OROMOCTO, New Brunswick – As soon as he received the command from his unit’s Tactical Operations Center, Staff Sgt. Mark Rediker lowered his raised right arm, signaling his crew to launch one of the dozens of 155-millimeter howitzer shells at a target three miles away.

The launch was one of dozens during the 152nd Field Artillery’s live fire training exercises at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown last weekend. Though Saturday’s launches were part of a series of drills for more than 280 Maine Army National Guard members, the ammunition used was very real. From an observation area near targets struck earlier, onlookers could see the deep pits the artillery left in the earth and feel the ground quake on impact.

According to Maj. Eldon Hardwick, Maine Army guardsmen conduct much of their combat training without using live ammunition, practicing loading and reloading over and over until the launch crews themselves operate like well-oiled machines.

The exercises at Gagetown, the third conducted there so far this year, offered members an opportunity to gain valuable hands-on experience they can’t get in Maine for lack of facilities large enough to accommodate guns and ammunition such as the 155-millimeter howitzers used here over the weekend, he said.

State Command Sgt. Maj. Mark Collins, who works out of Camp Keyes in Augusta, said that CFB Gagetown is one of the largest combat military training facilities in North America. Set in the wilderness of New Brunswick, it is about 15 miles south of Fredericton.

Though Rediker’s crew aimed at targets three miles away, their howitzer had the capability of striking targets almost 20 miles away. Howitzers are easily moved and can strike targets over rugged terrain.

“They’re tried and true and very dependable,” Staff Sgt. Jon Houston said of the big guns.

The weapons, which used to be aimed manually by troops using binoculars, now are aimed using grid coordinates fed into the Guard’s Advanced Field Artillery Data System, which tracks and processes firing, operations and intelligence data. The system is housed in Tactical Operations Center, a mobile nerve center for military operations that can be set up and operational within 15 minutes.

The fact that the nation is in the midst of a military struggle in the Middle East, prompted by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, lent the otherwise routine training an increased sense of focus. Components of the 152nd were deployed during the nation’s most recent war, Desert Storm, 10 years ago.

While the Maine Army Guard has not been called up to take part in the counterattacks on Afghanistan, 83 members of the Maine Army Guard were assigned to protect the state’s airports, Bangor International Airport among them. Members did not rule out being deployed to the Middle East at some point in the future.

“Anything’s possible,” said Houston.

According to Staff Sgt. Bethany Mazzaro, the Maine Army National Guard’s mission is twofold. “Our duties are to serve the governor [during times of state crisis like the ice storm a few years ago], but ultimately our federal mission is to protect the people of the United States in whatever capacity we are needed.”

Participants in last weekend’s live fire drills came from Alpha Battery, headquartered in Waterville, Houlton Bravo Battery and from Charlie Battery in Fort Kent and Presque Isle. Each battery brought two howitzers, each of which was accompanied by self-contained units consisting of a 10-member launch crew, cooks, medics and other support personnel.

Also training were members of the Army Guard’s 137th Aviation unit, who fly UH-1H helicopters, more commonly known as Hueys.

“We’re like a taxi service with attitude,” observed Chief Warrant Officer Philip Dean Dumond of Madawaska, who on Saturday served as co-pilot to Chief Warrant Officer James Braley of Bangor. The two flew one of the four Hueys that traveled Saturday from the Army Guard Base in Bangor to Gagetown, with loads of “VIPs” on board, namely members of the Maine media and Army Guard commanders. Their helicopter, a 1970 model, was fourth in the formation.

Though the helicopter traveled most of the distance at altitudes of 2,000 to 3,000 feet, during the final leg of the nearly two hour flight to Gagetown, the pilots demonstrated how they would fly in a real combat situation over enemy territory. They sped just over the treetops, dipping and rising slightly over the hilly wilderness terrain that makes up most of Gagetown. Dumond said that the speed and low altitude flying both helped aircraft avoid detection by radar and offered the enemy virtually no time to aim and fire because the helicopters couldn’t be seen until they were directly overhead.

Though Mazzaro said the aviation unit’s main mission is to move troops, its helicopters and pilots are often called upon for search and rescue missions and to assist state police in their effort to eradicate marijuana cultivation operations.