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On December 19 th 2020, at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, an ERCA hit a target dead on the nose, from 43 MILES away.

The Army has been building and testing a new artillery piece, called the Extended Range Cannon Artillery (ERCA). It also has 155mm Howitzers with a range of about 25 miles and a very big punch. It has 105mm Howitzers with a standard range of about 8 miles and can reach out to 10 or 12 miles. At battalion level there are 81mm mortars with a range of about three miles, and 120mm mortars with a range of about 6 miles and packs a big punch. An infantry company has a few 60mm (millimeter) mortars which have a max range of maybe a mile, are often fired in sight of the target and are slightly larger than a hand grenade. That is called indirect fire, because it is rarely ever fired within sight of a target. They are too big, heavy and cumbersome, and their ammunition is a logistical problem, it is also big. Big guns that rain bombs down on the enemy do not move with the infantry. Absolutely every active and former soldier, who commented, loved the job. This is the first Army job I have researched recently where I found no negative comments. The soldier the lieutenant is yelling for is his Platoon Forward Observer (FO). An 82nd Airborne Division platoon FO checking assets available to him, before moving out on a patrol in Iraq. The 82 nd Airborne Division also has the highest morale of any combat division in the Army or the Marines. The 82 nd Airborne Division is the pinnacle of the United States military preparedness, subject to be called, on a moments’ notice, to run into their unit, draw gear, weapons and ammunition, get on a plane and jump into combat, and because of that mission to always be ready, they train and they train and they train. Overall, combat units have higher morale than support units, and the more elite the unit the higher the morale. However, in literally every survey conducted in the Army over the past 50 years, soldiers in combat related jobs are happier than those in support jobs. Some soldiers will love a particular job while others will hate it, we are all different. Most of the jobs, associated with the Army’s primary mission of winning in combat, do not translate to civilian jobs. Some army jobs are also well paying civilian jobs, especially in the medical and information technology fields.

When an infantry lieutenant in Afghanistan looks out of his platoon’s night defensive position, at first light, lifts his binoculars and sees about 300 Taliban spread out across the side of the mountain and moving in his direction, he yells “CALL FOR FIRE”! This is about what he means and to whom he is talking. Platoon FO’s have been known to report valuable intelligence information directly to brigade headquarters. In mechanized infantry the FIST team rides in the platoon leader’s vehicle, but during an actual operation, the FIST team will probably be out of the vehicle and in a position to observe terrain and targets. In light infantry, the FIST team moves with the platoon leader. In the field a platoon FO’s boss is the platoon leader. They are assigned to the artillery, but they don’t train and travel with the Artillery, they move with the infantry.

The FIST isn’t assigned to that platoon, or that company, or that battalion. In the event a unit finds itself outnumbered or surrounded, the FO is the equalizer, who can make it rain fire and steel on the enemy. The FO has at his fingertips, not only mortars and artillery, but also, helicopter gunships, Air Force tactical aircraft, and off shore Navy gun boats. Often that FO is the most important asset that Platoon Leader has, because that FO knows every big gun capable of reaching his area of operation, including how fast they can fire, what kind of rounds they have and the effects those rounds have on targets. They are that platoon’s Fire Support Team, called the FIST team. Both are MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) 13F Joint Fire Support Specialist. One is a sergeant forward observer (FO), although often a specialist is in the job, and the other is his or her radio operator. When a 40 soldier infantry platoon goes to the field, and always when it goes on an actual combat operation, there are two soldiers attached.