Insurgents taunt, Marine artillery responds

by Lance Cpl. Bryan Eberly

Regimental Combat Team 5 let's their big guns talk back when insurgents pipe up with mortars.

Cpl. Reginald O. Lamptey enters the information for a target and checks the sights. Marines can spend hours and even days waiting for missions, but when the call comes in, they can have rounds sailing through the air in minutes. Lamptey is assigned I Battery, 3rd Battalion, 12th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 5. (photo by Lance Cpl. Bryan Eberly)

Marines from 1st Platoon, I Battery, 3rd Battalion, 12th Marine Regiment man their mammoth M-198 howitzers and sling 155 mm of retribution when insurgents lob mortars at Marines. It's a quick, devastating punch and one that"s keeping insurgents ducking and Marines on the attack.

The battery's Marines are serving with RCT-5 at Camp Fallujah.

"They can shoot at us all day, and we'll return fire," said Gunnery Sgt. Bobby D. Frazier, platoon gunnery sergeant.

The results, according to Cpl. Richard E. Harowitz, from Richmond, Va., are deadly and devastating. Insurgent mortar teams and even terrorists trying to lay improvised-explosive devices stand no chance.

"We once blew up a guy laying an IED," said Harowitz, an ammunition team chief. "All the grunts found in his place were pieces of his camera."

Successful missions require strong team efforts from 1st Platoon's four gun teams, as well as the fire direction center and forward observers.

According to Cpl. Matthew V. Cook, a section chief from Perrysburg, Ohio, the process for firing starts with Marines performing combat operations, usually with Marines on patrol.

He said the process, though lengthy, actually takes just seconds. It goes something like this: forward observers working with infantry report insurgent operations to the FDC, along with locations, or radars plot insurgent mortars and rockets fired at Marines.

The FDC processes the data and calls the gun teams. When the section chief receives the call, he shouts the mission, which rounds to grab and which charges and fuses to use to launch the rounds.

While ammo teams grab gear, gunners enter coordinates onto the howitzers and point it in the right direction.

Read more

judythpiazza@gmail.com

   _   _