Cannon Crewmember

You are a cannoneer on a howitzer crew. The section runs on your back, your hands, and your ability to do the same loud, heavy, dangerous task the exact same way every single time.

You came out of 13B OSUT at Fort Sill — the Field Artillery School — knowing how to load a round, set deflection and quadrant, and stay out of the recoil path. You are now the lowest cannoneer on the crew of an M777A2 in a Stryker / Light unit, an M109A6 Paladin or M109A7 PIM in an Armored BCT, or an M119A3 in an Infantry BCT — whichever howitzer your unit is built around. Most days you are doing preventive maintenance on the gun (PMCS), pulling ammo from the trains, humping projectiles and powder canisters, running fire mission drills on dry-fire and live-fire, and rotating through every unglamorous detail the battery owns — motor pool, ammunition handling area, area beautification, CQ. Field problems are where the work is real — you emplace, you lay the gun, you load on the FDC's command, you fire, you displace, and you do it again.

• 01Crew-drill the howitzer your unit fields — M777A2, M109A6/A7 Paladin, or M119A3 — from emplace, to lay, to load, to fire, to displace, to the TC 3-09.81 standard.
• 02Set deflection and quadrant on the gun and read back the firing data to the section chief and gunner without a paper cheat-sheet.
• 03Handle 155mm or 105mm projectiles and propellant safely — ammo segregation, fuze handling, charge cuts, misfire procedure — every time, every round.
• 04Run pre-fire and post-fire PMCS on the cannon, breech, recoil system, and fire control — and report the deadlines to the section chief honestly.
• 05Read a 10-digit grid off a paper map and the gun's azimuth indicator; trust the laying when GPS aiding fights you.
• 06Operate as part of a Howitzer Section under live-fire conditions — eye and ear pro, recoil path discipline, hand and arm signals, no headphones on the gun line.

• —TC 3-09.81 — Field Artillery Manual Cannon Gunnery (the cannoneer's bible).
• —TC 3-09.8 — Field Artillery Gunnery.
• —ATP 3-09.50 — The Field Artillery Cannon Battery.
• —FM 3-09 — Field Artillery Operations.
• —STP 6-13B — Soldier's Manual, MOS 13B.
• —STP 21-1-SMCT — Soldier's Manual of Common Tasks, Warrior Skills Level 1.

• —ACFT 500+ to be left alone; 540+ to start getting noticed for schools — cannoneers lift heavy ammo for a living and the section chief watches who hides from the work.
• —Qualify on the M4 every cycle; 13Bs carry rifles in the perimeter and on convoy and the battery watches.
• —Section-level live-fire qualification on the howitzer your unit fields — section chief signs off when you can run every cannoneer position cold.
• —Drivers training on the prime mover (FMTV / HEMTT for towed, Paladin tracked variant in ABCT) within your first 12 months — sections fight for crew-qualified drivers.

• —Standing in the recoil path during a live mission. The gun does not warn you — and the section chief on the next gun watches every cannoneer's feet.
• —Mishandling propellant — wrong charge, wet powder, lost increment, fuze not set. A bad charge or a fuze error means the round goes long, short, or off the SDZ, and the battery stands down for a 15-6.
• —Eye and ear pro off on the gun line — single fire mission, lifetime hearing damage; eye flash on a charge cut, end of your training day and start of a safety stand-down.
• —Skipping PMCS to make a movement window. The section chief who finds a leaking recoil cylinder at the next live-fire remembers it for your next counseling.
• —Posting OPSEC-relevant photos — tube number, unit patch, vehicle bumper number, ammo load. Counter-fire collection against US artillery is real and your section pays the price.

The good cherry cannoneer is invisible the right way: PMCS clean, ammo prep correct, eye and ear pro on, mouth shut on the gun line, hands fast on the load. By month nine the section chief is rotating you through gunner duties on dry-fire; by month eighteen you are the assistant gunner the section trusts on a live mission, and the first sergeant has you on the short list for the next school slot — Air Assault, Airborne, or driver / wrecker.

You are the senior cannoneer on the crew — the gunner laying the tube, or the ammo team chief running the rounds. The section chief points at you when something has to be right on the first round.

