The Hornet - July 2019

North Carolina National Guard Quarterly Issue

July 2019 www.nc.ng.mil

North Carolina Guardsmen wins Region III Best Warrior Competition!

Director of Public Affairs Lt. Col. Matthew DeVivo matthew.r.devivo.mil@mail.mil

Inside this Issue:

Media Relations Maj. Matthew Boyle matthew.i.boyle.mil@mail.mil

Community Relations Maj. Michael Wilber michael.j.wilber2.mil@mail.mil

Visual Information Staff Sgt. Brendan Stephens brendan.p.stephens.mil@mail.mil

145th Airlift Wing Public Affairs Tech. Sgt. Nathan Clark nathan.t.clark.mil@mail.mil

Writers/Photographers Staff Sgt. Mary Junell mary.e.junell.mil@mail.mil Staff Sgt. Leticia Samuels leticia.m.samuels.mil@mail.mil Sgt. Joe Roudabush joe.f.roudabush.mil@mail.mil

Social Media Sgt. Odaliska Almonte ncngpao@gmail.com

The Hornet magazine is an authorized publication for members of the North Carolina National Guard. Contents of this publication are not necessarily the official views of or endorsed by the NCNG, United States Government or the Department of Defense. The editorial content of this publication is the responsibility of the Public Affairs Office of the NCNG. General comments and suggestions should be addressed to Mary.E.Junell.mil@mail.mil or call 984-664-6590.

Layout and design 1 by Staff Sgt. Mary Junell

On The Cover:

Spc. Andrew Brotherton, representing the North Carolina National Guard, won in the enlisted category for the Region III Best Warrior Competition at the Camp Butner Training Site May 13-18, 2019. N.C., South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands sent their best enlisted and noncommissioned officers to represent their state in a grueling five-day competition for a chance to compete at the National Guard Bureau Best Warrior Competition later this year. Photo by Staff Sgt. Mary Junell

449th TAB Welcome Home Ceremony, Pg. 13

The NCNG’s 449th Theater Aviation Brigade welcomes home Soldier’s from Afghanistan.

Top Tier Aviator, Pg. 15

North Carolina Air National Guardsman named top aviator.

Region III Best Warrior, Pg. 18

North Carolina National Guard hosts the Region III Best Warrior Competition.

Old Roads Revisited, Pg. 30 A N.C. Guard Soldier recounts the experience of her 2004 deployment and what it was like when she returned home.

Also in This Issue:

Don’t Forget!

You can click on the story descriptions above to go directly to that story! Than click the home button to return here!

News From The Nest, Pg. 3 Minuteman Muster, Pg. 5 Tax Office Helps Military Families, Pg. 21 Outstanding Unit of the Year, Pg. 23 The ACFT, Pg. 25 OCS Learn Battlefield Lessons, Pg. 37 Click to follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Any time you see the Flickr symbol, click it to see more photos!

Where is SFC Jordan?

Can you find the tiny version of Sgt. 1st Class Robert Jordan hidden among these pages? Our well loved photojournalist is hiding somewhere in the Hornet!

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Brig. Gen. Stephen Mallette, the North Carolina Assistant Adjutant General for Air, represented the United States Air Force at the NASCAR Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day Weekend, 2019, where he ceremoniously delivered the oath of enlistment for new enlistees into the Air Force. The event was part of a military celebration at the Coca-Cola 600.

Col. Manley James celebrated over 25 years of service to the North Carolina National Guard during his retirement ceremony at Joint Force Headquarters June 1, 2019. James was born in Beaufort, North Carolina and joined the United States Army Reserves in 1984. After completing Basic Training, James enrolled in to the Reserve Officer Training Corps program at North Carolina State University. Photos by Staff Sgt. Leticia Samuels.

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Teams of North Carolina National Guard Soldiers from the 113th Sustainment Brigade and 30th Armored Brigade Combat Team prepare and load armored vehicles for cross-country rail transport to Fort Irwin, California for the ABCT’s annual training deployment this summer at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, June 1, 2019. This rail load is part of the third deployment of the nearly 4,200 Soldiers of the 30th ABCT since 2001 to Fort Irwin, National Training Center. Photo

by Sgt. 1st Class Robert Jordan

The Starbase program is conducting a week-long initiative at the N.C. National Guard Joint Force Headquarters on June 17-21, 2019. Starbase exposes fifth-grade students to technological environments and positive civilian and military role models while providing hands-on instructions and activities.

NCNG was one of the first three Guard units to spearhead the program in 1993, and have been involved ever since. Photos by Sgt. Odaliska Almonte.

News From

Eight Cameroon military legal officers toured North Carolina National Guard Headquarters and N.C. Emergency Management campus in Raleigh, N.C., May 1, 2019. The officers visited the headquarters and discussed the role of military lawyers during deployments with their NCNG and NCEM peers as part of their tour hosted by the Defense Institute of International Legal Studies. “We wanted the perspective of how legal teams impact operations,” said Cameroonian naval officer Emmanuel Ngonge Sone Ajang.

About 130 Citizen-Soldiers of the 514th Military Police Company, based in Winterville, returned to North Carolina on Father’s Day. The unit was deployed for about a year to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Naval Station in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Family members of North Carolina National Guard fallen Soldiers and Airmen meet for the Reconnect Survivor Event at the Marriott City Center in Raleigh N.C. Since 2014, the North Carolina National Guard has hosted the Reconnect Survivor Event with donations from the Wakefield Senior Men’s Golf Association, the Patriot Military Family Foundation, and the NCNG Survivors Outreach Fund. Photo by Staff Sgt. Brendan Stephens

Around the Nest

The North Carolina National Guard’s Joint Force Headquarters celebrates the U.S. Army’s 244th Birthday with a ceremonial Cake cutting, June 14, 2019.

