FIELD ARTILLERY

The field artillery OccFld is divided among three functional areas: firing battery, field artillery operations, and field artillery observation/liaison.

Qualifications include ability and learned skills to operate and maintain artillery equipment; basic technical and mathematical skills for computing, communicating, and executing fire commands; ability and attitudes supporting life and close work with others in a field environment; and performing duties involving hard technical skills as well as administrative and managerial skills. The duties which must be learned vary by functional area.

Firing battery includes moving, emplacing, loading, firing, protecting, and maintaining field artillery cannon weapons systems. Field artillery operations involve moving, emplacing, operating, protecting, and maintaining equipment which acquires targets; provides, relates, and evaluates gun and target survey information, meteorological data, weapon system performance; and integrating these factors into orders and communicating these orders to the firing battery.

Field artillery observation and liaison include checking and analyzing combat plans and communicating appropriate advice, planning and operating information to coordinate the fires of field artillery and naval guns with infantry and armor combat maneuvers; observing and reporting targets and other battlefield information; and adjusting observed fires on targets.

Types of entry level jobs include work as field artillery batteryman or cannoneer, radar operator, fire control man, meteorological man and, as a fire support man, spotting fires of artillery and naval gunfire. Formal schooling or field skills training is provided to Marines entering the OccFld. Because field artillery is the primary supporting arm for Marine infantry and armor, most of its billets are in FMF ground organizations.

The Marine artillery man finds most assignment opportunities similar to the wide variety of billets available to those in other combat and combat support fields at all staff levels of the division and in various category "B" jobs (MOSs 8000-9599). Marines entering this OccFld receive MOS 0800, Basic Field Artillery Man, and under instruction and close supervision, perform routine duties incident to the firing, operation, and maintenance of field artillery pieces and related equipment. These Marines are trained for one of the MOSs in the field artillery OccFld and participate in routine functioning and tactical employment of the unit to which attached.