Inf NCM on OP Det Course- Prep materials?

[brihard]

Our artillery regiments in the area are running an OP Det course starting this weekend. They ended up with a few no-fills, and offered them up to our (infantry) regiment. I've landed one of them and think myself lucky for it- cross training is always good in my books, and as an Inf JNCO it can't possibly hurt to know how the gunners do their thing in support of us.

I've found the TP through documentum and have looked through it, and I'll have part of tomorrow to review such prep materials as I can find. I'd appreciate if someone could let me know what you would in your best judgment prioritize as pre-course review? I 'get' indirect fire and the principles of it, I have a basic general knowledge of how the artillery do their thing, my comms and voice procedure are solid- but I don't know the artillery in any real depth. What knowledge would a gunner simply take for granted coming into this course that I wouldn't have? I can learn reasonably well out of a PAM; I'd rather show up and not reinforce the infantry knuckle-dragger stereotype if at all possible. I'm keen to give this an honest go.


Any help would be appreciated. Thanks folks!

 

[GnyHwy]

A few things worth mentioning.

Map reading - a simple as it maybe, get good with a map and protractor.  Practice plotting grids, finding grids, recognizing prominent features and plotting and getting bearing and distances from a map.  It is essential to be fast and accurate at this.  This may seem trivial, but being good in the OP is all about multitasking i.e plotting, shooting and listening/talking to your party and on radio simultaneously; doing these simple tasks with minimal effort pays huge dividends.

Radio orders - if you have good VP for starters then great, but memorize and understand the observers sequence of orders.  The underlined orders are the must orders and cannot be left out.  All others could be left out dependant on mission and intentions.  I always used this initialism.  OWL DD TT ADAM

Observer ID - 1 this is 11
Warning Order - Fire mission bty
Location of Target - Grid 123 456 or Direction 1000 Distance 2000
Direction - direction 1000
Description of target - plt dug in radius 100
Type of engagement - danger close
Trajectory - high or low angle
Ammunition - type and amount per gun.  HE is automatic if you don't give an ammo order.
Distribution of Fire - linear
At my Command - at my command if you have to control when they fire, otherwise don't use.
Method of adjustment or orders for fire for effect - adjust fire or fire for effect

Best advice.  Don't stress or panic; it's a slippery slope.

 

[SeaKingTacco]

I may be showing my age, but will he not be required to pass a fire discipline test, at some point?

 

[GnyHwy]

There may or may not be a be a fire D TKT.  One disadvantage that Brihard will have will be that he hasn't done an arty comms course.  This is a pre-req, but is waived on occasion.

Brihard, if you can get a hold of a copy of "Duties at the Gun Postion and Regt HQ", read Chap 4 and focus on orders from the OP.  Eventually you will need to know Chap 5- Fireplanning (not hard assessed).  As well, you will get issued "Duties of the Observer".

It will be understood that his trade and lack of an arty comms course will potentially result in a slow start, but this is a basic course and I am certain he will do fine.

 

[GnyHwy]

I don't see any reason why you can't get your Ops WO to call the Arty Ops WO and get a hold of the Crse WO to e-mail you the pubs I mentioned above, and give you a bit of a heads up of what's expected. 

If I was the Crse WO I would have no problems with this and would absolutely take the time to make sure you got it.

 

[brihard]

The course starts Saturday, I found out today, the Ops O and Ops MCpl started leave today, which leaves me under one of my several hats as acting ops NCO.  ;D So I'm winging this one. What you guys gave me is great though- I'll pull the pubs off AEL and documentum tomorrow and do some heavy review. To be clear- I'm doing the OP det member course, not one at the leadership level. It still looks like a good go though. New to me, anyway, which I always like.

Thanks all.

 

[GnyHwy]

I'll avoid the rant about the value of the det member course and even though this advice is a bit late, I wouldn't sweat the course at all.  It's great that you are taking it seriously and want to get the most out of it, and I hope you do get something out of it. 

This course is essentially a condensed and focused form of OJT that is designed for guys without any experience, to get them to a level that makes them a productive member of the det.  I am certain that eventhough you are not Artillery, that you are beyond that.

Hopefully, they have plenty of equipment to play with, and more importantly some bullets; at least then you'll get to blow something up.

If it's in your scope for the future, you should get yourself on the OP Det 2ic, the leadership one that you mentioned above.  It would be good for the battalions to have a core of guys that could conduct all arms call for fire (AACFF) training for yourselves.  This has not really been possible and may have done incorrectly in the past, but I do think it is achievable; especially if MFCs ever come back.

It would be interesting to see if it is possible to create a hybrid course that would combine the old MFC and the Arty Det 2ic.  For an advanced course, I could see taking elements from our OP Det Comd crse, which focuses on instruction techniques, cbt team tactics, and exposure to BG tactics and OPP.

 

[HollywoodCowboy]

Just remember the first letter in every word...

Old
Women
Love
Dirty
Dicks
They
Think
All
Dicks
Are
Marvellous

OP's sequence of orders!