You sit the gunner's seat — or you run the ammo team that feeds the gun. As gunner, you set deflection on the panoramic sight, lay the tube on the aiming reference, and own the technical accuracy of the round before the section chief signals fire. As ammo team chief, you run the projectile and propellant flow from the FAASV (in ABCT) or the ammo trains (in IBCT/SBCT), supervise charge cuts and fuze settings, and hand-and-arm-signal the cannoneers through a live mission cycle. If you are corporal-pinned, you are running a small element — gun crew minus the chief, or the ammo team — for real. You are also the bench: the section sends you to driver training, to the unit armorer slot, to the BCT-level new-equipment fielding for the next howitzer block upgrade.

• 01Lay the gun on deflection and quadrant to the TC 3-09.81 / TC 3-09.8 standard — boresight, reciprocal lay, collimator, the M137 / M145 sight on towed cannons or the digital lay on the Paladin.
• 02Run a complete fire mission as gunner — receive firing data from the FDC, set, lay, supervise loading, fire on the chief's command — with no coaching.
• 03Manage the section's ammunition: projectile types (HE, smoke, illum, DPICM legacy stocks, precision-guided where fielded), propellant charges, fuze types (PD, time, VT, MOFA where supported), to the TC 3-09.81 fire control tables.
• 04Operate the section's digital fire control — the M119A3's digital fire control system, the Paladin's onboard fire control, or the M777A2's digital fire control suite — at the operator level, with the manual lay as a backup you can actually run.
• 05Handle a hangfire or misfire on the gun line per the unit SOP — step-by-step misfire procedure, the wait, the unload, the reporting — without panicking the crew.
• 06Train the cherries on the crew: dry-fire drills, ammo prep, PMCS, eye-and-ear discipline, recoil path — the section chief is grading whether you can teach what you know.

• —TC 3-09.81 — Field Artillery Manual Cannon Gunnery.
• —TC 3-09.8 — Field Artillery Gunnery.
• —ATP 3-09.50 — The Field Artillery Cannon Battery.
• —FM 3-09 — Field Artillery Operations.
• —STP 6-13B — Soldier's Manual, MOS 13B; ATP 6-22.1 — The Counseling Process.
• —ADP 6-22 — Army Leadership and the Profession.

• —BLC slot pulled — STEP gate for SGT pin-on; cannoneers compete with the rest of the FA enlisted force for slots, the section chief and PSG fight for the window.
• —Gunner qualification on your record — the technical credential that says you can lay the gun unsupervised.
• —ACFT 540+ as a working floor; gunners lift heavy ammo and the section watches.
• —Section-level live-fire mission proficiency at the unit METL standard — gunner-run missions pass at the section chief's read.
• —Promotion-points stacked: weapons quals, Air Assault / Airborne / driver schools, CLEP/DSST/TA, correspondence / structured self-development — the worksheet is reviewed quarterly with your reviewer.

• —Calling a "ready" when the lay is not verified. The round goes off in a direction it should not, the section eats the AAR, and the platoon sergeant remembers your name.
• —Skipping the BLC packet because the slot is "probably next quarter." Slots evaporate. Your sergeant board does not move.
• —Letting the cherry cannoneers run a load cycle you have not supervised. A bad charge or a fuze error from your crew is your error on the AAR slide.
• —Mishandling a sensitive item — sight, optic, bore evacuator components, breech tools, comm gear. The first sergeant knows your name now, and not the way you want.
• —Posting fire mission audio, AFATDS / fire-direction screens, or unit live-fire video on social. Counter-fire collection against US artillery is real; the OPSEC office runs spot checks.

The good gunner / ammo team chief is the SPC the section chief lets run the gun at 0200 because they know the lay will be right and the load cycle will be clean. The section's live-fire AAR has their name in the credit lane. BLC packet is in motion before the PSG has to push, the next FDC course or driver / wrecker school slot is on the table, and the platoon sergeant is naming them on the bench for the next SGT slate.

You are an NCO now. You are the assistant section chief on the gun — the chief's replacement when he is at sick call — or you are an NCO inside the battery FDC running fire direction.

