Artillery, rockets and gunfire: Marines to shake up Fayetteville area for training

Rachael Riley, The Fayetteville Observer
·1 min read
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FORT LIBERTY — The Marines will be back in town for their semi-annual field artillery exercise at the newly redesignated Fort Liberty, officials said in a news release Friday.

The 10th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division will be on post starting Sunday through June 11 for Operation Rolling Thunder, which is a command post exercise that has live fire training, the news release stated.

During the live fire, the Marines “will fire significant amounts of M777 Howitzer 155mm ammunition" from eight different M777 Howitzers and two high mobility artillery rocket systems, “which can be associated with loud explosions and reverberations upon detonation,” according to the news release.

Marines with 10th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, and French Marines with the 3rd Regiment D'artillerie de Marine fire an M777 howitzer during Exercise Rolling Thunder at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Oct. 16, 2022. The Marines will be at Fort Liberty from June 4-11, 2023.
Marines with 10th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, and French Marines with the 3rd Regiment D'artillerie de Marine fire an M777 howitzer during Exercise Rolling Thunder at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Oct. 16, 2022. The Marines will be at Fort Liberty from June 4-11, 2023.

"The training conducted at Fort Liberty is necessary to help maintain the 10th Marine Regiment’s readiness,” Cheryle Rivas, a Fort Liberty spokeswoman, said in the release. "We ask the communities surrounding Fort Liberty to be understanding while they are here training."

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Simultaneously, field artillery units from the 82nd Airborne Division and the  North Carolina National Guard’s 5th Battalion, 113th Field Artillery Regiment will conduct live-fire training starting Tuesday until June 16.

According to the news release, all field artillery units will comply with requirements that prohibit the use of firing from multiple large weapons between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. daily and 10 a.m. to noon Sundays.

Nighttime firing with reduced rounds, however, will still be heard “as this is essential to the readiness of the forces,” the release stated.

Staff writer Rachael Riley can be reached at rriley@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3528.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Marines to bring artillery to newly designated Fort Liberty