Naval gunfire liaison officer

Last updated April 27, 2019

The Naval Gunfire Liaison Officer (NGLO) is a U.S. Navy officer (typically a Lieutenant Junior Grade (LTJG) or Lieutenant (LT) Unrestricted Line Officer) who assists infantry personnel requiring naval gunfire support. The mission was defined during World War II amphibious warfare, and these personnel remain an important coordination point for effective utilization of naval guns by troops ashore.

Lieutenant , commonly abbreviated as LTJG or, historically, Lt. (j.g.), is a junior commissioned officer rank of the United States Navy, the United States Coast Guard, the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Officer Corps. LTJG has a US military pay grade of O-2, and a NATO rank code of OF-1a. The rank is also used in the United States Maritime Service. The NOAA Corps's predecessors, the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps (1917–1965) and the Environmental Science Services Administration Corps or ESSA Corps (1965–1970), also used the rank.

Lieutenant is a commissioned officer rank in many nations' navies. It is typically the most senior of junior officer ranks. The rank's insignia usually consists of two medium gold braid stripes and often the uppermost stripe features an executive curl.

Naval gun fire support (NGFS) is the use of naval artillery to provide fire support for amphibious assault and other troops operating within their range. NGFS is one of a number of disciplines encompassed by the term Naval Fires. Modern naval gunfire support is one of the three main components of amphibious warfare assault operations support, along with aircraft and ship-launched land-attack missiles. Shipborne guns have been used against shore defences since medieval naval warfare.

History

United States Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Earl Ellis 1921 prediction of Pacific island warfare with Japan prompted publication of a Tentative Manual for Landing Operations in 1934. Naval gunfire support was the second of six major elements of the manual. The Gallipoli Campaign had revealed fundamental difficulties in using shipboard guns for troop support. The trajectory of high velocity naval artillery was significantly different from field artillery howitzers typically used for gunfire support. Infantry officers were surprised by the inability of flat trajectory naval guns to hit targets behind low hills; and the relatively wide distribution of fall of shot along the axis of fire sometimes endangered friendly troops behind or in front of the target. Shells intended to penetrate armored ships produced a relatively small damage radius against unfortified targets; and shipboard observation devices designed to observe shell splashes at sea were unable to determine whether their shells were striking intended shore targets.^[1]

The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or U.S. Marines, is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations with the United States Navy as well as the Army and Air Force. The U.S. Marine Corps is one of the four armed service branches in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States.

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asian continent and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea in the south.

The Gallipoli Campaign, also known as the Dardanelles Campaign, the Battle of Gallipoli or the Battle of Çanakkale, was a campaign of the First World War that took place on the Gallipoli peninsula. The Entente powers, Britain, France and the Russian Empire, sought to weaken the Ottoman Empire, one of the Central Powers, by taking control of the straits that provided a supply route to Russia. The invaders launched a naval attack followed by an amphibious landing on the peninsula, to capture the Ottoman capital of Constantinople (Istanbul). The naval attack was repelled and after eight months' fighting, with many casualties on both sides, the land campaign was abandoned and the invasion force was withdrawn. It was a costly and humiliating defeat for the Allies and for the sponsors, especially Winston Churchill.

Although Marine Corps officers who have served aboard warships are more familiar with naval artillery, Army officers without such experience are often in positions requiring gunfire support during amphibious landings. Naval officers familiar with shipboard guns are able to advise infantry officers ashore concerning the capabilities of naval artillery to engage specific targets. The naval officer's familiarity with shipboard communications systems enables him to translate the infantry objectives and fall of shot observations to the appropriate shipboard personnel for effective engagement of targets. The tentative manual of 1934 became Fleet Training Publication 167 in 1938; and the Army issued a field manual with virtually identical text in 1941.^[1]

Modern practice

NGLOs are assigned to a Marine Artillery Battalion or Marine Artillery Regiment to assist in providing naval gunfire support. When deploying as part of a Marine Expeditionary Unit, the NGLO is typically attached to the Operations Section (S-3) of the Ground Combat Element and is responsible for a Shore Fire Control Party consisting of RT Operators and Forward Observers.

While NGLOs are trained to spot Naval Gunfire, their primary responsibilities are in the Fire Support Coordination Center to plan and coordinate naval gunfire with other firing agencies (artillery, close air support, and mortars) in conjunction with the Fire Support Coordinator and Fire Support Team Leaders, and advise him on its employment. NGLO's can also be assigned to Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Companies (ANGLICO), or the various Marine Expeditionary Force or Division Headquarters staff.

Artillery class of weapons which fires munitions beyond the range and power of personal weapons

Artillery is a class of heavy military weapons built to fire munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry's small arms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls, and fortifications during sieges, and led to heavy, fairly immobile siege engines. As technology improved, lighter, more mobile field artillery cannons developed for battlefield use. This development continues today; modern self-propelled artillery vehicles are highly mobile weapons of great versatility providing the large share of an army's total firepower.

In military tactics, close air support (CAS) is defined as air action such as air strikes by fixed or rotary-winged aircraft against hostile targets that are in close proximity to friendly forces and which requires detailed integration of each air mission with fire and movement of these forces and attacks with aerial bombs, glide bombs, missiles, rockets, aircraft cannons, machine guns, and even directed-energy weapons such as lasers.

A mortar is usually a simple, lightweight, man portable, muzzle-loaded weapon, consisting of a smooth-bore metal tube fixed to a base plate with a lightweight bipod mount and a sight. They launch explosive shells in high-arcing ballistic trajectories. Mortars are typically used as indirect fire weapons for close fire support with a variety of ammunition.

Specific training consists of the Naval Gunfire Liaison Officer Course, a five-week resident course taught in Coronado, California. NGLOs assigned to ANGLICO units may receive further training as Joint Terminal Attack Controllers (JTACs) at the discretion of the assigned unit and are Jump qualified.

Naval Base Coronado (NBC) is a consolidated Navy installation encompassing eight military facilities stretching from San Clemente Island, located seventy miles west of San Diego, California, to the Mountain Warfare Training Camp Michael Monsoor and Camp Morena, located sixty miles east of San Diego.

Uniform

See: Uniforms of the United States Navy#Naval personnel attached to Marine Corps units

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References

1 2 Potter, E.B.; Nimitz, Chester W. (1960). Sea Power. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. pp. 630–634.

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[p&n-1] 1 2 Potter, E.B.; Nimitz, Chester W. (1960). Sea Power. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. pp. 630–634.