Photo by Odaliska Almonte.

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North Carolina

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The North Carolina National Guard association hosted over 400 runners and walkers participating in the 7th Annual Minuteman Muster 5k and 8k races in Raleigh, North Carolina, May 18, 2019.

The event benefits the North Carolina National Guard Museum and the Learning Excellence Center. (Photo by Sgt. Wayne Becton)

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North Carolina

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North Carolina National Guard Military Funeral Honors had the honor of supporting Governor Roy Cooper in the repatriation and wreath laying ceremony for Korean War Army soldier PFC William Hoover Jones, whose remains were identified in North Korea and returned to North Carolina June 21, 2019. The NCNG Military Funeral Honors stood vigilant for 6 hours as Jones lay in state at the Old State Capitol Building in Raleigh.

Photo by Lt. Col. Matthew Devivo

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France

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North Carolina National Guard leaders stand with Tony Jaber, a World War II Veteran, on the hill he helped defend during the battle of Mortain. The NCNG’s 30th Armored Brigade Combat Team traces its lineage to the 30th Infantry Division, who were a vital part of winning the Battle of Mortain. The trip was part of a 75th Anniversary Celebration of the Battle of Normandy held in May, 2019.

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Diagnostic fitness test every 2 months Online fitness platform available 6 months after program ends

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Fit 2 Serve Wants YOU

Contact your unit or Mr. Wheeler to learn more about this all volunteer program! bobby.p.wheeler.ctr@mail.mil 984-664-6390 11

MR. KRISTIAN S. HALL North Carolina National Guard JFHQ Sexual Assault Response Coordinator (SARC) Office Phone: 984-664-6909 SARC Confidential Cell: (919) 410-1960 Email: kristian.s.hall.mil@mail.mil

MS. K.M. PATTERSON North Carolina National Guard JFHQ Victim Advocate Coordinator (VAC) Office Phone: 984-664-6707 SARC Confidential Cell: (919) 410-2284 Email: kiila.m.patterson2.mil@mail.mil

The Mission of the Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention (SHARP) Program The SHARP program helps to achieve the goal of the Secretary of Defense to eradicate sexual assault and sexual harassment from the military. SHARP helps to create an Army culture where all Soldiers have the values, tools, and skills to prevent sexual violence. SHARP also provides sensitive care and confidential reporting for victims of sexual assault while holding offenders accountable for their actions.

The goals of the SAPR Program are to: (1) Create a climate that minimizes sexual assault incidents, which impact Army personnel, Army civilians, and Family members, and, if an incident should occur, ensure that victims and subjects are treated according to Army policy.

(2) Create a climate that encourages victims to report incidents of sexual assault without fear.

(3) Establish sexual assault prevention training and awareness programs to educate Soldiers.

(4) Ensure sensitive and comprehensive treatment to restore victims’ health and Well-being.

(5) Ensure leaders understand their roles and responsibilities regarding response to sexual assault victims, thoroughly investigate allegations of sexual assault, and take appropriate administrative and disciplinary action and subjects are treated according to Army policy.

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Aviation Soldiers Return Story and Photo by Staff Sgt. Mary Junell

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he North Carolina Army National Guard hosted a welcome home ceremony for the 1-130th Attack Reconnaissance Battalion and Detachment 1, B/638th Aviation Support Battalion at the Hope Community Church in Raleigh, North Carolina on Friday, May 17, 2019.

The unit’s 280 soldiers, known as Task Force Panther, served as 13

the aviation task force battalion headquarters in support of Operation Freedom's Sentinel for the Train, Advise and Assist Command South (TAAC-S) serving with other United States Forces and the Afghan National Defense to enable conditions that lead to the stability and security of Afghanistan.

Task Force Panther was centered around

a NC National Guard Apache Battalion and active duty and other national guard Army aviation units with Apaches, Chinooks, UH-60 Medevac and UH-60M Assault Helicopters.

One of their primary missions was to support Special Operations and NATO partners with Afghan forces

conducting air assaults and air movements.

The unit’s highestranking enlisted leader, Command Sgt. Major John Cole, said he was proud of his Soldier’s and the work they did in Afghanistan.

“I couldn’t have been prouder,” he said. “They did an outstanding job.

Everything they did was

From Afghanistan

perfect. It was busy, we were kinetic, and we got them home.”

The Soldiers and their families were glad to see the deployment come to an end, including Spc. Clint Burwell’s wife, who gave birth to twin boys while her husband was serving in Afghanistan.

“It was hard,”

said Neisha Burwell.

“But I got through it, and when he finally saw them, he was all tears. With him being deployed it’s a scary thing sometimes, but when I finally saw him it made things so much better. It fulfilled me and made my heart smile.”

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Top Tier Aviator L

eaflets and food supplies fell from the sky as Tech. Sgt. Brian Wahl watched the first ever airdrop for the Afghanistan Air Force.

Tech. Sgt. Wahl, 156th Airlift Squadron loadmaster, was awarded the prestigious Red Erwin Award for when he was deployed to Afghanistan in 2017 and served as an air advisor for the Afghanistan Air Force airdrop program.

