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1st Regiment Royal Horse Artillery
Ramsay’s Troop personnel in South Korea
and it is always refreshing to listen to US personnel on the net - taking note of how procedure can always be shorter! Ramsay’s Troop JTACs also had the great honour of facilitating the FAC(A) upgrade for an A-10 pilot, a rare opportunity. On completion of this evaluation, he was awarded the respected FAC(A) callsign ‘Misty’ (the origins of this callsign lie in the Vietnam War).
Several days were also spent on the live Air Weapons Range (AWR) at Pilsung, roughly a 3-hour drive north of Osan AFB. Situ- ated in a valley with multiple target arrays, we used the location to achieve our bi-annual live currency controls. Dropping BDU- 33 training bombs and 2.75 inch rockets, we controlled a four ship flight which ended with LBdr Ward and Bdr Kelshaw prac- ticing the Emergency Close Air Support (ECAS) request, some- thing that caught the 4 ship flight off guard yet un-surprisingly executed to perfection.
In the second week we were given the opportunity to take part in an afternoon of CQB tuition from members of the USAF Spe-
Bombardier O’Keefe on US Special Forces selection!
cial Tactics Squadron (STS), Combat Controllers (CCT). These highly specialised soldiers took us through basic weapon han- dling, zeroing and finally live target transition and tactical reloads on the indoor 25-meter range – certainly not the usual exercise activity. A true once in a blue moon opportunity that was one of many highlights of the exercise.
The final week of the exercise an opportunity to work with a US Marine Corps ANGLICO team (Air Naval Ground Liaison Com- pany) who were responsible for training their Korean counter- parts. Like us, these JTACS and TACP also come from the USMC artillery and operate in FST equivalents. They were very inter- ested to understand our processes and TTPs, especially with our integration within the FST.
At the end of a highly productive three weeks, all that was left to do was to exchange patches and presentations with the fantastic US personnel we had had the privilege of working with, and enjoy a beer together in the bar of the 607th.
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