By Robert McKinley
You Want Me to do What?
March of 2021, SSG Mohan and I were transported to a location in the middle of nowhere Mongolia. The ride took about an hour in a local SUV with just the two of us and a driver. Upon arrival we were greeted by several Majors and Colonels from a local unit happy to see us and show us around. Our mission? To run an Artillery unit that had never fired mortars through a train-up followed by a certification live fire. We had 5 weeks to do this. Normally for a US Army mortar platoon, this type of training would take at least 12 weeks! I couldn’t believe we were expected to tackle such an extraordinary task.
Upon arrival to Mongolia, I was unaware that mortar live fire training, something inherently dangerous, would be asked for but being a trained and experienced mortarman with 40 months of Platoon Sergeant time, I was well equipped with the requisite knowledge to train these young and hungry Mongolian Soldiers. They wanted to be tactically proficient in the mortar weapon system and I knew I could help them do it. What I was not familiar with was the weapon system we would be utilizing. The Mongolians had a Soviet Style 82mm Cannon with a safety muzzle latch and an unconventional bipod with munitions that had to be assembled and screwed together. A configuration I was woefully unfamiliar with.
Learning Started in a Museum
The first time I had seen the 82mm Soviet-style Cannon was on one of our cultural trips to a local museum in Mongolia. I saw the 82 mm cannon behind a glass case with the caption “Mortar system used in 1979.” I thought “oh wow, that thing looks cool! Look how far we’ve come with our indirect fire assets!”. The second time I saw one was during our meet and greet prior to the training, where they pulled the systems out of a cold storage warehouse still wrapped in the original packing tape. This consisted of an extreme amount of grease wrapped in a carboard type paper and tape, it would require time and process to remove and get live-fire ready.
I spent the next few weeks frantically making phone calls back to the U.S. trying to get my hands on a translated manual for this system, as well as attempting to locate any targeting and mathematics manuals. The first manual I received was written in Russian with very little English but had lots of pictures of it being disassembled and set into operation. I used those pictures to build a “mock” system in my barracks room using broom sticks, cardboard, 550 cord, tape and spare parts off my kit. After a week of studying this manual, I received a breakthrough with the US Army War College located in Carlisle, PA, that had a translated document. Some of the English words didn’t quite fit the narrative as it was a direct translation, but it was good enough. Between the two manuals, YouTube and google, I was able to comprehend the system and develop a training plan. I filled the gaps in information with my own US mortar experience firing live mortar rounds in training and in combat.
After about 3 weeks I had become an “expert” in this system, its capabilities and limitations, employment techniques and safety and misfire procedures. We then took an additional two weeks to build a training plan that could be taught to a group of 20 plus non-English speaking students. At the same time, my partner prepared to teach an aerial surveillance class. Our combined training resulted in a joint unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and Mortar fire live fire.
Firing Prep
The first day we spent getting to know our students, two separate classes of 20 to 25 students with one English speaker each. One class learned the mortar system and the other learned the UAV operations. At the end of each week, we would combine the classes and do joint training to see how we would integrate both systems. We primarily taught classroom style teaching with an interpreter the first two weeks. The following two weeks consisted of field training and hands on equipment teaching, this time with 50 students and two interpreters.
I ran them through an entire “MORTEP” (Mortar Training and Evaluation Program) which includes a certifying knowledge exam commonly presented to American Soldiers. The students were hungry for information, and we enjoyed all our time spent with them, making several long-lasting friends. The exams were all in preparation for the most unique live fire exercise I have ever been a part of.
Guns Go Hot!
After four weeks of training, live fire! We were unable to get approval to fly our US Ravens in conjunction with the 82mm firing, as our partners wanted the UAV to fly directly over the target (big sky little bullet)! Instead we purchased drones to “simulate” Raven footage, as we flew the Raven behind the gun line. Our partners had set up 15 “targets” which were giant piles of old used tires roughly 1800 meters down the range, visible with the naked eye.
The first round fired during a live fire is always a bit nerve racking, hoping your math was correct and you applied all the safety measures possible to ensure a safe and accurate firing of the system. This was amplified as the math we taught them was nothing like they had used in the past. They were primarily artillery Soldiers, focusing on the direct fire capacity, we taught them mortar high angle math and the use and need for understanding parabolas. First round fired. It was so quiet you could hear the wind move the pebbles under our feet as we patiently waited for the “boom” report and visible signal that the round had landed safely.
Then it happened, IMPACT!!! The round landed roughly 25 meters from a center target, therefore we needed to make adjustment for weather and temperature, math we are acclimated to do on the spot within seconds. I was overcome with excitement as my Fire Direction Center quickly resolved the math as I yelled, “10 rounds, 4 cannons fire for effect!” My Mongolian partners wasted no time repeating my command and all guns moved with extreme haste as we amplified our noise signature and 4 cannons in unison exploded with excitement and fired rounds. 40 rounds down range. It was awesome! Only one target received direct impact, we used the drone to show the footage to their commanders to display the dispersion of impacts and how we needed to “converge” the guns for better accuracy on a single target. Our Mongolian partners were ecstatic!
Within 3 days of firing and manipulating math we had 4 cannons dialed in and able to move from target to target blowing tires up in the air and screaming and laughter as the gun line could see the damage they were doing. It was an exceptional time! Training with our Mongolian partners is something I will remember for the rest of my life. Despite the freezing temperatures and the blowing dust and wind, that was all second to seeing this group of Soldiers laser focused and loving this new skill they had learned.
I am still friends with some of these guys today, lifelong friends made over a few weeks of joint training. I look forward to returning to see them in my future employments and am over the moon that I was able to make a difference in a part of the world and teach a skill that can better help them defend themselves if the need arises. I praise the 5th SFAB for giving me that opportunity, as there is no better feeling then knowing you had direct impact on someone and saw change and growth.
SFC Robert McKinley, CAT 5110 Senior Advise and Train NCO, Mongolia