“It feels great to be recognized and it’s a huge deal

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Story by Tech. Sgt. Anthony Ballard

to me to be recognized as a top aviator in my tier!” said Wahl.

During 2017, Wahl served as an air advisor to the Afghanistan Air Force where he provided instruction on their first ever airdrop.

He advised the Afghanistan Air Force on their airdrop program and rigging course for the C-130 and C-208 aircrafts. The first ever airdrop released over 600 pounds of food and leaflets, and a

key area controlled by ISIL forces. As a result of Wahl’s leadership, the town elders that received the leaflets provided the location of a hidden ammunitions cache for the Afghanistan National Army, which resulted in liberation a key area and no casualties during the mission.

“I am super proud of Tech. Sgt. Wahl and all of the hard work he has done.

The request for air advisor mission occurred during an

unsettling and dangerous time in Afghanistan, but Tech. Sgt. Wahl willingly volunteered to go,” said Lt. Col. Bradley Holbrooks, commander of the 156th Airlift Squadron.

The Red Erwin award was created in 1997 in memory of Henry Red Erwin, who was a flare operator during WWII. Erwin and his crew were aboard a B-52 aircraft for a bombing mission to Japan.

He was in charge of deploying phosphorous flares to mark

An Afghan Air Force C-208 crew, delivers supplies to Afghan National Defense Security Forces ground troops on June 28, 2017. Photo by Tech. Sgt. Veronica Pierce

U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Brian Wahl, 156th Airlift Squadron loadmaster, was awarded the prestigious Red Erwin Award for when he was deployed to Afghanistan in 2017 and served as an air advisor for the Afghanistan Air Force airdrop program.

An Afghan Air Force C-208 pilot, prepares to deliver supplies, over Southeast, Afghanistan, as Tech.

Sgt. Brian Wahl, Train, Advise, Assist Command-Air, 538th Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadron C-208 loadmaster advisor, stands by for assistance during an aerial resupply mission on June 28, 2017.

Photo by Tech. Sgt. Veronica Pierce

targets and a flare prematurely deployed inside of the aircraft.

Erwin grabbed the flare while enduring severe burns, and threw it out the co-pilot’s window to save the crew and aircraft.

This is not the first time that Wahl has been recognized for his outstanding abilities.

When he was a Senior Airman, he was selected as Airman of the Quarter and has been presented with multiple other awards.

“He has always excelled at his job and this is an extremely prestigious award where only three of 2,900 people within the Air Force are selected for the award,” said Lt. Col. Holbrooks.

Prior to the deployment,

Wahl took time to learn more about the culture of Afghanistan and Dari, the local language, in order to effectively advise the Afghanistan Forces.

Additionally, Wahl completed his bachelor’s degree while

deployed to Afghanistan.

When asked how he felt winning the award, Wahl said, “I was very humbled. I know I am good at what I do, but I never saw myself to be on this level. I just see myself as doing my job.”

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Region III Best Warrior Competition Story by Staff Sgt. Leticia Samuels

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Staff Sgt. Christopher Wagner, with the North Carolina National Guard rucks towards the finish of a 12-mile road-march, May 16, 2019 at Camp Butler Training Site during the Region III Best Warrior Competition. Photo by Staff Sgt. Mary Junell.

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Soldiers from across the Southeastern region of the U.S. gather in North Carolina to compete in the National Guard Region III Best Warrior Competition at the Camp Butner Training Site from May 13-18, 2019. Photo by Staff Sgt. Leticia Samuels.

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oldiers from across the Southeastern region of the U.S. gather in North Carolina to compete in the National Guard Region III Best Warrior Competition at the Camp Butner Training Site from May 13-18, 2019.

North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands sent their best enlisted and noncommissioned officers to represent their state in a demanding five-

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day competition for a chance to compete at the national competition later this year.

“We did the ‘Soldier of the year’ for the state,” said Spc. Marina Grage, representing Mississippi National Guard. “I have been on orders training, prepping, going to the ranges, doing the new PT [physical training] test, land nav. [navigation], everything.”

Excitement builds as competitors don their Best Warrior patches officially making them the 2019 region III competitors.

Sponsors and competitors

jump right into marksmanship qualification with the Beretta M9 and the M4 carbine rifle followed by the new modified Army Combat Fitness Test.

Day two was the most grueling day of the competition, testing soldiers’ mental and physical fortitude.

The day starts with an Army Physical Fitness Test, followed by a demanding 16-station obstacle course, daytime land navigation, a mystery event and nighttime land navigation.

“The camaraderie, enthusiasm and moral have

been great,” said North Carolina State Command Sgt. Maj. Russell Prince. “No matter what state you’re from, or what your MOS [military occupational specialty] you are, there are certain things all soldiers are required to do.

They bond over those events especially during the hardships of the conditions. Everybody comes together to not only to share the disappointments but also to share in the jubilation; no matter who it is. Everybody is excited for them.”

The following days were filled with numerous events

Spc. Marina Grage, representing the Mississippi National Guard, low crawls under barbed wire while completing a 16-station obstacle course during the National Guard Region III Best Warrior Competition at the Camp Butner Training Site, North Carolina, May 15, 2019. Photo by Staff Sgt. Leticia Samuels.

that tested the competitors’ in-depth knowledge of military technical and tactical procedures, warrior ethos and military knowledge.

“Anytime you host an event such as this in your own state there is an increased awareness that goes on,” said Prince.

“You have a lot more visibility amongst the soldiers across the state as well as leadership.

