In northwestern Iraq along the Syrian border, the desert echoes with the sound of artillery.
A fire support base hums with activity as service members move about in the heat, reloading, firing, cleaning, maintaining, and securing artillery positions. They speak different languages, but are bound by the common effort of defeating the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria with each artillery barrage.
Iraqi security forces, working alongside troopers from the 3rd Cavalry Regiment “Brave Rifles” and Marines and sailors from other units of Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve, arrived weeks ago to establish the temporary fire support base.
Their mission is to provide supporting fires to forces participating in Operation Roundup, the operation to defeat the last pockets of ISIS from northeastern Syria. This required close coordination to synchronize fires from multiple weapon systems.
“The most satisfying moment in the mission, so far, was when all three artillery units — two Iraqi and one U.S. — executed simultaneous fires on a single target location,” said Army Maj. Kurt Cheeseman, Task Force Steel operations officer and ground force commander at the fire support base.
Common Technical Language
Iraqi and U.S. gun crews and fire direction centers developed a common technical language to coordinate…
