# Afghanistan AAR



## tomahawk6 (18 Apr 2006)

This AAR is from a 1SGT with the 101st Airborne after his tour in Afghanistan. Some of you might find this information worthwhile and others might be able to add to it.

http://www.squad-leader.com/romero.htm


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## GAP (18 Apr 2006)

From a former grunt's point of view, excellent article. Some really good information there, some probably not relevent or workable. Probably the one point that really hit home was "knee pads". Those sharp rocks must be a bitch to land on when you hit the deck!


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## pbi (18 Apr 2006)

Great article. The "Canadian Snipers" he refers to are from the Third Battalion of my Regt, the PPCLI.  It's very interesting to see the similarities and differences between what a) 1 Sgt Romero says; b) the US Inf guys I spoke to in Afgh when I wrote my article; and what Canadians seem to be saying.

Cheers


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## Scoobie Newbie (18 Apr 2006)

"Teach all personnel, call for fire, make them learn it, two weeks ago we had a good class for TL's and above, last week we went to the mortar range and we let them call it in. They still couldn't do it!!!!   It does probably to hard to visualize how to do it in a classroom, so get them to the range."

I have always wondered why we don't have more of this.


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## Wolfmann (17 Jul 2006)

pbi said:
			
		

> Great article. The "Canadian Snipers" he refers to are from the Third Battalion of my Regt, the PPCLI.  It's very interesting to see the similarities and differences between what a) 1 Sgt Romero says; b) the US Inf guys I spoke to in Afgh when I wrote my article; and what Canadians seem to be saying.
> 
> Cheers



DId they finally let them keep their bronze stars?


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## Scoobie Newbie (17 Jul 2006)

Yes they finally got them, along with a bunch of other *deserving* people.


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## Spr.Earl (18 Jul 2006)

Quagmire said:
			
		

> "Teach all personnel, call for fire, make them learn it, two weeks ago we had a good class for TL's and above, last week we went to the mortar range and we let them call it in. They still couldn't do it!!!!   It does probably to hard to visualize how to do it in a classroom, so get them to the range."
> 
> I have always wondered why we don't have more of this.


I showed this article to my brother (Ex 8th CH  and Dragoon) about calling in fire and he told me about an Ex in Pet. where he was asked to call in fire and after the 3 brakiting shot's he was on and called in fire for effect as he called it and was spot on and he was armour.
He also told me you can teach any one too call in fire if they have just a smig of brains,it's not hard to learn.


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## Bzzliteyr (23 Jul 2006)

We learn how to call for fire on our DP3.. on the simulators in Gagetown.. a great source for practice.


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## medaid (18 Oct 2006)

when I was at Gagetown for CAP they had a portion for calling in Arty support. Is that still the case??


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## vonGarvin (18 Oct 2006)

I can't say for sure about CAP, but the all arms call for fire is taught on DP 1.1 (Infantry)
The simulators are good, but they are not sufficient for the live rounds.  BIG difference, in spite of everything that the simulators can do.


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## Petard (15 Nov 2006)

[quote 
I showed this article to my brother (Ex 8th CH  and Dragoon) about calling in fire and he told me about an Ex in Pet... 
He also told me you can teach any one to call in fire if they have just a smig of brains,it's not hard to learn.
[/quote] 
It's not hard to learn the procedure, but it isn't always easy to do. Try it when there's loads of dead ground, poor visibility, everyone yakking on the net and if you're a supported arm, while you're also trying to fight your vehicle or do who knows what all else. It ain't always easy, practice in the simulator gets the drill down but real live practice, IMO, is a must.

By the way the simulators are improving in their fidelity, there's an enhanced one now in the Artillery school to simulate fighting in a built up area, it also records the activity for AAR, eventually it is also to include a hostile action function (not sure what yet but something to make the students practice good fieldcraft). Even so I would say the simulator's main function is to support learning the procedure, the realism still falls short (no pun intended) of firing the real thing.

 In the AAR there's an intersting point about IFF and airspace coordination, something which can get overlooked in the Supported Arm Call for fire, and is why sometimes there's a considerable lag time before shot is sent.


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