A Fire Support Specialist is a member of the Army's field artillery team. Artillery are weapons that fire large ammunition, rockets or missiles to support infantry and tank units in combat. The Fire Support Specialist is primarily responsible for leading, supervising or serving in intelligence activities such as target processing for artillery units and maneuver brigades.
Duties performed by Soldiers in this Military Occupation Specialty include:
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Establishes, maintains and operates radio and wire communications and speech security equipment including encoding and decoding of messages using communications-elecgtronics operating instructions (CEOI) or grid thrust line templates.
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Prepares and maintains daily staff journal, fire support situation map, status charts, capability overlay, and other fire support and target processing records.
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Assists in preparation and dissemination of fire support plans, coordinating documents, and target lists and provides liaison support.
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Assists in initiating requests for field artillery, mortar, naval gunfire, and aerial delivered munitions.
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Emplaces, maintains, and assists in the operation of laser range finders, target designation, and night observation devices.
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Operates and performs operator maintenance on section vehicles and generators.
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Performs crew maintenance and participates in organizational maintenance of section equipment.
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Assists fire support sergeant in training of subordinates in fire support procedures, techniques, and tactics, and supervision of section operations, maintenance, and training.
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Leads and trains the forward observer team and Combat Observation Lasing Tech in combat operations.
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Prepares observer target lists and assists in formulating offensive and defensive fire support plans.
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Initiates requests and adjusts field artillery, mortar, and naval gunfire using all methods of adjustment including continuous and coordinated illumination.
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Initiates suppressive and screening fire to support scheme of maneuver and performs crater analysis.
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Selects and occupies observation post. Orients map and prepares terrain sketch and visibility diagram.