What are some tips and pieces of advice you would give to a soon-to-be Field Artillery 2LT? Any advice is greatly appreciated!

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2LT Moffeit, your question is too limited in scope. I recommend that you find and read the Army Leader Development Strategy published JUN 13 (google search). You need to understand the training, education, and experience you will receive within the institutional, operational, and self domains and how this is leveraged by peer and mentor relationships. If you understand this document then you are better positioned to understand not only your 50m target (FABOLC) but also your 100m target (key and developmental experience: platoon leader) and what gaps you will need to fill on your own within the self domain. I argue that FABOLC will give you 25% of what you need to know to be successful as an FA officer, the operational domain will give you 50%, and you must fill in the remaining 25% yourself.

You will get all the tools needed to succeed from the FA school house, but your true understanding if the weapons systems, ballistics, and leadership will all come from the particle application in your 1st&nbsp;PLT.&nbsp; Ensuring that you understand manual gunnery and degraded operations are critical skills you should master.&nbsp;Automations have made the FA capable of more responsive and accurate fires, but can become a crutch.&nbsp; All systems can fire just as quick and accurate with highly trained sections from the forward observe, to the fire direction center, and the howitzer section.&nbsp; counsel your NCOs, train hard and repetitively, and enforce the standards and you will be very successful. Many LTs do not counsel their Platoon SGTs, because the LTs feel they can not modify their behavior or that the NCO must know more than the LT since he has been in for over 10 years.&nbsp; That is a bad perception to have and your counseling will be invaluable with in the relationship you will have with your NCOs.&nbsp; They will help train and make recommendation, but if that SR NCO is not the right person to be in that position it will fall on you to help the Army correct that.&nbsp; That is what I would offer up as advice after being in the FA for over 25 years.