I think it is also a plus for us from the standpoint of media coverage, not just within our own organization, but also with the local media. All of these events are going to be

something they [Soldiers] are required to do in combat situations and I think this gives the public a more increased knowledge of what we actually do.”

Taking the 2019 Region III crown for the noncommissioned officers was Staff Sgt. Nathan Bogert, representing the Alabama National Guard and Spc. Andrew Brotherton, representing the North Carolina National Guard won in the enlisted category.

“This is awesome,” said Bogert. “I spent a lot of time

here in North Carolina so I feel like this is my second home, but I feel honored to represent Alabama in this competition.”

The 2002 inception of the Best Warrior Competition collectively involves the Army Reserve, Regular Army and the National Guard as a way to test competitors’ knowledge and abilities by overcoming, physical fitness challenges, board interviews, critical thinking, written exams and warrior tasks and battle drills.

The elite victor that emerges from Region III’s competition

earns a ticket to the National Guard Bureau Best Warrior Competition schedualed to be held in July.

“This means a lot,” said Brotherton. “North Carolina is a great state. I have picked the brains of some guys that have gone to Nationals. I have heard some stories about how different it is and how much it changes, but I plan on getting out there and competing.”

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NC Guard Judge Advocate Tax Prep Service Helps Military Families Photo and Story by Sgt. 1st Class Robert Jordan

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our legal experts from the North Carolina National Guard’s Judge Advocate Office made tax time a lot easier for service members, retirees and their families at NCNG Joint Force Headquarters in Raleigh, N.C. Beginning in January and continuing through early April the team is part of the IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program processing the required state and federal tax returns for free for their clients.

The team, U.S. Army Cpl, Samantha Williams, a paralegal, Evelyn Saxton and Aracely Lopez, both lawyers, and U.S. Army Capt. Katie Reynolds, the site coordinator, prepared early for tax season by studying the changes in tax law and filing requirements and honed their skills before they completed online certification classes and tests provided by the IRA for VITA preparers.

“It is a tribute to the team that they knew and remembered so much from last year,” Reynolds said.

The hard work, preparation and their reputation from four years of previous VITA service made for a busy schedule.

“The tradition of the Staff Ride dates back to the early 1900s when Maj. Eben Swift, the assistant commandant of the General Service and Staff School Fort Leavenworth, Kansas would take students to visit Civil War battlefields.

Today, units across the Army, like the North Carolina National Guard’s 139th Regional Training Institute, still conduct Staff Rides as a way to enhance professional military education and training.

For the 139th’s Officer Candidate School Class 61 the Chancellorsville Battlefield near Fredericksburg, Virginia on May 3-4, 2019 gave the students an opportunity to discuss tactics and evaluate the decisions of leaders

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(From left) U.S. Army Cpl. Samantha Williams, a paralegal, Aracely Lopez and Evelyn Saxton, both lawyers, and U.S. Army Capt. Katie Reynolds, the site coordinator, stand in the North Carolina National Guard Headquarters Judge Advocate courtroom at NCNG headquarters in Raleigh, N.C., May, 3, 2019.

who came before them.

The 16 students were each assigned a certain leader at different points in the battle and presented the information they gathered about what the leaders were doing during specific moments in the battle.

“We have to learn from history, or we keep making the same mistakes,” said 1st Lt. Miles Komuves, an OCS instructor with the 139th RTI. “It makes it real. You can teach lessons in the classroom and people learn different ways, but here they are walking around on some of the same terrains and exploring some of these ideas that they learn in the classroom and applying them out there. The value of learning from history never diminishes.”

Maj. Ryan Shields the OCS company commander with the 139th RTI said the goal is for students to be able to look at the decisions some leaders made during the battle and formulate how they would have made those same decisions with the skills they have learned through the OCS program.

“It gives them a good understanding of how leaders in certain positions formulate and execute plans,” Shields said. “It also gives them a great opportunity to visualize what they have learned in the OCS program and they can apply that moving forward.”

The staff ride is seen as a culminating event for the class before they enter the last few months of OCS, Shields said many students in previous programs have come to him and said the staff ride was where the training really clicked for them.

“One of the most important things that I’m getting out of this is the perspective from the different military leaders through the war and being able to apply that perspective to today’s fighting,” said Tim Marshburn, one of the Officer Candidates in Class 61. “Being able to put it all together and apply the tactics

and troop leading procedures to the different sections of the battle brings all the training into perspective.”

Several leaders from throughout the NCNG also attended the staff ride to help provide insight into the decisions based on their career fields including a medical officer, an armor officer, and a chaplain.

During the staff ride, the students also found out which officer branch and unit they will be assigned to once they receive their commission signaling that they are nearing the end of their training.

Should all 16 students make it through the third phase of OCS, they will graduate and earn their commission as new Army Second Lieutenants in August. We had another record breaking return season beating our record set last year by ten percent,” said Reynolds.

For four months on every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. two of the VITA team members met with clients at the JFHQ courtroom. The team also set up offices at the North Carolina Air National Guard Base in Charlotte over one drill weekend.

Piles of tax forms, receipts, tax documents were scrutinized by the experts. Deductions, rules and regulations are scoured for every advantage.

“When we do their (service members) taxes it saves money and is more accurate, not everyone knows what military can claim,” Williams said.

The four months of hard work resulted in more than 550 returns prepared and filed with an average federal refund of $1,438 and state refund of $414.

The NCNG has hosted a VITA for several years during tax season helping many families and individuals across the state.

