Tag Archives: 105mm M119

Send it! Or, ‘Why I learned to use shoot-and-scoot from an LCM last weekend at drill’

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It is always nice to see a 105mm M119 light howitzer doing its thing:

1bn 111th Field Artillery Regiment 116th BCT waterborne artillery fire Operation GATOR April 24-25 2019 Camp Lejeune North Carolina Army LCMs 105 shells

(U.S. National Guard photos by Mike Vrabel)

Especially when it is from the front of an old-school (Army owned!) LCM landing craft while just barely beached on shore:

The photos come from Virginia National Guard Soldiers assigned to the Norfolk-based 1st Battalion, 111th Field Artillery Regiment, 116th Infantry Brigade Combat Team as they conduct waterborne artillery live-fire exercises during Operation GATOR April 24-25, 2019, at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

They are aboard mechanized landing craft operated by active duty Soldiers from the Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek—Fort Story-based 11th Transportation Battalion, 7th Transportation Brigade.

“The Thunder Soldiers received and carried out their fire missions from the Intracoastal Waterway running through Camp Lejeune along the Atlantic Ocean. It was the first waterborne artillery mission for the 111th since D-Day during World War II, nearly 75 years ago.”

For more analysis of what this is all about, and why it is a useful tactic being dusted off now, check out the below from The Warzone

2 million shells in 28 years

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The 2nd Battalion, 2nd Field Artillery Regiment (2-2 FAR), best known as “Big Deuce,” dates back to 1901 when the prior U.S. Army regimental designation of artillery units was dropped and Corps organization was adopted.

After serving in the Philippines and in the Great War– the latter with the 8th Division– the unit reformed to protect the Panama Canal Zone from 1930 through the first stages of WWII. By August 1944, as part of Patton’s Third Army, they landed on Utah Beach and earned three streamers for actions in Central Europe before VE Day.

Since 1946, 2-2 FAR has been a school unit at Fort Sill off and on in different formats. It’s the latest incarnation, using M119 105mm light howitzers, reactivated February 05 1991. They have been very busy since then.

The Battalion fires in excess of 60,000 artillery rounds and hauls more than 100,000 rounds annually, training new artillerymen and forward observers from both the Army and Marines.

In 1997, they fired their one millionth shot out of their 105s.

Last month the “Bulldogs” of Bravo Battery 2-2 FAR, got a chance to rocket off the battalion’s two millionth round. The three millionth is expected to be fired in 2035.