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thedrifter
05-23-06, 01:11 PM
May 29, 2006
Jacks-of-all-trades
Numbers taxed, artillerymen tackle unexpected jobs

By Christian Lowe
Times staff writer

It’s about as far from their normal job as anything could get. One day, they could be throwing high-explosive rounds onto a building; the next, they might have to line up a cement truck to put yesterday’s target back together again.

In a war that has stretched military manpower to the limit, the Corps has been forced to deploy troops to do jobs far different from what they were originally trained to execute.

During a recent exercise at Fort Bragg, N.C., artillerymen from 10th Marines came face to face for the first time with their new day job in the war on terrorism: civil affairs.


Between fire missions shooting live artillery rounds over Bragg’s spacious ranges during Operation Rolling Thunder in late April, the cannon-cockers with the Camp Lejeune, N.C.-based artillery regiment were given last-minute orders to fulfill the kind of public-works missions they may have to assume in Iraq.

It may not be as exciting as firing 155mm howitzers on line, but the artillerymen aren’t shying away from their newfound responsibility.

“It’s very much a cultural shift for us,” said Lt. Col. Timothy Parker, operations officer for 10th Marines, in a May 4 interview. “We’re used to raining steel on people.”

Corps officials on Dec. 5 bestowed most active-duty and Reserve artillery units with the secondary job of “civil-military operations.” The new duty is intended to help civil affairs groups — which are all part of the Reserve — to do their mission in more places, providing transport, communications and manpower to a cadre of Marines who are in high demand as the U.S. military rebuilds Iraq and Afghanistan.

It’s not the first time cannon-cockers have been called to drop their lanyards and pick up the tools of other trades.

Since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Marine artillery units have pulled military police duty, base security, border security, infantry and motor transport.

And in a war in which innovation and adaptability can be keys to survival, Marine artillery units are getting good at doing just about anything.

“I’d like to call it ‘securing our flank,’” Parker explained. “Maybe we can help make sure the bad guys don’t move in.”

Making the call

It’s not as if Marine artillerymen will have to become civil affairs experts overnight. In fact, Corps officials have paired each artillery regiment with a standing civil affairs group whose job it is to write the contracts and administer the infrastructure projects as they work to win the hearts and minds of the locals.

Though Marines from the Washington, D.C.-based 4th Civil Affairs Group — the unit married to 10th Marines — weren’t able to make it to last month’s exercise, that didn’t stop the regiment’s staff from throwing a few curveballs at the artillerymen, forcing them to think like their CA brethren.

Marine role players posing as local Iraqi officials — tribal elders, sheiks and religious leaders — confronted the artillerymen with complaints and challenges they will likely face when they next deploy to Iraq. They had to think beyond securing their patrol and seeing the population as potential enemies.

“We’re not here to kick in doors,” said Sgt. Simon Alexander, an artillery section chief in 5th Battalion, 10th Marines. “We’re here to make friends with these people. It’s a big mind shift.”

The artillerymen were confronted with a scenario depicting a village adjacent to a bombed-out airfield. Village elders — including a “false sheik” who tried to convince the Marines he was the town’s leader — asked the U.S. forces to build them a new soccer field.

The Marines were supposed to decide which projects were most important for the safety and well-being of the villagers, as well as which would pay greater dividends in winning the public’s trust, said Capt. Joshua Bullard, intelligence officer for 10th Marines.

When the artillerymen learned that unexploded rounds from the bomb-damaged airfield had injured a villager, it gave the Marines a project that could pay immediate returns.

So one of the batteries drafted up a plan for civil affairs experts to contract for the cleanup and developed strategy to keep workers secure.

“For us, it was a real learning experience,” said 2nd Lt. John McNulty, a guns platoon commander with 5/10.

Firing line

Some artillery purists might have bristled at the notion of inserting a whole new mission into a community that’s struggling to remain relevant in a counterterrorism conflict.

But the commander of 10th Marines, Col. Glenn Starnes, said early this year that his regiment would not sideline relevant gunfire training despite the various missions the Corps keeps throwing at them.

“Artillery is our main trade,” he asserted.

To that end, leaders are putting the Marines through alternating fire missions and village assessment drills during Rolling Thunder to force them into the mental shift.

“All it’s doing is making us more rounded Marines,” Alexander said. “It makes us better for future missions.”