Matthew Parenteau, Artillery Gunner
MY JOB
A day in the field
A basic day usually starts at zero eight hundred, or 8:00 AM. We get ready to leave - preparing all our equipment, getting it all out, and loading it into the trucks.
We get to the firing range and we set up. Usually we're done setting up by about ten o'clock. Then we carry out whatever operational orders are for that training exercise.
We go until lights out; that's usually twenty three hundred, or 11:00 PM, so you're looking at a thirteen, fourteen hour day. On many field training exercises we spend the night on location in tents.
The next day it starts all over again at zero five thirty and we usually go again until twenty three hundred. That's a basic field day.