Military Review English Edition January-February 2014 | Page 80

It is safe to assert that artillery units consistently apply standards of precision to live fire
training. When it comes to delivering indirect
fires accurately and safely, there is no margin for
human error. The 82nd Airborne Division’s standard
operating procedures and crew drills are widely
understood, enforced, and followed. The 18th Fires
Brigade maintains proponency of the 82nd Airborne
Division’s written standard operating procedures
for fires, otherwise known as the “Red Book.” The
document contains a compilation of standardization
memorandums that provide fire support tactics, techniques, and procedures for all paratroopers assigned
to the division.
The first step to the BCT’s planning process for
the FSCX is a thorough review of the Red Book
with specific focus on the stipulated approach to
planning, coordinating, resourcing, and executing
an FSCX. The next step is concept development
using the Red Book as our guide and the eight-step
training model as a handrail for our planning. The
division’s standard operating procedure for fires
keeps us on a training azimuth for all individual,
leader, and collective training and certification
requirements. With programmatic issues under
control, it was a challenge for the BCT staff to find
sufficient time and resources to accomplish the
published objective of training every company in
the brigade. The method chosen was a month-long
intensive training cycle.

The Intensive Training Cycle: A
Powerful Tool for the BCT
At our two-day training symposium we agreed
that every battalion in the BCT would need 30 days
of uninterrupted training time to reach our desired
level of collective proficiency. This was the block
of training where we would “put it all together” as
a team and finally have the opportunity to achieve
a degree of harmony in our team play. We protected
this time on our calendar. Key to success was to
eliminate all distractions and move the entire BCT
to the field. Since every battalion had to rotate
through an FSCX opportunity, the battalions would
have to build their requirements for the remainder
of the month around the capstone event. We developed a training rotation where concurrent platoon
field training exercises, external company evaluations, and designated squad retraining time were
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occurring when a unit was not on the FSCX lane.
No one was going home at night, so we developed
our field-craft as a larger force. This was a unique
opportunity to hone our expeditionary skills at the
BCT level.
An operations order published three months in
advance of execution established the FSCX as the
BCT’s main effort during the intensive training
cycle. The training focus enabled the fire support
coordinator to build planning milestones that supported the FSCX and our gated approach to the BCT
training strategy. Although the planning process was
initially isolated to the fires warfighting function,
battalion commanders and their staffs were soon
asked for their respective refinements to the plan.
The BCT afforded every battalion the latitude,
autonomy, and creativity to develop scalable and
realistic tactical scenarios relevant to each battalion’s mission essential task list.
Every company-level commander knew his unit
would be in the spotlight during the event—this had
the collective effect of driving our young leaders to
over prepare. No longer would cogent comments
made during leader professional development
discussions or the conduct of some other garrison
engagement be the sole determinants of their performance evaluations.
These company commanders received a complex
set of tasks associated with the FSCX and a broad
set of tools to accomplish these tasks. We observed
many company commanders with their platoon leaders, platoon sergeants, fire support teams, and mortar
sections rehearsing and drilling the same actions
they would apply at the FSCX training range. Those
young commanders who did not make the same type
of investment were easy to identify on the training
lane. They struggled in the spotlight of the FSCX.
The plan to carry out an FSCX included some
fundamental principles. The first was that every
company-sized unit in the BCT would go through the
training. We would have a venue for rehearsals built
to facilitate walkthroughs, after-action reviews, and
professional discussions when companies were not
on the actual training site (this was a football fieldsized terrain model that accurately depicted every
component of the training site). The hot washes and
after-action reviews that followed each iteration of
the FSCX were disaggregated, with sufficient time
to cement the lessons learned.
January-February 2014 MILITARY REVIEW