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449th TAB 2018

OUTSTANDING

The 449th TAB leadership staff accept the 2018 Outstanding Unit of the Year Award during the annual Army Aviation Association of America (Quad A) conference at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee on April 15, 2019.

Unit of the Year T Story and Photo by Staff Sgt. Leticia Smauels

he ballroom erupted with applause as the 449th Theater Aviation Brigade was presented with the 2018 Outstanding Unit of the Year Award during the annual Army Aviation Association of America (Quad A) conference at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee on April 15, 2019.

This award was established in 1959 and is awarded to a unit regardless of component or size.

The 449th TAB is recognized for the execution of aeromedical evacuations, attack helicopter operations, security, air movement, air assault, and reconnaissance support to coalition forces throughout Iraq, Syria, Kuwait, Jordan, and Turkey supporting Operations Inherent Resolve and Spartan Shield.

“Thank you to Quad A and the Soldiers and family members of the 449th Theater Aviation Brigade,” said Col. Joseph Bishop, the 449th TAB commander. “We are proud and humbled to accept this award on behalf of the 2,000 plus soldiers and their families that make up Task Force Hurricane. This is a huge honor and it is amazing to bring this home to North Carolina.”

The 449th TAB assembled North Carolina Soldiers plus Soldiers from 13 U.S. states mobilizing from Fort Hood, TX as a Combat Aviation Brigade, which was the largest National Guard aviation task force in the last decade.

While supporting the Central Command’s area of operation, the unit stood up reactionary forces in Iraq and Syria, an aerial response force consisting of regular Army Infantry companies

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responding to high-risk missions within OIR and medical evacuation assets responding in Kuwait, Jordan, Iraq, and Syria.

“This is a well deserved recognition for the Guard,” said Chief Warrant Officer 5 Cardanose Bauknight, the 449th’s senior warrant officer. “This was a lot of hard work. Sometimes the active component looks at the Guard as separate but not equal. This goes to show we can do the job.”

The CAB also supported coalition partnerships with the Australian, Canadian and Iraqi forces and the successful integration of a Spanish Rotary Wing.

The recognition of this award is laid at the feet a council composed of 70 Quad A members and retired Army aviation generals.

“It is a peer group that votes on this,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Matthew Shorter, the 449th TAB Command Sergeant Major “They know what it is to be in Army aviation. They know what it is to lead Army aviation. They know what the problem sets are and how difficult it was. The experts are looking at what we did. It means a lot to get something like this from a group of your peers.”

Lt. Col. Mark Pickett, the North Carolina state aviation officer, also in attendance, took the opportunity to recognize several National Guard soldiers from Illinois, Connecticut, Maryland, Minnesota, Kentucky, New Jersey, Mississippi, Indiana, Tennessee, Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, and the National Guard Bureau.

These Soldiers made up an aviation task force responding to Hurricane Florence in North Carolina. Their combined efforts directly contributed to 346 missions, 1,300 flight hours, saving 441 lives, moving 700 personnel to include 127 animals and 500,000 pounds of supplies.

“We really just wanted to take the opportunity to recognize the states that helped us and say thank you,” Pickett said. “I do appreciate everybody that

stood up including NGB, the 15 states, us, the N.C Highway Patrol, the N.C. Air Guard and the Coast Guard.�

The Quad A conference is an annual event highlighting major accomplishments within the aviation community while opening a platform to have military and civilian partners discuss the way forward in aviation operations, equipment and technology.

Bishop serves as the National Guard Aviation and Safety Division Chief

responsible for ensuring National Guard aviation assets are manned and soldiers are trained and equipped to respond to operational requirements supporting Overseas Contingency Operations and Homeland Defense. “The reality of understanding the state at that level is critical to making sure we best serve the 54 states and territories and meet the needs of the Army components," Bishop said.

This is the third nation-wide military

aviation award received by the NC National Guard for 2018.

The United States Transportation Command's Operational Support Airlift (OSA) awarded NC Army National Guard's OSA Flight Detachment 17, based in Morrisville, NC, the 2018 Joint OSA Unit of the Year in the Large Aircraft category and the Overall Best Joint OSA Unit . This highly competitive category includes 64 units from across the United States.

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North Carolina National Guard Leaders learn more about the new Army Combat Fitness Test at the NCNG Joint Force Headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina, June 3, 2019.

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The

A C F T

North Carolina National Guard Leaders learn more about the new Army Combat Fitness Test at the NCNG Joint Force Headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina, June 3, 2019.

Story and Photos by Sgt. 1st Class Robert Jordan Several North Carolina National Guard (NCNG) Leaders learned about the new Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) at the NCNG Joint Force Headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina, June 3, 2019.

The NCNG’s State Fitness Improvement Contractor Bobby Wheeler, a retired NCNG Army Master Sergeant and master fitness trainer, familiarized the participants with the six-event test. The six events are: deadlift, standing power throw, handrelease push-up, sprint, drag, carry relay, leg tuck and two-mile run. The ACFT is meant to better prepare Soldiers for combat.

“The way to get better is to do it (the ACFT),” Wheeler said.

The participants were federal technicians who hold civilian jobs at the headquarters but drill as Soldiers or

Airmen with their NCNG unit. Others serve full time with the NCNG. They gathered at the JFHQ track, some in physical fitness uniform, the technicians in civilian workout gear, to stretch and prepare for the ACFT. Wheeler and Sgt. 1st Class Derrick Cox, NCNG State Coordinator for ACFT, shared pointers on each event and showed what equipment would be needed to take and administer the test. Participants asked questions and practiced the techniques that their instructors showed them both to improve their own scores and to prepare other Soldiers to take the test as it is phased in across the Army. The ACFT will become the Army’s official record fitness test by October 2020.

