By 2nd Lt. John F. Kistler
4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division
The 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, qualified 53 crews on the M2 .50-caliber machine gun remote weapon systems and the MK19 grenade machine gun on Fort Carson from Aug. 18, 2016 to Sept. 1, 2016.
The “Manchu” Gunnery sets the foundation for how the battalion will perform its mission all the way down to a squad level.
Sgt. 1st Class Alfredo Reyna, scout platoon sergeant, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, reloads .50-caliber ammunition Aug. 22, 2016, during Table V of Stryker gunnery to ensure his crew is able to effectively and efficiently fire on target. (Photo by 2nd Lt. John F. Kistler)
The train-up to gunnery tests and retrains skills on Tables I, II and III using miles gear; Tables IV and V with live ammunition and culminates in the qualification Table VI.
Two crews from Company B, 4th Bn., 9th Inf. Reg., 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, scored, a 977 out of a possible 1,000 points to earn Battalion Top Gun honors. The team members are 1st Lt. Chris Long, executive officer; Staff Sgt. Daniel Gordon, platoon sergeant; and Sgt. Thomas Bostick, Spc. Karlus Madison and Pfcs. Joseph Breon and Matthew Clampit, all infantrymen.
With only two weeks to go before gunnery, Bostick was tagged as a gunner and had to train more diligently than his counterparts to ensure success.
“I have a background in a heavy brigade where I shot pretty well on Bradleys,” Bostick noted. “When I came here it was sort of the same, and it translated easily. Stryker gunnery was run almost exactly the same as Bradley gunnery.”
While the Stryker crews were training on their gun systems, every Soldier from the battalion trained alongside them in their specific skill set.
“Everyone strives for excellence, and when you achieve that it’s a culmination of maintenance, rehearsals and doing things over and over again that translates into you getting a great score. We really focused on manipulating the controls of the remote weapon system and putting time into it so that when your gunner is engaging targets it just becomes second nature. This honor is the fruit of all that hard work,” said Gordon.
The battalion leadership spent time conducting the military decision-making process with classes taught by the Mission Training Center and then executing the process during the afternoons and evenings.
The training focused on coordinating intelligence, logistics, operations, medical, communication and electronic warfare sections and giving leadership the opportunity to simulate what they would do in a deployed environment.
A Stryker crew from Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, prepares to fire on targets during gunnery training Aug. 22, 2016. (Photo by 2nd Lt. John F. Kistler)
The staff also implemented and refined a new process for establishing the tactical operations command.
“We exercised a new physical command post setup …,” said Maj. Jeffrey Rottenberg, executive officer, 4th Bn., 9th Inf. Reg. “The staff trained on the setup and displacement of the command post during multiple iterations, both day and night. They became very proficient during these drills, which will serve the battalion well.”
Building off of the gunnery the battalion heads into its platoon validation exercise looking to improve upon its tactical competence and staff functions.