Leatherneck Magazine - October 2008

THE WAR ON TERROR

OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM
■ Helmand Province, Afghanistan
Artillery Battery Pounds Insurgents

During an early morning in late July, Battery A Marines placed their remaining rounds inside trucks and rigged the last of their M777, 155mm howitzers for to wing. They rode to a nearby operating base and in a stir of sweat and sand set in their cannons for the new location. Once again they weremission capableand ready.

In a matter of minutes, the Marines had dug in their howitzers, prepared an assortment of rounds for fire and draped camouflage across their newly formed gun line.

“Within [the] last 24 hours, we did a

Edited by R. R. Keene

complete march order. This consists of breaking down the howitzer, loading up the truck. You have to get all the fire essential gear up and get moving,” said Lance Corporal Paul Adey, cannoneer, “Alpha” Btry, Battalion Landing Team 1st Bn, Sixth Marine Regiment, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit. “We just got here … and we are fire capped, ready to fire, if need be.”

For the majority of the deployment, the artillery battery was isolated on a plateau overlooking friendly positions, a large contrast from how weapons and Marines are employed in Iraq. “Other batteries, when they go to Iraq, are usually in a FOB [forward operating base] like we are now,

but we were outside the wire pretty much on our own,” said Adey. “The main dif- ference was being out there and not ha ving any other security, out there in the middle of the desert providing everything for ourselves.”

These Marines have a certain pride about their months in the desert, not just in the less-than-luxurious living conditions, but also for their role in taking the insurgent-riddled city district of Garmsir.

Adey explained: “The first three weeks to a month, we were putting rounds downrange pretty heavily. We had fire missions all the time. We were working pretty hard, but as time went by, things calmed down. We got word that people

Stars scattered over Afghanistan light up one of the 24th MEU’s M777 howitzers July 23. The howitzers of Alpha Btry, BLT 1/6, mission capable and ready, have been seeing action of late.