As an assistant section chief, you back up the section chief on every fire mission — pre-combat checks on the gun, ammo, fuze, propellant, comm, and laying reference; you run the section when the chief is in the TOC or on leave. As an FDC NCO, you sit in the battery fire direction center, compute technical fire control on the Backup Computer System (BCS) and reconcile with the digital fire control solution, validate the safety-T card, and process the FO's call for fire into firing data the gun crews can execute. Either seat: you write monthly DA 4856 counselings on the soldiers under you, you write the first NCOER inputs, and you brief the section / FDC chief on readiness — ammo, equipment, personnel, training.

• 01Run a gun section through a complete fire mission cycle — receive, process, fire — at the ARTEP-MTP standard for your battery's METL.
• 02Compute technical fire control on the BCS and reconcile against the digital fire control system; run a manual backup with the GFT (Graphical Firing Table), firing tables (TFTs), and MET application when the system fails.
• 03Apply current MET (meteorological message) and MTO (Message to Observer) procedures to fire data — the difference between a clean mission and a 100m miss is whether the FDC NCO is running MET cleanly.
• 04Validate the safety-T card and surface danger zone for every live mission the section fires — sign your name on the readiness piece you own.
• 05Write a legally defensible DA 4856 on a soldier who is sliding, with a measurable Plan of Action signed before he leaves the office.
• 06Counsel a cherry cannoneer on PMCS, gun drill, ammo handling, and eye-and-ear discipline in language the soldier will repeat to the next cherry behind him.

• —TC 3-09.81 — Field Artillery Manual Cannon Gunnery (own this manual cover-to-cover).
• —TC 3-09.8 — Field Artillery Gunnery.
• —ATP 3-09.50 — The Field Artillery Cannon Battery.
• —FM 3-09 — Field Artillery Operations; ATP 3-09 — Fires.
• —STP 6-13B — Soldier's Manual, MOS 13B; AR 600-20 — Army Command Policy; ATP 6-22.1 — The Counseling Process.
• —TC 7-22.7 — Army NCO Guide; AR 623-3 — Evaluation Reporting System.

• —BLC graduate (required); ALC packet built for the next slot window.
• —Gunner qualification current; section-chief track open — your section chief is grooming you for the chief seat at the next slate.
• —ACFT 560+ as a floor — 13B NCOs lift heavy ammo and the section measures.
• —Section / FDC certified at ARTEP-MTP "T" rating on the fire-mission collective tasks the battery METL calls for.
• —Promotion-points stacked: weapons quals, schools (Air Assault, Airborne, driver / wrecker, FDC), CLEP/DSST/TA, correspondence / SSD — the worksheet is reviewed quarterly.

• —Counseling soldiers verbally. The NCO who cannot show a DA 4856 chain when the Article 15 hits has a first sergeant who cannot defend him.
• —Running a mission with the cherry on the lay without supervising the verification. A bad lay from your gun is your call on the AAR slide.
• —Skipping the MET / MTO update on a long-range mission. The round lands long or short; the FDC chief and the BC are in your AAR.
• —Letting the gun's sensitive-item accountability slide — sight, collimator, breech tools, comm fill devices. Property loss at NCO level eats the battery schedule and your NCOER.
• —Going around the section chief to make a point to the FDC officer or the BC. Battery first sergeant finds out within a week.

The good 13B SGT runs a section or an FDC slot whose fire-mission discipline, ammo handling, and live-fire AAR readout make the battery BC and 1SG ask the PSG if they can keep this NCO. Their cannoneers pass section drills cold; their gun's PMCS is the battery reference; ALC packet is built; their section chief is putting their name forward for the next chief slate.

The howitzer is yours. Section chief is the seat the FA enlisted force is built around — you own the gun, the crew, the ammo, the lay, and the round that goes downrange.

You run a 7-9 soldier howitzer section — gunner, assistant gunner, ammo team chief, cannoneers, and the prime mover crew — and you are responsible for their training, their equipment, their lives, and the rounds they put downrange. You sign for the howitzer (M777A2, M109A6/A7 Paladin, or M119A3) and every piece of fire control on it. You build section training, conduct quarterly counselings, defend your section in the battery training brief, and translate the BC's commander's intent into a section that can shoot the first round inside the time standard from the FDC's call. You will be in the battery TOC more than you want and on the gun line less than you remember — but the gun line is where you are graded.

