The Abrams Master Gunner

As my Bio on page 2 states, I'm the Battalion Master Gunner for 1st Bn 252d Armor. Following is a not to brief description of some of my duties:

1. The master gunner is the commander's primary tank gunnery tables technical advisor. He assists the commander and staff in planning, developing, conducting and monitoring the units tank gunnery program to include turret maintenance programs to ensure proper readiness posture is maintained. Specifically, his duties will include:

a. Advise/train tank commanders in basic and advanced gunery techniques.

b. Managing and employing tank gunnery training aids and devices.

c. Planning and monitoring individual and crew gunnery training programs.

d. Planning, operating and supervising the conduct of tank ranges.

e. Forecasting of ammunition requirements.

f. Ensures that individual, crew and platoon tank gunnery standards are enforced.

g. Monitors and advises the commander on turret maintenance programs and trends.

h. Assists in coordination for logistical support for unit tank gunnery programs.

i. Assists maintenance personnel in troubleshooting and diagnosing turret malfunctions as necessary.

j. Provides technical feedback to the tank maintenance supervisor/maintenance officer on tank system failure or malfunctions.

k. Provides technical feedback to the tank maintenance supervisor/maintenance officer on maintenance trends being established.

2. The master gunner's knoweledge and technical expertise allows him to work directly with individual tank commanders. He will coordinate directly with unit maintenance to identify, isolate malfunctions and ensure porper corrective actions are taken. He will supervise the proofing team during boresight and calibration of the tank system.

3. The master gunner assists the commander and/or his staff in preparation for unit tank gunnery training. He ensures all gunnery related forms are properly maintained. Master gunners will be qualified as Conduct of Fire Trainer (COFT) Instructor/Operator and serve as technical advisor on fielded gunnery tables and simulators/devices.

4. Responsible for tank commander certification program training and testing.

5. Assist in coordination of training area and range scheduling.

Whew!!! You think that's enough? Basically it boils down to four functional areas: Range Operations, Training Management, Turet/Gun Systems Advisor and Tank Training Devices Manager.

As you can imagine, this keeps a guy pretty busy and on the go a lot.

You may ask, How does one gain all this knowledge and attain such a position? Well, I'll tell you. It isn't easy. It starts out by being a good NCO first and foremost. Second, you must use some initiative and study the doctrinal and technical manuals. A lot of this stuff is printed in books. It's just that most people don't read them unfortunately. If they did, my job would be easier.

After meeting the prerequisites to attend the Master Gunner School at Ft. Knox, KY then you must be selected to attend. The school itself is about eleven weeks long. It is packed with intensive training on all the stuff listed above. And, of course, each area has "sub-categories". The first three weeks is all maintenance. You learn basic electronics so you can learn the turret electronics. You practice trouble shooting every conceivable failure in the fire control system that can be reproduced in a class room environment. By classrom I mean actually "hands on" on a tank. Starting week four is all the gunnery/doctrinal related stuff.

Subjects are taught in a logical order and there are a total of seven exams. Exams may consist of one to three or four actual tests. Each written test contains ten questions and a student is not allowed to miss more than one. That's right. The standard is 90%. During Maintenance (Exams 1-3) the tests are both written and hands on. The hands on tests are Go or No-Go.

For those of you in the know, the usual test in the Army you need only 70% to pass. We asked an instructor why ours was so high he simply stated "If you were a commander, would you want a master gunner who was right at least 90% of the time or 70%?" Well, 'nuff said about that. It makes sense so no more complaining.

Exam seven is the final exam and the most stressful for most students. Prior to the exam each student must write a gunnery plan. The plan can not leave out any of the mandatory tasks that must take place before a gunner actually squeezes the triggers on the first round. You must know your plan by heart because the exam consists of briefing your plan to a board of three master gunner instructors. You can't use any notes and you can't stare at your briefing charts. You have to start at the beginning of the plan and go all the way until the last tank shoots the last round. Active Army has a six month plan and the Reserve Components have a twelve month plan.

While giving your briefing any board member may interrupt and ask you any question about your plan OR anything you were taught in the previous 10 1/2 weeks OR about anything he wants. Besides the usual questions, I got asked questions about the governor of North Carolina, about a classmates plan and how they do things in their state and a few other things. The purpose was to try to throw me off and see if I would crack and forget where I was in my plan.

As you can imagine, it's a very stressful school. To give you an example about how stressful it is, my hair grows very, very fast. If I wanted to spend the money I'd have to get my hair cut at least once a week to keep it the way I like it. Well, this course was so stressful I only got my hair cut three times in the whole eleven weeks (and only really needed it once!) The hair on my head almost quit growing and the hair on my body was falling out. I had to rinse out the tub after every shower.

I can laugh about it now. It was stressful, but I made it through. I must say that Master Gunner School was the most professionally run army school I've ever been through. I am convinced that the school has some of the best and most knowledgeable instructors in the military.

Every tanker should strive to become a Master Gunner. I consider myself extremely fortunate to be part of a small but elite team of trainers.