“People have a bias, asking why we are changing and this helps them (the leaders) understand the benefits and they’ll take it back to their unit,” Cox said.

Once the test begins the events occur

at a rapid pace with only a few minutes rest between them.

Each event is designed to improve performance in combat; deadlifts, ranging from 140 to 340 pounds, evaluates muscular strength, the power throw explosive power, the handrelease push-up evaluates muscular endurance, the relay is a variety of sprints with some of them carrying or dragging heavy weights and evaluates muscular endurance and strength, anaerobic power, anaerobic endurance.

The fifth event is the leg tuck, bringing knees to elbows while on a pull-up bar and evaluates muscular endurance and finally the 2-mile run for aerobic endurance.

N.C. Army National Guard units will be issued equipment and provided training for the ACFT by the time it is the record fitness test.

For more information on the Army Combat Fitness Test go to: https://www.army.mil/acft/

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REPORT SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY SEE SAY SOMETHING if you

SOMETHING

August is Antiterrorism Awareness Month

Antiterrorism Awareness training will be conducted all month. Resources are available on NC GKO.

State Antiterrorism Officer

MAJ David Parks (david.p.parks2.mil@mail.mil or 984-664-6043)

Antiterrorism Program Coordinator

SGM (RET) Stephen Minnick (Stephen.e.Minnick.ctr@mail.mil or 984-664-6090) 27

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Old Roads Revisited A N.C. Guard Soldier who recently reunited with her fellow Soldiers of the 1450th Transportation Company recounts the experience of her 2004 deployment and what it was like when she returned home.

Story and Photos by Staff Sgt. Mary Junell

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A 1450th Transportation Company Convoy drives down a crowded street in Baghdad, Iraq in 2004 while trying to find an alternate route out of the city. The unit typically stuck to highways, but ground operations forced them to find a different route on this mission.

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Fifteen years. Could it have really been that long? I was traveling to a reunion that was long overdue. It took one of our own dying to bring up the idea of getting together.

My first deployment seemed like a lifetime ago, yet when I close my eyes, I can see the sand rushing by, the road stretching out into the horizon. I can feel the hot air on my face. At times even the wind was hot. Imagine the hottest day of the year, then someone points a hair dryer at you on full blast. I remember my face covered in a gritty layer of sweat and dust. Everything is covered in sand. I can still see the roads made of gravel and dirt, the highway with holes from IEDs, the Bailey bridges used in place of bridges that have been blown up, and the floating bridge over the Tigris river where we would wait so long to cross that we once received motor fire.

A few years after I got home, I was driving on the highway in North Carolina and I missed my exit by more than 10 miles. I was confused at first.

This was an exit I took all the time; I knew my way around the area. Then I noticed what was in front of me, a tractortrailer carrying a large shipping container like the ones we carried in Iraq. I was just following the truck in front of me like I had done for a year in the desert.

I also see the faces of the Soldiers in my unit when I close my eyes. I remember the excitement that spread through the convoy as we realized we were passing

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another convoy from our unit going the other direction. We would search the CB radios we had for their channel until we heard those familiar voices because, for those few moments, we knew all of them were safe. We didn’t have smart phones or Facebook in 2004. We waited in line

to pay for internet time on a computer in a small trailer on our base, and we were never on base for long. Staying connected, even to people we were in the same country with, was difficult.

I remember every time we heard there had been a convoy hit and that feeling

A convoy of trucks passes a blown up bridge in Iraq in 2004.

in the pit of my stomach as we anxiously waited for news. And sometimes the news was bad. Like most transportation units in Iraq in 2004, the 1450th Transportation Company got hit a lot.

Missions came down daily and we were often only a day behind other convoys in

our unit. Soldiers up north needed gear and supplies, everything from broom handles to artillery rounds. We’d often get a follow-on mission on the way back south; things being shipped home for an outgoing unit or equipment that needed to be fixed at a larger facility in Kuwait.

Once, as we got to the base where we were spending the night, we heard that the convoy ahead of us had been hit. We dropped off our load and escorted what was left of the convoy back down south to Navistar, just over the Iraq and Kuwait border, the place we called home.

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Staff Sgt. Mary Junell stands on her assigned truck while she was serving in Iraq in 2004 with the North Carolina National Guard’s 1450th Transportation Company. The unit spent several months on the roads in Iraq before they were able to get armor on their vehicles; a common occurrence in the early years of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

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When we loaded the damaged tractors onto our trailers, someone said that we might want to empty the cooler, so the melted ice didn’t slosh all over the inside of the tuck. We all carried coolers in between the seats of our trucks so we could have cold water and maybe an energy drink to keep us going on those especially long days, it was not uncommon to spend 12 hours or more behind the wheel in a single day. What poured out of the cooler was red. It was a mix of blood and water. I see it as vividly today as I did then, red, pouring out onto the light-colored sand. The two guys who had been in the truck survived, but they didn’t get out unscathed. One of them we wouldn't see again until we landed at Fort Bragg, N.C. in the pre-dawn hours of Easter morning 2005.

