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Description
Soldiers of all grades have seen the landscape of the Field Artillery change drastically as a result of rapid transformation and the War on Terrorism (WOT). Nowhere have these changes been more profound than within the FA warrant officer (WO) corps. The overwhelming success of our Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) WO 131A Targeting Technicians has fueled progress.
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Across the force, the demand for targeting officers is greater than ever before, surpassing the objectives and intentions of the architects of the targeting officer concept. Today, the roles and scope of responsibilities for 131As go well beyond anything previously envisioned--today's targeting officers must be able to reach across all aspects of military operations with the skills of a Pentathlete.
131A Role Expanded. In 1994, the role and scope of responsibilities of the MOS 131A Radar Technician formally were expanded to include targeting. Our predecessors envisioned an expert capable of fulfilling the requirements of the radar section leader as well as those of the targeting officer at all levels of command--filling positions previously held by captains, majors and lieutenant colonels. However, the 131As did not have the prerequisite technical expertise required to accomplish the mission.
The new design required 131As to be radar and targeting experts. The FA School had to develop training requirements, assemble qualified instructors and institutionalize a program of instruction (POI) to teach 131As to be targeting officers from the brigade to the corps levels.
At that time, many senior WOs chose not to embrace the changes and retired. Consequently, defining the role and scope of the new targeting technician was left largely to the junior warrant officers, beginning in 1994.
Almost immediately it became evident that the future of the 131A was to be linked to his role as a targeting expert rather than as a radar technician. Assignments as Q-36 or Q-37 Firefinder radar section leaders became developmental, and the pinnacle of a warrant officer's career shifted to... |
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