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QALAT, Afghanistan (January 9, 2008) - A smiling jester grins
down from their ballcaps, but the soldiers who wear them are all
business. And when they go looking for a fight in Afghanistan's
Zabul province, the big guns that cover them are no joke
either.
Formally, they're known as the 4-2 Embedded Training Team, but
they started calling themselves the "Crazy 98s" during training as
Embedded Training Team Class 9806 at Fort Riley, Kan. And though
the team has an easy demeanor, they're very serious about their job
of training the 4th Kandak of the Afghan National Army's 205th
Corps.
When the Crazy 98s got to Afghanistan in February, the 4th
Kandak's Field Artillery Platoon was far less capable than it is
now, enlisted mentor Army Sgt. 1st Class David Trice said. They had
mortar skills, but they weren't able to use the howitzers for
direct fire, let alone shooting at unseen targets.
Over the last 10 months, Trice and officer mentor Army Capt.
Dave Sadovy have trained the Afghans on the D-30 howitzer, which
can fire a 122 mm shell more than 15,000 meters. The mentors also
had to teach the artillerymen how to calculate range and deflection
manually, because the Afghan army doesn't use many computers. Two
officers in the kandak's field artillery platoon now can calculate
fire missions.
One of them is Capt. Arzee Hussein, who has worked with
artillery for three years. Hussein said he thinks his training has
been good enough that he can now do fire missions without help from
the mentors.
The Crazy 98s show their confidence in the Afghan gunners.
During one recent mission, team commander Army Maj. Trent Darling
had shells landing within 1,500 meters of his position. Trice gives
the Afghan soldiers a lot of credit.
"They have bright soldiers over there," Trice said of the 4th
Kandak.
One of those soldiers is platoon sergeant Paywand Ali, who said
a previous American mentor named Dickinson taught him how to shoot
the 82 mm mortar and the British 130 mm mortar. He said he likes
being an artilleryman because of the advantage of high explosives
during a battle.
"The enemy can shoot 100 bullets from an (AK-47 assault rifle),
but I can win with one 122 mm shell," he said with a grin.
"Artillery wins the firefight."
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