• 01Run a section through every collective fire-mission task on the battery METL — emplace, lay, fire, displace, react to counter-fire, hipshoot — at the ARTEP-MTP "T" rating.
• 02Develop and defend a section input to the battery Quarterly Training Brief (QTB) — METL-aligned, resource-realistic, with a clean LOE the BC defends at battalion BUB.
• 03Conduct gun-section live-fire from concept to AAR — DA 7566 / DD 2977 risk management worksheet, MEDEVAC plan, surface danger zone, misfire procedure, post-fire weapons and ammo accountability.
• 04Train and certify your gunner, assistant section chief, and ammo team chief to a standard the BC will recognize when you go on leave.
• 05Manage the section's readiness across the four pillars — personnel, equipment (the howitzer, the prime mover, the fire control, the comm), training, individual training records — and report it honestly.
• 06Run a tactical road march and emplacement as the senior NCO in the section — load plans for the prime mover, comm plan, contingency for a downed gun or vehicle.

• —TC 3-09.81 — Field Artillery Manual Cannon Gunnery.
• —TC 3-09.8 — Field Artillery Gunnery; ATP 3-09.50 — The Field Artillery Cannon Battery.
• —FM 3-09 — Field Artillery Operations; ATP 3-09 — Fires.
• —AR 350-1 — Army Training and Leader Development; ATP 5-19 — Risk Management; DD 2977 — Composite Risk Management Worksheet.
• —AR 600-8-19 — Enlisted Promotions; AR 623-3 — Evaluation Reporting System (you write NCOERs now).
• —TC 7-22.7 — Army NCO Guide; ATP 6-22.1 — The Counseling Process.

• —ALC graduate (required); SLC packet ready when E-7 enters the discussion.
• —Section certified at ARTEP-MTP "T" on the battery METL fire-mission tasks; first-round time inside the unit standard from the FDC's call.
• —ACFT 560+ minimum; your section's aggregate is on the BC's slide and the CSM is watching.
• —Section EIB / weapons-qual rates at or above battery average; gun and prime-mover deadline rate at or below battery average.
• —NCOER bullets on measurable section outputs — first-round time, mission completion rate at the last live-fire, ARTEP-MTP rating, sensitive-item accountability across the section.

• —Signing a fire-mission "ready" without verifying the lay yourself when the gunner is new. The round goes where it should not, and the battery is in the BC's office that afternoon.
• —Skipping risk management on a section live-fire. When a soldier gets hurt and DA 2977 is blank, the BC cannot stand by you.
• —Writing the NCOER as a wish-list instead of an evaluation. Senior raters read every one and remember the SSG who inflated.
• —Letting weapons / sensitive items / ammo accountability slide on a displacement. One missing serial number eats the battery schedule for a week and your NCOER for a year.
• —Hiding section problems from the PSG to look good. He will find out — usually from the BC, in the worst way.

The good section chief runs a howitzer section that performs identically whether he is on the gun, at sick call, or in the TOC. His gunner is gun-qualified and squared, his assistant section chief is SLC-bench, and his section's first-round time leads the battery. His soldiers re-enlist, get the school slot, and the BC is willing to lose him to the schoolhouse because everyone knows he comes back as the SFC the battalion needs.

You are the senior NCO in a firing platoon — two to four howitzer sections and their crews. The platoon leader signs. You execute. The BC and the FA battalion CSM watch.

You run a firing platoon's enlisted side — training, evaluations, schools, promotions, discipline, equipment, family readiness. You own two-to-four howitzer sections, their prime movers, their FDC if you are platoon-task-organized that way, and every cannoneer, gunner, ammo team chief, and section chief inside them. You build the LT into a battery executive officer, you run the platoon when he is at the BUB, and you write four-to-five section-chief NCOERs per cycle. You operate at battery and battalion level — the 1SG and the BC call you by name, the S3 schedules training around your platoon's ability to support, and the FA battalion CSM evaluates you against every other firing platoon sergeant in the BN.

