Soldiers with Bulldog Battery, 2nd Cavalry Regiment, fire a 155 mm round during a live-fire exercise in Vilseck, Germany, Dec. 12, 2019. (Immanuel Johnson/Stars & Stripes)
Soldiers with Bulldog Battery, 2nd Cavalry Regiment, fire a 155 mm round during a live-fire exercise in Vilseck, Germany, Dec. 12, 2019. (Immanuel Johnson/Stars & Stripes)
Sgt. 1st Class Rocky Johnson, left, communicates with a command center before the 2nd Cavalry Regiment conducts a live-fire exercise in Vilseck, Germany, Dec. 12, 2019. (Immanuel Johnson/Stars & Stripes)
Soldiers with 2nd Cavalry Regiment prepare for a live-fire exercise in Vilseck, Germany, Dec. 12, 2019. (Immanuel Johnson/Stars & Stripes)
Sgt. Andrew Moreno, a howitzer section chief with Bulldog Battery, 2nd Cavalry Regiment, gets ready to fire rounds during a live-fire exercise in Vilseck, Germany, Dec. 12, 2019. (Immanuel Johnson/Stars & Stripes)
GRAFENWOEHR, Germany – The blasts of howitzers rang across the snow-covered landscape of Vilseck as soldiers from the 2nd Cavalry Regiment’s Bulldog Battery learned how to fire and move during a qualification exercise Thursday.
“We try to make this as real as possible for them,” said Sgt. 1st Class James Deese, a digital master gunner with the 2nd Cavalry.
Soldiers need to be aware of how many rounds they fire, with the assumption that they’re being tracked by the enemy, Deese said.
“The more we shoot, the more they can pinpoint where we are,” Deese said. “Once six rounds are fired, the radar knows where we are — we move the platoon after that.”
The basic qualification allows platoons to continue on to advanced training, said 1st Lt. Jack Baisley, a squadron adjutant with the Field Artillery Squadron.
With temperatures below freezing, the exercise also gave the soldiers, some of whom will deploy to Poland at the end of January, a feel for the weather expected there.
