If you're a forward-looking individual, then look no farther! You may be the perfect person to take on the role of fire support specialist. Fire support specialists, also known as forward observers, serve as members of the Army's field artillery team. They act as the eyes of an artillery unit and are primarily responsible for target acquisition and relaying that information to artillery units at all levels.
In this role, they operate radio wire communications and speech security equipment and for leading, supervising or serving in intelligence activities such as target processing for artillery units and brigade maneuvers. Some of the other tasks they perform on the job include encoding and decoding messages, preparing fire support situation plans and maps, and training subordinates in support procedures and tactics.
To be successful as a fire support specialist, you'll need to be physically and mentally fit and be able to perform under pressure. If you're looking to get into this field, you'll typically find work with the Army National Guard. In the Guard, you will receive 10 weeks of Basic Training. After that, you will attend six weeks of Advanced Individual Training (AIT), which will include a combination of hands-on and classroom training that will prepare you to for your role as a fire support specialist.
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a Fire Support Specialist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $30.48 an hour? That's $63,392 a year!
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a Fire Support Specialist, we found that a lot of resumes listed 24.5% of Fire Support Specialists included Basic Training, while 20.9% of resumes included Manual Calculations, and 18.0% of resumes included Communications Equipment. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
If you're interested in becoming a Fire Support Specialist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 31.1% of Fire Support Specialists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 2.7% of Fire Support Specialists have master's degrees. Even though some Fire Support Specialists have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a Fire Support Specialist. When we researched the most common majors for a Fire Support Specialist, we found that they most commonly earn High School Diploma degrees or Bachelor's Degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on Fire Support Specialist resumes include Associate Degree degrees or Diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a Fire Support Specialist. In fact, many Fire Support Specialist jobs require experience in a role such as Cashier. Meanwhile, many Fire Support Specialists also have previous career experience in roles such as Sales Associate or Security Officer.