• 01Build a quarterly firing platoon training plan that survives the FA BN S3 calendar — METL-aligned, ammunition forecast, range bid, locked.
• 02Write four section-chief NCOERs per cycle that the senior rater can defend at the FA BN NCOER review — bullets that match measurable section outputs (first-round time, mission completion rate, deadline rate, sensitive-item accountability).
• 03Run a platoon-level live-fire exercise to the ARTEP-MTP "T" rating — section certification, gunnery, lane validation, fires-counterfire-displace drill cycle.
• 04Mentor three-to-four SSG section chiefs into SFC-board-ready candidates without losing your edge on your own SLC.
• 05Operate as a battery-level acting 1SG when called — accountability formation, sick call, casualty notification, family readiness, ammunition forecast brief, all of it.
• 06Translate the FA branch professional development conversation to your section chiefs — Master Fires Sergeant Course at Fort Sill, MLC packet timing, 13Z conversion at the next slate.

• —TC 3-09.81 — Field Artillery Manual Cannon Gunnery; FM 3-09 — Field Artillery Operations.
• —ATP 3-09.50 — The Field Artillery Cannon Battery; ATP 3-09 — Fires.
• —AR 350-1 + DA PAM 350-9 — Training; ATP 7-22.01 — Holistic Health and Fitness Testing.
• —AR 623-3 + DA PAM 623-3 — Evaluation Reporting System; AR 600-8-19 — Enlisted Promotions; HRC SELCONT and promotion board policy MILPER messages.
• —AR 600-20 — Army Command Policy; ATP 6-22.6 — Army Team Building; ADP 6-22 — Army Leadership.
• —TC 7-22.7 — Army NCO Guide; the BC's current platoon SOP and the FA battalion fires playbook.

• —SLC graduate; MLC packet built — required for E-8 board competitiveness.
• —Master Fires Sergeant Course at Fort Sill on the table — the FA branch's senior NCO professional course, a visible differentiator at the SFC and MSG slate.
• —Platoon ACFT pass rate at or above 95%; platoon live-fire / CTC rotation rating in the upper third of the FA battalion.
• —Platoon-level zero relievable incidents in your tenure — no negligent discharges, no DUIs you missed coming, no sensitive-item loss, no ammo or fuze mishandling.
• —NCOER profile clean — Top Block / Most Qualified rate consistent with the platoon's actual performance; section chiefs you rated pinning SFC on schedule.

• —Letting one section chief drift because you trust him. That is the section the IG / safety inspection will visit, and the BC will not stand by you.
• —Confusing being "tight" with the LT with being aligned with the LT. The platoon needs you to push back honestly, in private.
• —Carrying a personal feud with a peer PSG or the FDC chief into the battery. Battalion CSM finds out; battalion-level NCOERs reflect it.
• —Skipping the family-readiness piece because "the spouses run that." You sign the unit-status report on family readiness for a reason.
• —Going to the FA BN CSM around your 1SG. You will be wrong and you will be relieved.

The good firing platoon PSG runs a platoon the FA battalion CSM is willing to send to the worst CTC rotation because they will not embarrass anyone — first-round time leads the battalion, ARTEP rating is "T" on the collective tasks, and the BC defends the platoon at brigade BUB without surprises. His LT gets command-list. His SSGs make SFC. He is on the short list for First Sergeant of a firing battery or the FA BN HHB before he sits the MLC seat.

You converted to 13Z (Field Artillery Senior Sergeant) at SFC and you are the senior FA enlisted voice — 1SG of a firing battery or HHB, FA battalion CSM, DIVARTY senior NCO, or FA brigade CSM. The formation reads you; the BC and the FA battalion / brigade commander name you in the slide.

As 1SG of a firing battery, you run a 100-130 soldier company with a complex equipment footprint — multiple howitzers, prime movers, FDC and comm suites, ammunition and fuze handling, the FAASV fleet in ABCT — plus the orderly room, the supply room, the training calendar, and the readiness reporting. As 1SG of a FA HHB you run the battalion's headquarters company with the radars (Q-50 / Q-53 lightweight counterfire radar), survey and meteorological sections, FDC, and the battalion staff enlisted force. As FA BN CSM or DIVARTY senior NCO, you set the standard for the FA enlisted workforce across echelons — the section chief slate, the Master Fires Sergeant pipeline, the 131A FA Targeting Officer accession pipeline, and the climate the FA branch trains soldiers into.

