Field Artillery – Beyond the Howizter

A #BranchSeries Piece

The Field Artillery (FA) Branch is a great branch for junior officers to develop personally and professionally. The FA branch offers assignment diversity from the typical staff job or platoon leader position, as compared to other branches. It also offers lieutenants the ability to serve in positions that have effects at echelons above their peers. The FA branch is only growing as the U.S. Army focuses more on the importance of fires on the battlefield.

Soldiers conduct field artillery certifications at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., Dec. 8, 2021. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Beggs)

SFAB Request for Forces Team in Theater

A View from Inside 3rd SFAB TM 3331

No one warned us that Russia would invade Ukraine in February 2022. As a response to the ongoing effort to defend Europe against Russian aggression, Operation Assure, Deter, and Reinforce was introduced to bring to the EUCOM Theater 2 Armored Brigade Combat Teams, 1 Infantry Brigade Combat Teams, and 1st Security Forces Assistance Brigade (SFAB) Force Package comprised of twenty teams. The operational and support framework of an SFAB maneuver advisor team in a theater can serve as a strategic combat multiplier in the region.

U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Daniel Navarro, first sergeant of Ares Company, 1st Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division receives a coin from Command Sgt. Maj. Ruslanas Gulevas, command sergeant major of the Lithuanian Armed Forces Algirdas Battalion during the closing ceremony of Exercise Iron Wolf 22 at Pabradė Training Area, Lithuania, Oct. 28, 2022. The 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division is among other units assigned to the 1st Infantry Division, proudly working alongside NATO allies and regional security partners to provide combat-credible forces to V Corps, America’s forward deployed corps in Europe. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Lianne M. Hirano)

Less Books – More Impact

2022 in Books

Sometimes in life it all just comes together and you’re in the zone. Your schedule, your time management, your energy management or bandwidth, and all of the elements of your life are moving in a united direction toward your goal. Similar to a whole-life version of what Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi famously coined as Flow – these moments are special. But what about when you aren’t? What are the practices you try to sustain when you are just not in that state of total alignment. That was something I set out to answer in 2022. My current position and general time in my career brings with it a schedule and workload that required increased attention and bandwidth. Regardless of how much I wish they weren’t, my energy and attention are finite resources – more finite than I wanted to admit. With that in mind, I came out of 2021 and into this last year with the goal to minimize my focus to maximize my output. Put differently, I tried to do less, better. One of the areas that lost some of my time in this realignment was my reading. This was hard for me as someone who both loves reading but also approaches most things as if it were a competitive sport…to include how much I read. But the journey provided some important lessons that I will carry with me into future times when I return to a more balanced alignment.

The Black Hornet as a sUAS Platform

Drones have become more prevalent among small-unit tactics recently, specifically nano-unmanned aerial vehicles (NUAV) such as the FLIR Black Hornet. The Black Hornets, or Hornets, are intended to be a Soldier-borne sensor (SBS) for Infantry units that can be deployed faster than a Raven or Shadow and quieter than both UAVs. We used the Hornets with success during a defense training exercise and an offensive company-level live fire exercise (LFX).  There are limitations, as with any piece of equipment, but the benefits out-weighed limitations in both cases.

The Black Hornet PRS equips the non-specialist dismounted soldier with immediate covert situational awareness (SA). Game-changing EO and IR technology bridges the gap between aerial and ground-based sensors. It provides the same SA as a larger UAV and threat location capabilities of UGVs. It is xtremely light, nearly silent, and with a flight time up to 25 minutes. The combat-proven, pocket-sized Black Hornet PRS transmits live video and HD still images back to the operator. Image retrieved from flir.com.

Hey Lieutenant!

The power of feedback and communication to accomplish the mission and not waste your soldier’s time.

In August 2022 the Lebanese bushfire season should have been in full swing and keeping the soldiers of the United Nations Fire Brigade (UNFB) active and on their feet – but it was not. This Fire Brigade is responsible to fight fires on behalf of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). This force consists of four teams of 5 soldiers each, which assume different duties every 24 hours. To distinguish them, every duty has been assigned a colour, red, blue, green and yellow.

Service members are often called to deploy to austere, remote, and challenging locations for missions of great complexity.

Standing at the Edge of Chaos and Logic

A Guide to the Running Estimate

As military professionals at the tactical level of war, we often find ourselves standing at the sharp edge between chaos and logic. The only thing keeping us from falling into disorder is our ability to understand our chaotic environment, if only for a short while. Running estimates are a big part of how we make sense of our bewlidering surroundings. They distill information into a meaningful logic that allows us to act. 

Photo by Spc. Jordan Arnold U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence