Cannon Fire Direction Specialist

You are the new soldier in the Fire Direction Center. The gun line does the loud, heavy work; you do the math that decides where it lands. Get a number wrong and rounds go somewhere they should not — that is the whole job in one sentence.

You came out of 13E AIT at Fort Sill — the Field Artillery School — knowing how to take a call for fire, run it through the system, and produce firing data the gun crews can shoot. You are now the junior computer in a cannon battery FDC inside the FDC track, the BC tent, or the company command post, working for a senior FDC NCO. Most days you are learning the Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS) at the operator level, building and validating the database, running PMCS on the FDC's vehicles, comms, and computers, and drilling the manual backup — the graphical firing tables, the firing tables, and the plotting that takes over when the system goes down. Field problems are where the work is real: you sit the FDC through 24-hour cycles, process the FO's call for fire into deflection, quadrant, charge, and fuze, check it against the safety data, and pass it to the guns. The manual side is not a museum piece — you drill it until you can produce firing data with a pencil because the day the screen goes black is the day you find out who actually learned gunnery.

• 01Process a call for fire end-to-end on AFATDS — receive, compute technical fire control, send firing data to the guns — to the TC 3-09.81 standard, under the senior computer's eye.
• 02Run the manual backup gunnery cold: graphical firing tables (GFT), tabular firing tables (TFT), the plotting board, and a hand-computed solution that matches what the system would have produced.
• 03Build and maintain the FDC database in AFATDS — known points, target lists, fire support coordination measures, gun and ammo data — and recover it when it locks up in the field.
• 04Apply current meteorological (MET) data and the safety computations to every mission so the round stays inside the surface danger zone and off friendly positions.
• 05Run PMCS on the FDC's vehicles, computers, comms, and power, and report deadlines honestly — a dead FDC track means a battery that cannot shoot.
• 06Read a 10-digit grid, a map, and the chart cold; trust the manual plot when the digital solution and the GPS picture disagree.

• —TC 3-09.81 — Field Artillery Manual Cannon Gunnery (the FDC bible — own it).
• —TC 3-09.8 — Field Artillery Gunnery.
• —ATP 3-09.50 — The Field Artillery Cannon Battery.
• —FM 3-09 — Field Artillery Operations.
• —STP 6-13E — Soldier's Manual, MOS 13E (Cannon Fire Direction Specialist).
• —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 — the FDC is not an excuse to skip PT and the section chief watches who hides behind a screen.
• —Qualify on the M4 every cycle; 13Es pull perimeter and convoy security like everyone else and the battery grades the score.
• —Section-level FDC certification on your battery's METL fire-mission tasks — the senior computer signs off when you can run AFATDS and the manual backup to standard.
• —Drivers training on the FDC track or prime mover within your first 12 months — sections fight for crew-qualified soldiers who can also compute.

• —Sending firing data you did not check against the safety. The guns shoot what you send — a fat-fingered grid, a wrong charge, or a quadrant error and the round goes long, short, or off the SDZ, and the battery stands down for a 15-6.
• —Trusting AFATDS as a black box and never drilling the manual backup. The day the system fails on a live mission, the cherry who cannot run a GFT solution freezes — and the guns sit silent.
• —Letting the database go stale — old known points, wrong gun data, an FSCM that should have been deleted. A dirty database produces a clean-looking solution that is dead wrong.
• —Skipping the MET update on a long-range mission because "it was fine last hour." Met changes; the round lands where the old met said, not where the target is.
• —Posting AFATDS screens, fire-mission audio, or FDC interior photos on social. Counter-fire collection against US artillery is real, and the OPSEC office runs spot checks.

The good cherry computer is the one the senior FDC NCO lets run a mission at 0200 because the data will be right and checked. By month nine you are running AFATDS solo on training missions and holding your own on the manual plot; by month eighteen you are the computer the section chief trusts on a live fire-for-effect, and the first sergeant has you on the short list for the next school slot — Air Assault, Airborne, or driver.

You are the computer the FDC runs on — the soldier who takes the call for fire and turns it into rounds on target without coaching. The chief computer points at you when the mission has to be right on the first transmission.

You run fire missions solo. You receive the FO's call for fire on the net, compute the technical fire control on AFATDS, check it against the safety and the met, and send deflection, quadrant, charge, and fuze to the guns — start to finish, no hand-holding. You own a piece of the FDC: the digital solution, the manual backup chart, or the radio-telephone-operator (RTO) seat keeping the FO net and the gun net straight. You can run the GFT, the plotting board, and a hand-computed solution as fast as the section can shoot, because the chief computer checks your manual work against the system every drill. If you are corporal-pinned, you are running the FDC for a section on your own at 0300. You are also the bench — the section sends you to driver training, AFATDS new-equipment fielding, and the run-up to the FDC chief course.

• 01Run a complete fire mission as the computer — receive, compute on AFATDS, verify against safety and met, send firing data to the guns — with no coaching.
• 02Produce a manual firing solution that matches the digital one: GFT, TFT, plotting board, met application, and the gunnery math behind it, to the TC 3-09.81 / TC 3-09.8 standard.
• 03Manage the AFATDS database at the operator-plus level — known points, target lists, fire support coordination measures, gun and ammo status — including recovery when the system locks up in the field.
• 04Apply MET (meteorological message) and MTO (Message to Observer) cleanly — the difference between a clean mission and a 100m miss is whether the computer is running met right.
• 05Run the safety check on every mission — surface danger zone, minimum quadrant, mask and clearance, no-fire areas — and refuse to send data that violates it, no matter who is yelling on the net.
• 06Train the cherries on the FDC: AFATDS knobology, manual plotting, database hygiene, met application, the safety check — the chief computer 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 6-13E — Soldier's Manual, MOS 13E; ATP 6-22.1 — The Counseling Process.
• —ADP 6-22 — Army Leadership and the Profession.

• —BLC slot pulled — STEP gate for SGT pin-on; FDC soldiers compete with the rest of the FA enlisted force for slots, and the section chief and PSG fight for the window.
• —FDC computer certification on your record — the credential that says you can run technical fire control unsupervised, digital and manual.
• —ACFT 540+ as a working floor; the FDC is not a PT exemption and the section watches.
• —Section-level FDC live-fire proficiency at the battery METL standard — computer-run missions pass at the chief computer's read.
• —Promotion-points stacked: weapons quals, Air Assault / Airborne / driver schools, AFATDS / FDC additional training, CLEP/DSST/TA, correspondence / SSD — the worksheet is reviewed quarterly.

• —Sending "shot" with the data unverified against the safety. The round goes where it should not, the section eats the AAR, and the platoon sergeant remembers your name.
• —Leaning on AFATDS so hard the manual chart goes cold. When the system drops on a live mission and you cannot plot, the guns wait and the FO is exposed.
• —Letting the database drift — wrong gun data, stale known points, an FSCM never updated. A bad database produces firing data that looks right and is not.
• —Skipping the BLC packet because the slot is "probably next quarter." Slots evaporate. Your sergeant board does not move.
• —Posting fire-mission audio, AFATDS screens, or FDC interior shots on social. Counter-fire collection is real; the OPSEC office runs spot checks.

The good FDC computer is the SPC the chief computer lets run the center at 0200 because the data will be right and the manual backup is ready if the screen dies. The section's live-fire AAR has their name in the credit lane, the BLC packet is in motion before the PSG has to push, and the platoon sergeant is naming them on the bench for the next SGT slate and the FDC chief track.

You are an NCO now, and you own the safety check. As chief computer you are the gate every fire mission passes through before the guns hear it. The technical accuracy of the battery is your name on the data.

You run the technical fire direction for a cannon battery as the chief computer or an FDC section NCO. You receive the FO's call for fire, you check the computer's solution against your own — digital and manual — you validate the safety-T card and the surface danger zone, and you authorize the data that goes to the guns. You reconcile AFATDS against the manual backup every mission, not because regulation says so but because the day they disagree is the day someone forgot a charge or a met update. You run the section through the gunnery and the drills, you write monthly DA 4856 counselings on the soldiers under you, you write the first NCOER inputs, and you brief the FDC chief and the BC on FDC readiness — equipment, comms, training, and the soldiers who can and cannot run a mission cold.

• 01Run a battery FDC through a complete fire mission cycle — receive, compute, verify, authorize, send — at the ARTEP-MTP standard for your battery's METL.
• 02Reconcile the AFATDS solution against a manual GFT / TFT / plotting-board solution on every mission, and run the FDC manually when the system fails — without slowing the guns to a crawl.
• 03Validate the safety-T card, surface danger zone, mask and clearance, and no-fire areas for every live mission — and refuse data that violates them. You are the last check before rounds.
• 04Apply met and MTO procedures cleanly and teach the section why a missed met update is a missed target.
• 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 computer on AFATDS, manual gunnery, database hygiene, and the safety check in language the soldier repeats 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 6-13E — Soldier's Manual, MOS 13E; 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.
• —FDC computer / chief-computer certification current — the credential that says you own technical fire direction, digital and manual; FDC chief track open at the next slate.
• —ACFT 560+ as a floor — FDC NCOs run the same PT the rest of the battery does and the section measures.
• —FDC certified at ARTEP-MTP "T" rating on the fire-mission collective tasks the battery METL calls for, digital and manual.
• —Promotion-points stacked: weapons quals, schools (Air Assault, Airborne, driver, FDC chief), CLEP/DSST/TA, correspondence / SSD — the worksheet is reviewed quarterly.

• —Authorizing data you did not check because you trusted the computer. The chief computer who rubber-stamps a solution and the round lands on friendlies has no defense — the safety check is the whole job.
• —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.
• —Letting the manual backup atrophy across the section. The day AFATDS drops on a live mission and the FDC cannot plot, the guns sit silent and the BC is in your AAR.
• —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 slide.
• —Letting the FDC's sensitive-item and comm-fill accountability slide — computers, fill devices, comm gear. Property loss at NCO level eats the battery schedule and your NCOER.

The good 13E SGT runs an FDC whose fire-mission discipline, database hygiene, and live-fire AAR readout make the BC and 1SG ask the PSG if they can keep this NCO. Their computers run AFATDS cold and plot manually faster than the new lieutenant believes; their safety check has never put a round where it should not go; ALC packet is built, and their FDC chief is putting their name forward for the next chief slate.

The FDC is yours. You are the FDC chief — the senior technical fire-direction NCO in the battery, the one who owns the data, the safety, the systems, and the soldiers who compute. When the BC asks if the battery can shoot, you are the answer.

You run the battery Fire Direction Center — a section of computers, RTOs, and the FDC chief computer under you — and you own the technical accuracy and the safety of every round the battery fires. You sign for the FDC's AFATDS suite, the vehicles, the comms, and the fire-control equipment. You build the FDC training plan, certify your computers digital and manual, validate the safety on every live fire, and translate the BC's commander's intent and the fire support plan into a center that produces correct firing data inside the time standard from the FO's call. You write quarterly counselings, you write NCOERs now, and you defend the FDC's readiness in the battery training brief. You are in the TOC more than you want and on the chart less than you remember — but the FDC is where the artillery actually gets aimed, and you are the chief.

• 01Run an FDC through every collective fire-mission task on the battery METL — receive, compute, verify, authorize, send, displace, react to system failure — at the ARTEP-MTP "T" rating, digital and manual.
• 02Develop and defend an FDC input to the battery Quarterly Training Brief (QTB) — METL-aligned, resource-realistic, with a clean LOE the BC defends at battalion BUB.
• 03Run FDC live-fire certification from concept to AAR — DA 7566 / DD 2977 risk management, met plan, safety-T validation, surface danger zone, manual-backup contingency for an AFATDS failure.
• 04Train and certify your chief computer, computers, and RTOs to a standard the BC recognizes when you go on leave — and keep the manual gunnery sharp across the section.
• 05Manage the FDC's readiness across the pillars — personnel, equipment (AFATDS, vehicles, comms, power), training, individual records — and report it honestly.
• 06Own the safety architecture for the battery's fires — safety-T, no-fire areas, FSCM, met currency — and be the NCO who stops a bad mission cold no matter the time pressure.

• —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 — Deliberate Risk Assessment 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.
• —FDC certified at ARTEP-MTP "T" on the battery METL fire-mission tasks, digital and manual; first-round time inside the unit standard from the FO's call.
• —ACFT 560+ minimum; your section's aggregate is on the BC's slide and the CSM is watching.
• —FDC AFATDS-current with a manual-backup pass rate the BC will accept; zero safety violations during your tenure.
• —NCOER bullets on measurable FDC outputs — first-round time, mission accuracy at the last live-fire, ARTEP-MTP rating, sensitive-item and comm-fill accountability across the section.

• —Authorizing a fire mission without verifying the solution yourself when the computer is new. The round goes where it should not, and the battery is in the BC's office that afternoon.
• —Skipping risk management on an FDC live-fire. When a safety problem surfaces and DD 2977 is blank, the BC cannot stand by you.
• —Letting the manual backup die because "AFATDS never goes down." It goes down. The FDC chief whose section cannot plot when it does has a battery that cannot shoot.
• —Writing the NCOER as a wish-list instead of an evaluation. Senior raters read every one and remember the SSG who inflated.
• —Hiding FDC problems from the PSG to look good. He will find out — usually from the BC, in the worst way.

The good FDC chief runs a fire direction center that produces correct, safe firing data whether he is on the chart, at sick call, or in the TOC. His chief computer is certified and SLC-bench, his computers run AFATDS and the manual plot equally cold, and his battery's first-round time and accuracy lead the battalion. His soldiers re-enlist and get the school slot, and the BC is willing to lose him to the schoolhouse or the Master Fires path because everyone knows he comes back as the SFC the battalion needs.

You are the senior fire-direction and fire-control NCO in a firing platoon or battery — the NCO the BC trusts that the technical fires are right across every section. The platoon leader and the FDO sign; you make sure the data behind their signatures is correct.

You run a firing platoon's or battery's enlisted technical-fires side — the FDC, the chief computers, the computers, and how they connect to the gun line and to battalion. You build the gunnery and fire-direction training plan, certify FDCs digital and manual, own the safety posture across multiple sections, and write four-to-five FDC-chief and section NCOERs per cycle. You operate at battery and battalion level: the 1SG and the BC call you by name, the S3 schedules gunnery around your FDCs' ability to support, and the FA battalion CSM evaluates you against every other senior fires NCO in the BN. You build the LT and the FDO into officers who understand what the FDC actually does, and you run the platoon when they are at the BUB.

• 01Build a quarterly fire-direction and gunnery training plan that survives the FA BN S3 calendar — METL-aligned, ammunition and met support forecast, range bid, locked.
• 02Write four FDC-chief / section NCOERs per cycle the senior rater can defend at the FA BN review — bullets matched to measurable FDC outputs (first-round time, mission accuracy, safety record, AFATDS and manual-backup certification).
• 03Run a platoon- or battery-level live-fire to the ARTEP-MTP "T" rating — FDC certification, gunnery validation, the fires-counterfire-displace cycle, and the AFATDS-failure-to-manual drill that proves the FDC can still shoot.
• 04Own the technical safety architecture across multiple sections — safety-T, surface danger zones, FSCM, met currency — and be the senior NCO who certifies it for the FDO and the BC.
• 05Mentor three-to-four SSG FDC chiefs into SFC-board-ready candidates without losing your own edge on gunnery or your SLC.
• 06Translate the FA branch professional development conversation to your FDC chiefs — Master Fires Sergeant Course at Fort Sill, MLC packet timing, the 131A FA Targeting Officer warrant path, 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 fires SOP and the FA battalion fire-direction 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 / battery live-fire / CTC rotation rating in the upper third of the FA battalion.
• —Zero safety-attributable incidents in your tenure — no rounds off the SDZ, no FDC error that put steel where it should not have gone, no sensitive-item or comm-fill loss.
• —NCOER profile clean — Top Block / Most Qualified rate consistent with actual FDC performance; FDC chiefs you rated pinning SFC on schedule.

• —Letting one FDC drift because you trust the chief. That is the section the IG / safety inspection will visit, and the BC will not stand by you.
• —Confusing being "tight" with the LT or the FDO with being aligned with them. They need you to push back honestly, in private, when a fire plan or a risk call is wrong.
• —Treating the manual-backup gunnery as a check-the-box drill. The platoon that can only fight digital is one jamming or one dead generator from being combat-ineffective, and the OC/T will find it.
• —Carrying a personal feud with a peer PSG or the gun-line chief into the battery. Battalion CSM finds out; battalion-level NCOERs reflect it.
• —Going to the FA BN CSM around your 1SG. You will be wrong and you will be relieved.

The good senior fires NCO runs FDCs the FA battalion CSM is willing to send to the worst CTC rotation because they will not put a round where it does not belong — first-round time and accuracy lead the battalion, the FDCs fight digital and manual, and the BC defends the technical fires at brigade BUB without surprises. His LT and FDO grow into officers who trust the math. His SSGs make SFC. He is on the short list for First Sergeant of a firing battery before he sits the MLC seat.

You converted to 13Z (Field Artillery Senior Sergeant) at SFC and you are a senior FA enlisted voice over fires and fire direction — 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 — howitzers, FDC and AFATDS suites, comms, ammunition and fuze handling — 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 counterfire radar), survey and meteorological sections, the battalion FDC, and the staff enlisted force. As FA BN CSM or DIVARTY senior NCO, you set the standard for the FA enlisted workforce across echelons — the FDC chief slate, the gunnery and fire-direction certification program, the Master Fires Sergeant pipeline, the 131A FA Targeting Officer accession pipeline, and the climate the FA branch trains its computers and chiefs into. The technical-fires authority of the formation runs through your priorities, because you came up owning the data and you know what a sloppy FDC costs.

• 01Run a FA battery or HHB command climate that produces certified FDC 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 for a strong fire-direction NCO.
• 03Brief the FA battalion or brigade commander on enlisted FA readiness — FDC certification rates, first-round time and accuracy across the battalion, AFATDS and manual-backup currency, safety record, NCOER profile health — in language the CO defends at the next echelon.
• 04Walk the FDCs during a battalion or brigade live-fire / CTC rotation and identify the broken sections, the dirty databases, and the dead manual-backup skills 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 FA enlisted 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 fires or safety 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; FDC chiefs you rated pinning SFC on schedule.
• —Zero senior-NCO-level integrity incidents — financial, fraternization, OPSEC, sensitive-item or ammunition 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 FDC certification or first-round accuracy 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 technical 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 FDC chiefs, the computers, and the data that decides where steel lands.

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 certified FDC 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.