Moving Time

After spending a year in 1-7 CAV and 6 months at JSS Istiqlal, my time in Garryowen is coming to an end. In just a few days, I will be moving to Camp Taji to serve the rest of my deployment as a Platoon Leader/Fire Direction Officer (FDO) for B Battery, 1-82 FA. I will still be in the 1st Brigade Combat Team under the 1st Cavalry Division, so this will have no effect on my redeployment timeline. The move is bitter sweet. I will miss 1-7 CAV and all the great soldiers, but I am ready for a new job. I am tired of meeting with all the local leaders and listening to them complain constantly and I am tired of working on micro grants and CERP (Commanders' Emergency Relief Program) projects. Also, my troop commander since I came to Blackhawk Troop, CPT Britton, just relinquished his command yesterday to a new commander. The troop Executive Officer (XO) and both platoon leaders (PLs) are moving to different troops shortly and Blackhawk Troop will not be the same.

Because of all of these changes, now is a good time to leave and begin my new job. Since the LT who is replacing me as the Blackhawk Troop Fire Support Officer arrived, I have been studying up on manual cannon gunnery in preparation for the certification test I needed to pass in order to become an FDO. After a few days of studying, I took the test and got a 99.5%. I was pretty happy about that. All I need to do now is wait for a real fire mission so I can officially become certified. That is supposed to happen in the next couple of days. Once I am certified, 1-82 will move me to Taji and I will be the FDO.

In case you're wondering what an FDO does, I will tell you. There are three parts to field artillery that all must work together in order to accomplish their mission. These parts consist of the forward observers, the cannons themselves, and the Fire Direction Center (FDC). The forward observers are the soldiers on the ground that can see the target and adjust the artillery rounds to hit the target. One of my responsibilites as an FSO in 1-7 CAV was to supervise my team of forward observers. The role of the cannons (in our case the M109A6 Paladin) is obvious. They cannot see what they are shooting at, but they are the ones shooting the rounds at the target. The FDC is the hub that recieves calls for fire from the forward observers, transfers the data into fire commands and then sends the commands to the guns.

Ok, so that is the basically how the system works. As the FDO, I will be in charge of the FDC. When my FDC receives calls for fire, I will make sure that the target plots safe, I will issue the fire order, ensure that all the firing data is correct, and then tell the guns to fire. I will also be the PL, meaning I will be in charge of not only the FDC, but the Paladins and all of the soldiers as well.

I was hoping that I wouldn't get moved to Camp Taji but it looks like that is my fate. Taji is a huge U.S. military base that is quite ridiculous. Although many people complained about the living conditions here at the JSS, I liked it here. Taji has dining facilities that you could not imagine. They have swimming pools and tons of other activities to do. Not that it's a bad thing, but I really liked the quite life we had out here at our outpost. Anyway, before I left for Taji, I figured I would get some pictures of the JSS and give you a little tour.