Troops get schooled in joint-fire operations

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Soldiers work during a classroom training session to create a joint air and ground response to a scenario involving insurgents in a city setting. The week-long class teaches joint firepower training to help servicemembers write military missions that use both Air Force and Army equipment and weaponry.


Troops get schooled in joint-fire operations
By Teri Weaver, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Tuesday, December 11, 2007

CAMP HOVEY, South Korea — On Friday morning, Staff Sgt. Matthew Veasley and a team of about 10 hovered over a map, working to create a plan that would use Air Force and Army weaponry and manpower to attack a group of hidden insurgents.

The scenario was complicated — there were three “no-fire” areas in the city, places where it was forbidden to use munitions. In theory, the group had more than two days to put the response together. In reality, the students were in a classroom in South Korea and had two hours to put a plan together and present it to their colleagues.

The joint-fire class was a six-day lesson in how to best use Air Force and Army powers on the battlefield, according to Army Lt. Col. Brent Parker and Air Force Lt. Col. Steve Toldy, instructors who came from Nellis Air Base in Las Vegas to run the course.

The goal is to help soldiers create mission plans combing fighter jets, helicopters and ground forces for command review and action, Parker said.

“We try to focus it on the soldiers,” Toldy said. “We try to make it relevant to what the soldiers see every day.”


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=50877