National Guard Field Artillerymen Head to Fort Drum for Annual Training

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Artillery Soldiers from the 1-258th train at Fort Drum, June 2007.

• Artillery Soldiers from the 1-258th train at Fort Drum, October, 2007.

LATHAM, NY (06/06/2008)(readMedia)-- Approximately 375 Soldiers of the New York Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 258th Field Artillery, head to Fort Drum, N.Y. this weekend to begin their two-week annual training. The artillery troops will conduct individual and gun crew training, including an artillery live-fire exercise later in June.

WHAT: Annual Training for members of the 1-258th Field Artillery, along with supporting elements from other National Guard units.

WHO: About 375 Citizen Soldiers from armories in Jamaica, the Bronx and Newburgh. Support troops from the 42nd Division come from armories on Staten Island and Lockport, N.Y.

WHEN: Troops depart this weekend and spend two weeks at Fort Drum, N.Y., returning to home armories on June 20. Artillery live-fire training will be conducted on Monday-Tuesday, June 16 and 17.

WHERE: Battalion operations center at Bldg T-851, Fort Drum, N.Y.

BACKGROUND:

Soldiers from the 1-258th Field Artillery depart for Annual Training to conduct the training that artillerymen long for each year: live fire.

The unit had previously trained at Fort Drum in June, October and December of 2007 in support of the 27th Brigade Combat Team’s recent deployment to Afghanistan. Even after three premobilization training cycles, the Soldiers from the Jamaica-based 258th Field Artillery look forward to bringing their 105mm howitzers to Fort Drum.

“Let’s put it this way,” said Lt. Col. Paul Conte, the 1-258th Battalion Commander, “My personnel did three premobilization training cycles like everyone else (in the 27th Brigade). Yet they still wanted to have an annual training event back at Fort Drum. Why? Because Field Artillery Soldiers love to live fire,” Conte said.

This summer marks the last scheduled training with the unit’s seven M102 105mm towed howitzers. The M102, first fielded by the Army in Vietnam in 1966, is a highly versatile weapon system with a maximum range of 11,500 meters, or seven miles. There are ten Army National Guard field artillery battalions across the U.S. that continue to employ the M102.

In 2009, the battalion is scheduled to receive the new M119A1 howitzer. The lightweight, towed field artillery system, first fielded in the Army in 1989, weighs about 400 pounds less than the M102 and provides significantly greater range, 14,000 meters or eight and one-half miles. The howitzer is air transportable using UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters and is considered more lethal than the M102 towed howitzer it replaces.

The fielding of the new gun will change the ways in which the unit trains for its wartime mission, but not the basic mission or functions of the battalion.

“Once the fielding is complete,” Conte explained, “we will have enough equipment to operate as separate batteries and platoons. Due to lack of guns in the past, we’ve combined our resources and trained as only one battery.”

In addition to the howitzer gunnery, Soldiers of the battalion will qualify with crew-served machine guns, anti-tank weaponry and conduct driver training for the unit’s humvees. But the highlight and key achievement of the unit’s training will be qualifying crews with their 105mm howitzers during live-fire.

“Live fire exercises increase our unit’s combat readiness, morale and retention,” Conte said.

For news media interested in visiting the 1-258th Field Artillery on June 16 or 17, contact the DMNA Public Affairs Office for contact information and coordination.

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