Photo By Lt. Col. Samuel House | Instructor Spc. Joshua Caudle (left) inspects the work of Pvt. David Hendricks...... read more read more
CHEYENNE, Wyo. - The excitement has started for more than 160 comrades who have come together for one of their last major training exercises in Wyoming.
Before being shipped off to the Kingdom of Bahrain in June for a nine month security mission, the Wyoming Army National Guard’s 133rd Engineer Company, stationed in Laramie, conducted a two-week pre-deployment training at Camp Guernsey, beginning in mid January.
The unit trained on multiple tasks to include the administration of first aid, weapons qualification, and reacting to direct enemy contact, among other things.
The all-volunteer force is comprised of soldiers from different units around the state who wanted to participate in the mission in the Persian Gulf.
Capt. Tyler Schiele, the unit commander, said he believes this deployment will be a good experience for his soldiers.
“This is a unique mission that is really going to grow our soldiers, and it is going to grow them as individuals as people as well, because it is going to make them diverse,” he said.
“This large of a mobilization, working with every branch in the U.S. military, working with host nation forces, working with other nation’s forces, that will be on this base as well, and the fact that it is so joint - so unique - is going to open their eyes as far as culture, as far as diversification - even amongst each other,” Schiele said.
The Kingdom of Bahrain is a small archipelago country of 33 islands that measures about 294 square miles, or roughly the size of Chicago.
The 133rd is scheduled to arrive in Bahrain following a short pre-deployment training at Camp Shelby, Miss., in April. The unit will provide security at one of the military bases on the island.
Schiele took command of the 133rd in August 2010, and has built a close relationship with his troops.
“I’m pretty blessed to be a commander in the National Guard,” said Schiele. “I’m even more blessed to be a full-time commander in the National Guard as we prepare to deploy. For me personally, it’s a commander’s dream.”
But according to Command Sgt. Maj. Thomas Allan, the state command sergeant major and senior enlisted member for the Wyoming Army National Guard, turning excited volunteers into a functioning band of warriors doesn’t happen overnight.
“Forming, storming, norming and performing,” is what building a quality team is about, said Allan.
The unit is in its forming stages, as many of the troops are not organic to the unit, and have neither worked as an engineer - the unit’s main function - nor as security, the unit’s function in Bahrain.
Such is the case for Spc. Michael Parkins, of Cheyenne, who recently volunteered to deploy with the 133rd.
Originally a trumpet player for the 67th Army Band, in Wheatland, Wyo., Parkins wanted to deploy with this unit to do his part in defending the country.
“It was a little weird,” explained Parkins. “December was my first drill here (in the 133rd), and there are over 200 of us, I believe, and I only knew three people when I got here. But I’m starting to get to know a lot of people now, and making friends.”
Looking forward to the experience and having two years in the military under his belt, Parkins said that it doesn’t come without a cost.
“I’ve never been away from family and friends for that long,” he said, “so I am not entirely sure what to expect, but I do know that we will have Internet, so I will be in contact (with family). But it will be interesting to see what that is like for such a long period of time.”
According to Allan, once the unit begins to form, individuals discover personality differences, and as they work through those differences, they begin to accept each other through norming, and learn to perform successfully together as a team.
This concept is not new to Schiele, a self-professed “people person.”
“The volunteers from all the different units, who want to come to the 133rd Engineer Company - that says a lot about the soldiers that are in the state, not just the unit itself,” he said. “That’s what is exciting to me, is that I get to go and serve our nation as a large entity, and I think we are going to be extremely successful, and I think it will be a lot of fun for the soldiers.”
“This is a great mission,” he said “‘People’ is one of my specialties - it’s one of my gifts. We get to protect that asset, and I take that seriously. As far as the unit (mission), it isn’t the hard-core, ‘I’m out in the middle of Afghanistan’ type mission, it is basically a security mission, protecting the most valuable asset that we have as a military, and that’s the people.”
| Date Taken: | 01.16.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 01.16.2013 17:05 |
| Story ID: | 100607 |
| Location: | CHEYENNE, WYOMING, US |
| Web Views: | 96 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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