• 01Run a FA battery or HHB command climate that produces gun-qualified section chiefs, MLC-ready PSGs, and a 1SG slate competitive at brigade.
• 02Mentor the 131A FA Targeting Officer warrant pipeline at the battalion or brigade level — one of the FA branch's highest-leverage technical careers.
• 03Brief the FA battalion or brigade commander on enlisted FA readiness — section certification rates, first-round time across the battalion, ammo and prime-mover deadline rates, NCOER profile health — in language the CO defends at the next higher echelon.
• 04Walk the line during a battalion or brigade live-fire / CTC rotation and identify the broken sections, FDCs, and ammo flows before the OC/T or the DIVARTY commander does.
• 05Translate the FA branch professional development conversation into talent-slate decisions — who to push to Master Fires Sergeant Course, who to MLC, who to the 1SG slate, who to the 131A pipeline.
• 06Run a CSM-quality sensing session with the battery / battalion enlisted FA population and translate it into actions the BC and DIVARTY CO will fund.

• —AR 600-20 — Army Command Policy; AR 27-10 — Military Justice.
• —AR 638-8 — Army Casualty Program (every senior NCO must know this).
• —FM 3-09 — Field Artillery Operations; ATP 3-09 — Fires; ATP 3-09.50 — The Field Artillery Cannon Battery.
• —AR 350-1 + AR 25-2 — Training and Cybersecurity (signed by you as part of the unit's compliance posture).
• —ATP 6-22 series — Counseling, Team Building, Mission Command; ADP 6-22 — Army Leadership.
• —The 1SG Course / USASMA — Sergeants Major Academy reading list; FA Branch and DIVARTY senior NCO professional development products; Master Fires Sergeant Course curriculum, Fort Sill.

• —MLC graduate; USASMA / Sergeants Major Academy fellowship for SGM-track.
• —Master Fires Sergeant Course at Fort Sill on your record — the FA branch's senior NCO professional credential at this rank.
• —Battery / battalion live-fire / CTC rotation passed without senior-NCO-attributable gaps during your tenure; OC/T AAR credits the FA NCO chain.
• —Warrant officer (131A FA Targeting Officer) accession pipeline producing selected candidates from your unit annually; section chiefs you rated pinning SFC on schedule.
• —Zero senior-NCO-level integrity incidents — financial, fraternization, OPSEC, ammunition or fuze accountability. One ends the career permanently at this rank.

• —Pretending to be the senior technical voice on a fires topic where you are out of date. The FA community is small; the AFATDS / digital fire control / sensor-to-shooter conversation moves quickly, and senior NCOs who fake depth lose authority fast.
• —Letting a firing battery drift on section certification or first-round time because "the BC owns that." You own the company-level enlisted readiness posture; the FA BN commander's slide goes red on your watch.
• —Treating the Master Fires Sergeant / 131A warrant conversation as transactional. These pipelines are the FA branch's next generation of senior leaders; mentor them like it.
• —Going public with disagreement over a CO's risk call on a live-fire. Senior NCOs disagree in the office and walk out aligned. The brigade CSM is watching.
• —Confusing the warm-up to retirement with the job. Until you walk out of the formation for the last time, the formation is your job — the section chiefs, the cannoneers, the ammo handlers, and the rounds that go downrange.

The good FA 1SG / FA BN CSM / DIVARTY senior NCO is the senior FA enlisted leader the BC, the FA battalion / brigade commander, and the DIVARTY commander name without thinking. His battery produces the battalion's gun-qualified section chiefs and the next 1SG slate. The 131A warrant pipeline and the Master Fires Sergeant slate run through his office. His NCOERs pick the next senior-FA-NCO bench. His post-service market — GS-13 fires / FA contractor / DA Civilian senior tech billet — is open because he started the conversation 36 months before retirement.