Fort Campbell, KY – Soldiers from Charlie Battery, 3rd Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) conducted an air assault night artillery raid in coordination with 101st Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) on August 14th, 2023 at Fort Campbell, KY.
Charlie Battery executed the air assault training mission as a part of Operation Lethal Eagle III, a division-wide, 21-day training event designed to develop readiness across the entire 101st Airborne Division.
“We’ll have four M777s (Howitzers) hooked up to Ch 47 Chinooks, and we’re going to fly them into an HLZ,” said 1st Lt. Alex Shemel, a platoon leader from Charlie Battery and the officer in charger PZ for the mission. “From the HLZ they will fire, and after that the Chinooks will come back around, pick them up and take them back to us.”
The day of the operation, Charlie Battery coordinated the assault from the pickup zone (PZ). They prepared their M777 Howitzer artillery cannons to be hooked up to CH 47 Chinook helicopters. At H-hour, approximately 2100, four gun crews loaded onto Chinooks that touched down on the PZ. Sling load crews then hooked the M777s to the Chinooks for transport to the helicopter landing zone (HLZ).
After securing the HLZ the gun crews got to work preparing the Howitzers for the fire mission. Gun 3 received the 12 round fire mission, so crews from guns 1,2 and 4 consolidated ammunition on gun 3.
The gun crew worked together setting coordinates for the fire mission, loading rounds, priming the round and firing.
After firing all 12 rounds, the crews got to work rigging the Howitzers up again for transport back to the PZ where the mission started. Charlie Battery regrouped after successful completion of the mission at approximately 0100 and conducted an after action review to discuss how the mission went and where they can improve.
These training missions are vital to the success of units in the 101st Airborne to build readiness for success in future missions. Charlie Battery and the rest of 3-320th FAR will remain training in the field until the conclusion of Operation Lethal Eagle III and continue to focus on unit cohesion and lethality in preparation for their next rendezvous with destiny.
