(rocket firing) - Jesus, that was loud! (upbeat music) What's up, everyone? My name is Sam Eckholm, and today, I'm here with the U.S. Army National Guard to give you an up-close look at one of the most widely
produced rocket launching systems. Not only is this thing able to fire a fast and deadly arsenal at the enemy, but it's actually capable of wiping entire grid-zones off the map. So if you haven't already,
I recommend you strap in, because this is a day with the U.S. Army's HIMARS rocket launching system. Now I have to admit, when I heard I'd have the
chance to spend the day here with the U.S. Army,
I was pretty excited. You see, I've had the chance to cover a bunch of different
military mission sets, but never anything quite like this. I mean, at a first glance,
it's pretty terrifying, but this thing is able to be transported all across the world to
protect our soldiers, civilians, and infrastructure as our adversaries become
more and more sophisticated. Now for all those who are wondering, HIMARS stands for High Mobility
Artillery Rocket System, and yeah, it's exactly that. An incredibly powerful rocket
launcher used by the U.S. Army to provide close and long
range precision missile fire. The HIMARS is operated by a crew of three that includes the driver,
gunner, and section chief, who are all responsible for
carrying out its mission of blowing stuff up. Which, speaking of, the
firepower on this thing is pretty incredible. The HIMARS carries a six-pack
of precision-strike rockets capable of hitting targets
up to 70 kilometers away. It takes only 20 seconds
to ready the rockets and within 45 seconds, all six rockets can be fired
in a flurry of launches that I think we'd all agree, probably wouldn't be too fun
to be on the receiving end. Now if there's one thing I learned, it's that no matter how sophisticated the equipment is you're working with, you have to have the
personnel behind the scenes to support it and the Army
does an incredible job of training new recruits to
become highly skilled soldiers in their specific career fields. Now if you guys are ready, I say it's time we go meet
the crew behind the HIMARS, the individuals tasked with
supporting and operating one of the most powerful
missile systems in the world. Let me introduce you to the 3rd battalion of the 157th field artillery regiment. They go by the nickname "King of Battle", and their mission is
simple: destroy, defeat, or disrupt the enemy with
some serious firepower. The men and women of
this highly elite unit go through a series of
specialized training to get qualified in their
specific career fields, all of which contribute to the overall mission of the HIMARS. Now what's pretty cool is
that the unit I'm with today is actually a part of the
Colorado Army National Guard. Now, the Guard shares
many of the same duties as active duty members, but they benefit individual
states in times of disaster. For example, the Colorado Guard
Soldiers serves a dual role and are often called upon to
aide in wildfires, floods, blizzards and civil unrest. Now, no, I don't think you'll ever see a HIMARS rocket launching system sent to the middle of Colorado
Springs to disperse a protest but the Guard just goes to show how many amazing opportunities there are for those of you interested
in joining the Army. You may have heard the phrase, "You're only as strong
as the team around you," and that idea applies to the military more than you might ever imagine. There's hundreds of
career fields in the Army and every single one of them plays a vital role in
getting the job done. If we take a look specifically
at the HIMARS mission, well sure, you have your
cannon crew members, fire control specialists,
and radar operators, but you also have career fields
like intelligence analysts, heath care specialists, public
affairs, and food services, all of which add to the mission of dominating the battlefield
anytime, anywhere. So, here we are in front of the incredible
HIMARS rocket launching system. I'm joined by Staff Sgt. Clinton Rushing who is one of the crew chiefs that gets to operate this
explosive piece of machinery. So sir, I've gotta ask, you know, what's it like to work on this thing? - You know, it's a lot of fun. I get deployed around the world and shoot rockets and blow stuff up. - Yeah, and I assume
you've been in the Army for a little bit of time, so I'd like to ask, what made you join? And to anyone out there who's watching, what advice do you have for them if they want to join the Army? - Yeah, the reason I
joined when I started out was the college aspect. I wanted to get some college
behind me and since then, I've been doing it now 15/16
years and I haven't stopped. I enjoy it a lot. I think if I was gonna give
that advice to somebody who's looking for something to do, this is a great opportunity
to serve your country and get some college while you're doing. So this is the HIMARS, this