I thought about him a lot as my husband and I made the three-hour drive to Hickory, North Carolina where the reunion was being held. I saw his face like I saw everyone’s who I hadn’t seen since we got back to North Carolina I remember other faces too. There was the young boy who tried to get me to stop my truck as we rolled slowly through his town. He ran out in the road and squatted in front of me. He moved just in time, but for a moment I thought I would hit him. My co-driver, a girl I had been friends with since we were 15, had opened to door and was hanging out of the truck screaming at him to move.

There was the little girl whose photo

A convoy of trucks crosses a floating bridge across the Tigris river in Iraq in 2004. The convoy is made up of vehicles and Soldiers with the North Carolina National Guard’s 1450th Transportation Company and Third Country Nationals.

I took. She gave two thumbs-up to our convoy as we passed her on the side of the road. I remember watching every person on the side of the road. I would look at their hands, watch for them signaling, look to see if they were holding something. I would find myself looking into their eyes as we passed them, hoping I could see their intentions, plead with them through eye-contact to not hit the button, to let us drive by. We all just wanted to finish our mission and go home.

When I made it to the reunion I was nervous. I had an idea in my head about what my experience was in Iraq, I had just replayed most of it on the way there, but I’ve always wondered if I remembered it wrong. I worried that the fog of war or the distance of time had created a false memory. I’ve always been the kind of person who second-guessed my own memories, down-played things that happened to me, or simply thought that it can’t be that bad because someone else had it worse.

It never helps that as a woman, and a truck driver, I came home to people thinking I never left the comfort of my base. Women weren’t in combat, or so I was told. I was asked to give a speech at a local Memorial Day parade in Newland, N.C. shortly after returning home. I was sitting in the viewing box for the parade next to the leader of the Women’s Auxiliary for the local V.F.W. She kept telling me I should join the auxiliary, that

it would be great to have a young person.

I finally looked at her and said, well I think I’ll just join the V.F.W. Her face screwed up in the same way people still do when I tell them my war stories and she said: You can’t do that, the V.F.W. is only for men.

Women have been going to Iraq and Afghanistan for a while now and the attitude is shifting, but I still get those quizzical looks. I think people really just don’t understand what life was like driving a truck in Iraq in 2004. Whatever it is, no one seems to think it’s funny when I joke that getting shot at was nothing, just a thing that happened, it was the IEDs we had to watch out for.

I realized something happened after I walked into the American Legion Post 48 in Hickory for the reunion. I made that joke, and everyone laughed. For the first time since we landed back at Fort Bragg in 2005, I didn’t feel like a crazy person.

There were 26 of us who showed up to the reunion. Most of us couldn’t make it 10 feet into the building without being stopped by a hug, and the way people looked at each other reminded me of the way children look at their parents. There’s a comfort zone in the vicinity of people with whom you stared down death’s door.

We sat at round plastic tables, cramming in as many chairs as we could, despite there being as many tables as there were people. Stories and memories came flooding out of us, and I wasn’t the only one who thought they’d remember things wrong. I think many of us were looking for validation.

I asked the group if they remembered the time we slept on the side of the road.

I’ve always felt like no one believed this story. Maybe it was one of those war stories that gets embellished through the telling and isn’t an accurate picture of the real event. I really wanted to know if I was remembering it the way it happened.

We were past the checkpoint, but not actually on the base. There were Soldiers in guard towers nearby, at least I remember being told that. But, laying on my cot that night next to my truck, there was nothing between me and the rest of Iraq except two rolls of barbed wire stacked on top of each other to make a rudimentary fence. We were in the

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southern part of Iraq, what we considered the safer part. But that was driving; sleeping was another story altogether. It was the first time actually slept holding onto my weapon.

Before I could finish asking if I’d remembered it correctly, one of the guys yelled hell yeah, and a bunch of people started laughing. It’s not that it was funny, although his enthusiasm was a little comical, but apparently, I wasn’t the only one who used this story to try to explain to people just what it was like driving a truck in Iraq in 2004.

The experiences I had were not solely my own. They are shared by a group of men and women I served more than a year with, driving all over the country, sleeping in tents set up for people in transit, and sleeping outside when the tents were full. We celebrated holidays, congratulated the fathers who were not home to see their babies being born, mourned the relationships that didn’t make it through the deployment, and we kept each other alive.

And now, at the reunion, we were there for each other again. I wasn’t the only one who was nervous. Almost everyone I talked to expressed concerns about not knowing what to expect. For many of them, like me, this was the first time they were seeing each other. The wounds we carry around don’t fully heal, and it had been over a decade since some of them had ripped off the Band-Aid and opened up about their time in Iraq. It hurts to admit that events that happened almost 15 years ago still have an effect on you.

But these wounds needed air to heal, as the night drove on, we all began to open up. I heard stories I’d never heard before.

I learned about things that happened while I was on a different mission, and I was reminded of things I’d almost forgotten. We all took turns asking the table, do you remember when, and what followed brought laughter and sometimes tears. We opened up to each other about what we still carried around, what stuck with us, and how we really felt about it all.

We came to a consensus that none of us would ever be the same, but that was OK. Sitting around those tables telling stories was therapeutic. I felt less crazy, I

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Cots set up by North Carolina National Guard Soldiers of the 1450th Transportation Company line the back of a flat-bed trailer in preparation for spending the night in the motor pool while at a base in Iraq in 2004.

felt like I belonged, and honestly, I didn’t feel that way during the deployment.

Most of the Soldiers in my unit were older, and they were men. I always made a conscious effort to hold my own, carry my own gear, open my own doors, just be one of the guys, and I never knew if it worked.

