Lamenting an Arty Lament
Posted on July 23,2019Article Date May 01, 1983
by GySgt Martin L. Steitz, USMC(Ret)
Here we go again! First we heard the laments of the LVT community: now we hear them from an artilleryman. (See MCG, Feb83, pp56-60.)
I would like to point out (as Maj McAbee well knows) that regardless of whether a direct support artillery battery/battalion is attached or under operational control there is nothing to prevent a higher headquarters from assigning priority and reinforcing fire missions to other units. They can and they do. Nothing in the concept for combined arms or maneuver task forces prevents this practice from continuing. Overall general support is the task and primary mission of the division general support artillery battalion and FMF/corps artillery not the direct support battalions. The principle of mass in this case has no validity; it is rather a smoke-screen to hide the real dispute. In a nutshell what it boils down to is whether we are going to have unity of command in a tactical area. . . .
We pay a lot of lip service to the philosophy of combined arms and maneuver warfare until it touches our own baliwick, then we come forth with all sorts of arguments and rationalizations to maintain the status quo. At a time when we should be organizing and training to fight on today’s and tomorrow’s battlefields, it is a shame that we still have provincial thinking oriented towards one’s own arm or MOS. We should be organizing as true combined arms maneuver battalions-battalions that live, eat, sleep and train together. These battalions should be a mix of tanks, infantry, artillery, attack helicopters, etc . . .
After a careful analysis of the various complaints put forth by the supporting forces, I have found the majority to be unfounded. Indeed, each month the many rebuttals by others appearing in the GAZETTE point this out. I can only conclude that there is a deep fear among some individuals that new ways of doing things may cause their specialty to lose some field grade billets. Be that as it may, reorganization into combined arms units under one commanding officer is the effective way to fight a modern war.
