injuries. Although the tactical results of the raid were mixed, the Taliban was shown that U.S. forces could strike anywhere and anytime and that no location in Afghanistan was a safe haven any longer. Later, when U.S. marines landed in that same area on 25 November, they would establish a new base on the Ranger landing zone, called Camp RHINO.
http://www.history.army.mil/brochures/Afghanistan/Operation%20Enduring%20Freedom.htm

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, 3rd Ranger Battalion was deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.  On the night of Oct. 19, 2001 portions of Companies A and C conducted a daring low-level parachute assault onto Objective Rhino, a desert airfield in south-western Afghanistan, in order to capture key logistical information.  During follow-on missions, forces from Company B, 3rd Battalion accomplished a successful night parachute assault into Bastogne Drop Zone to secure a desert landing strip in support of a special operations raid.
http://www.goarmy.com/ranger/heritage/third-ranger-battalion.html


70 Paratroopers from B Co, 3rd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division conducted a combat jump in Afghanistan in February 2003
http://www.blackfive.net/main/2004/05/recently_declas.html
http://www.socnet.com/showthread.php?t=38139
 
A few countries have done para drops in Afghanistan.  Canadian arty has done none.
 
Something is definitely skewed in the story telling, or quite possibly the originator of the message is on a completely different frequency that nobody else gets

Far as I know, the only airborne related thing that happened with Canadian M777 during the Afghanistan "era", occurred in 2006, but it did not involve any actual air drops in theatre. Not intentional drops anyway

In the summer of 2006, roughly 6 months after the M777 came into service, the Artillery School SMIG was sent to the states to observe air mobility trials with the M777*. The trials focused on lifting the gun in air mobile Ops (i.e. by helicopter and Osprey), and only limited air borne trials were done. The SMIG did not take part in any of the jumps, and neither did any other Canadian gunners. The intent was for him to quickly get these proper rigging procedures for heli Ops sent overseas, so they could be used instead of the "make shift" techniques the troops had come up with.

The gun had come into service so quickly, the specifics of how to rig the gun had not been worked out yet before it was operationally deployed. It didn't help either that the different nations with aircraft capable of lifting the gun (Dutch, UK and US Chinooks) each had a slightly different twist, so to speak, on the rigging (brakes on/off, number of free chain links, spades up/down).  On two occasions guns were damaged as result of the "experimentation" that was unavoidably going on. For the most part it got sorted by Winter 06/07, and the different techniques were passed on from roto to roto mostly as a lessons learned type of thing. It would not be until Winter 2009 that a consensus was reached amongst the different nations lifting the gun, in theatre, on one rigging procedure. By the time CFLAWC finally issued their version of rigging, the gun configuration changed yet again; modifications that required yet more trials. These changes were comm's eqpt hung on the gun carriage itself, which amongst other things changed the gun's C of G.

I've haven't had any direct involvement with the gun in about 2 years now, but still stay in touch with those that are.  There is still air mobile training going on with the M777, and there is a Bty developing airborne skill sets, but no air drops with the M777, yet. It might seem makeshift while it is going on, but there is some method to the madness.


* There were only two of us in the school with the background necessary to attend the air mobility trials in the states in 2006, and "bone" was the lucky one that got to go while I, as the School Mr Gnr, worked on 155 ammunition (Excalibur) issues
 
Had the pleasure in 1970 of being one of two safety officer sent to augment the Airborne Battery when they dropped into Suffield for an exercise with their L5's.

I wasn't jumping just waiting off to the side of the LZ and then snowmobiling out so that the guns could go into action as soon as the crews were down. The guns and ammo came in on the first few chalks followed by the gun dets and CP that flew on separate chalks immediately behind the guns.

Incidentally that video of the 777's was quite impressive. I'd like to know how long it takes to de-rig one of those suckers. Again, if memory serves me correctly the L5s were putting rounds down range in under twenty minutes of the crews landing.

:warstory:
 
2 RCHA, Y Battery does mantain a large number of jump qualified OP parties and FAC's to deploy with jump coys. It was stood up in 2010.
Echo battery also has a troop of 81mm mortars that are designated with jump coy status. But that's only been around since 2011.

Is it possible that was what was being referred to here?
 
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