In addition to 16,000 professional soldiers and 8,000 civilian employees, the armed forces consist of an average of 6,000 conscripts and can mobilize up to 31,000 militia soldiers in the event of an operation. One of these 61,000 members of the armed forces is Constable Alexander Wachter, gunner in the 1st howitzer battery of Reconnaissance and Artillery Battalion 3.
Sergeant, what do you do as the commander of an M-109 self-propelled howitzer?
I am responsible for the crew and equipment, including maintenance. It’s a job with a lot of responsibility and you have to know a lot of technical things. The howitzer has to be constantly maintained. I also train new conscripts and, if necessary, I also go on assistance missions.
What are the tasks of your crew?
There are three gunners in the fighting compartment: the aiming gunner aims the barrel, the loading gunner inserts the shell and the breech gunner takes care of the breech and propellant charge. As the commander, I always need to know what my gunners are doing. https://militaeraktuell.at/augen-und-hammer-des-bundesheeres/
How do you become a gunner?
I took the normal non-commissioned officer career path and learned gunnery in Cadre Candidate Training 2. This involves going through all the gunnery training courses and also firing. This is followed by four months of gunner training, where you learn how to operate and drive in the field, among other things.
What is the most exciting thing about your job?
Sharpshooting, of course. But also working together with the basic soldiers at the gun. Compared to an assault rifle, there is a lot more going on and more can happen. When shooting, it’s important to make sure that nobody is standing directly behind the barrel.
Here to our troop visit to the reconnaissance and artillery battalion 3 and here to the other portraits in our series “One of 61,000”.