I often hear veterans from different generations talking about the feeling of not belonging. They get home to a different world, a world full of people they can’t relate to. One Soldier from my unit said it best when he told our table that his own family will never fully understand what we went through, but you guys do. And as he said that to our table, and to me, I realized I had belonged, and I still do.

I’m lucky that I still have a career in the National Guard. Although I don’t regularly get to talk to the Soldiers who were deployed with me in 2004, there is something about the shared but separate experiences of Soldiers, however, that makes it a comforting group to be around. For the most part a fellow Soldier, even one who hasn’t deployed to the same place, still understands what it’s about.

Many of the Soldiers I sat with had long left the Guard. They needed this night more than I did. I have never been hugged the way I was that night. All of us are part of a story we relive, and for some

of them, it’s daily. They don’t have the luxury I do, to work around people who can somewhat relate.

Walking into that American Legion and seeing all those faces again hit me like a truck. Many of us had added a few pounds and new lines crawled across their faces. The 15 years showed in the graying of hair and fathers who were now grandfathers, but at the same time, I still see them as they looked in the desert, tan uniforms, sweat stains, green bulletproof vests. They were my brothers and sisters, my mothers and fathers. They were, and always will be, my family.

I was overwhelmed with fear and doubt, and I wasn’t sure if I could handle reliving all of those memories, it’s what had almost kept me from coming. But as I went around the room that night, there was so much joy. Even being in the bathroom led to a story. We stood around the sinks laughing about the time some of us were in the shower at one of the forward bases and we had to run to the bunker in our towels because there were incoming mortars.

There were tears too, but I think that’s part of the healing process. I’ve been holding onto all of it for too long, letting it control me. The reunion felt like a release. Everyone seemed to step a little lighter as the night wore on. Shoulders relaxed and I could feel my own tension ease; it felt like being home.

Former and current Soldiers who deployed with the North Carolina National Guard’s 1450th Transportation Company, take a group photo during their reunion at the American Legion Post 48 in Hickory, North Carolina on March 16, 2019.

An Iraqi girl gives two thumbs-up to a convoy of Soldiers with the North Carolina National Guard’s 1450th Transportation Company in Iraq in 2004.

In the days since the reunion, I feel different. Not like a new person, I’ll never fully shake off those experiences, and the way they’ve shaped my life hasn’t been all bad. But I feel like I belong somewhere now. There’s a great amount of confidence that comes from knowing you belong.

I think as veterans, we want to be in control, but we need to let go for that to happen. Being able to relive the traumatic

events of my deployment, in a space filled with people who were right beside me when they happened, was better than any therapy I’ve ever been to.

I learned that night just how strong I am. There is strength in a group of people so connected, there is strength in admitting you need help, and there is strength in building a life after living through what we did. Now, I’ll do that

thing I do and say that there are so many who have had it much worse. There are those who don’t make it home, or they do but not all in one piece. There are physical and mental wounds that are beyond what I brought home with me, but strength doesn’t come from dealing with the worst, it comes from dealing, pushing through, and not letting it control you, and at the reunion, I found my strength.

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Officer Candidates Learn

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Battlefield Lessons The tradition of the Staff Ride dates back to the early 1900s when Maj. Eben Swift, the assistant commandant of the General Service and Staff School Fort Leavenworth, Kansas would take students to visit Civil War battlefields.

Today, units across the Army, like the North Carolina National Guard’s 139th Regional Training Institute, still conduct Staff Rides as a way to enhance professional military education and training.

For the 139th’s Officer Candidate School Class 61 the Chancellorsville Battlefield near Fredericksburg, Virginia on May 3-4, 2019 gave the students an opportunity to discuss tactics and evaluate the decisions of leaders who came before them.

The 16 students were each assigned a certain leader at different points in the battle and presented the information they gathered about what the leaders were doing during specific moments in the battle.

“We have to learn from history, or we keep making the same mistakes,” said 1st Lt. Miles Komuves, an OCS instructor

with the 139th RTI. “It makes it real.

You can teach lessons in the classroom and people learn different ways, but here they are walking around on some of the same terrains and exploring some of these ideas that they learn in the classroom and applying them out there. The value of learning from history never diminishes.”

Maj. Ryan Shields the OCS company commander with the 139th RTI said the goal is for students to be able to look at the decisions some leaders made during the battle and formulate how they would have made those same decisions with the skills they have learned through the OCS program.

“It gives them a good understanding of how leaders in certain positions formulate and execute plans,” Shields said. “It also gives them a great opportunity to visualize what they have learned in the OCS program and they can apply that moving forward.”

The staff ride is seen as a culminating event for the class before they enter the last few months of OCS, Shields said many students in previous programs have come to him and said the staff ride was

Story and Photos by Staff Sgt. Mary Junell

where the training really clicked for them.

“One of the most important things that I’m getting out of this is the perspective from the different military leaders through the war and being able to apply that perspective to today’s fighting,” said Tim Marshburn, one of the Officer Candidates in Class 61. “Being able to put it all together and apply the tactics and troop leading procedures to the different sections of the battle brings all the training into perspective.”

Several leaders from throughout the NCNG also attended the staff ride to help provide insight into the decisions based on their career fields including a medical officer, an armor officer, and a chaplain.

During the staff ride, the students also found out which officer branch and unit they will be assigned to once they receive their commission signaling that they are nearing the end of their training.

Should all 16 students make it through the third phase of OCS, they will graduate and earn their commission as new Army Second Lieutenants in August.

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