is the business end of it. This is the launcher. We can shoot six rockets or one missile, depending on which
ammunitions we have loaded up. On the back here is
several different things. You have everything from
the computers that run it, the hydraulics, and extra spots here for
all the crew gear and stuff. - So how far can this actually launch? What's the range on it? - We plan for around 70 kilometers. A lot of the other
information is not available. - Classified, I got ya, all right. - So, this is the pod we have on now is actually our trainer pod. We'll swap it out for some training rounds that we use to certify with and
get our crew certified with. On the side here, of
course, you've got the LM, which is the launcher module. And when we start shooting, you'll see it lift and
raise up towards the sky and we have to verify the
height and azimuth of it. The azimuth is the direction of fire and once we verify that, then we'll flip a switch
and rockets go boom! So this is the operation
center of the HIMARS. This is where the drivers sit. He controls the vehicle,
he's got the gear shift, he can drop it down into 6x6, he's got a tire inflation system, so he can adjust the
tires, inflate the tires based on the terrain that
you're driving across. He also controls the CAFU. So when we seal up and get ready to shoot, it filters the air and pushes air out, so that the cabin remains pressured. - Nice, so who's sitting
where I'm at right now? - So, this is the gunner seat. This is where the magic happens. So, the gunner here will
process fire emissions. He ensures that we have
the correct target, the headings are correct,
that everything is okay. - Yeah, and if I want
to hit the fire button, where's the button that
makes this thing go boom? - It's that second button. - Oh, right here, okay. - You'd have to lift that
and then hit the fire switch, don't do it. But yeah, you'd lift that and then when we get the word to fire, then we shoot it and that's it. The rocket goes down range. - All right, so by this point, we've learned about the
mission of the HIMARS, we've gotten up close
to look at its features and learned about the crew that operates and supports this thing. However, I think we're missing something. - Oh, we're missing something. - You know, I think it's time
that we fire this bad boy up and actually see what it's capable of. - Let's do it.
- Let's do it. Now as excited as I was to
see the missiles launch, I knew that to give you
guys the full experience, I'd need to take you inside the HIMARS to see what it's actually like. But to do that, you need to be wearing some
special protective equipment, and unfortunately my skinny
jeans and black T-shirt weren't gonna to cut it. If I was gonna to be the
one to flip the switch and hit the fire button, I was gonna have to make a few changes. And so yeah, that's what I did. All right, as you can
see, I'm all geared up. On my chest right now is a ballistic vest, which the U.S. Army uses
in deployed environments and while they're training
to protect our core here. And in my hand is a CVC, a Combat Vehicle Crew Member's helmet, which they use in multiple different units to protect the cranium here. So, it's also got some ear pro 'cause things are gonna get a bit loud but I'm all ready, so here we go. Now the first thing I noticed
when I got into the HIMARS is that it's quite a bumpy ride, and as our driver began
the trek through the woods to the firing range, I found
myself being thrown around a little bit more than I expected. We made a quick stop by ammunitions to get loaded up with our pack of rockets, and then radioed in to
receive our coordinates for the location we would be firing on. At this point, I was
really just doing my best to stay out of the way and let the expert soldiers
do what they do best. But as we made our way out onto the range and positioned our launcher into place, things got very real,
because before I knew it, the section chief gave
me the command to fire, and my god, was is it insane! (laughs) Oh my god! Now if you think this
is the end of the video, well, I hate to disappoint you. If there's one thing I've
learned about the Army, it's that they're always
looking for an excuse to blow stuff up. So as part of their training, once I had safely exited the HIMARS, they got the green light
to fire a few more. Well, I guess I should say, a lot more. (rockets firing) All right guys, I'm not gonna lie, my ears are ringing, my head hurts, but that was easily one
of the coolest things I have done in my entire life. I hope you enjoyed
learning a little bit more about the HIMARS missile launching system. If you guys have any more questions or are curious about the
Colorado Army National Guard, well, I'm gonna leave some
links in the description to where you can find out more. Thanks for hanging out, appreciate you, and I'll see you next time. (upbeat music)
