Photo By Master Sgt. Paul Wade | California Army National Guard soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 184th Infantry...... read more read more
Subscribe
FORT HUNTER LIGGETT, Calif. – A baker, a fireman, a truck driver, a security guard, a criminal justice student and an avid video gamer walk up to a building and stack close behind each other near a closed door. Stop me if you heard this one.
The lead man checks the doorframe for trigger traps and nods it is clear.
“Breach,” the gamer whispers as the fireman swings around and bashes open the door. A “terrorist” role player in the room is then greeted with a blank 5.56-mm rounds in the chest courtesy of an M-4 rifle wielded by a California Army National Guard infantryman with Company B, 1st Battalion, 184th Infantry Regiment, who just so happens to make pastries and bread when he isn’t clearing buildings with his squad.
Spc. Brendan Hellar, the baker and ammunition handler from Pleasant Hill, is part of 3rd Squad, 1st Platoon, 1-184th, which conducted its annual training July 14-28, 2013, at Fort Hunter Liggett, Calif. He is joined in the Dublin, Calif.-based squad by Sgt. Ryan Poulter, the video gamer and fire team leader from Pleasant Hill; Spc. Kingly Kong, a student and machine gunner from San Jose; Spc. David Martinez, a security guard and fire team leader from San Jose; Spc. William Sewell, a truck driver and grenadier from Pacifica; and Pvt. Kevin Turner, a fireman and radio and telephone operator from Red Bluff.
Collectively this mix-and-match crew embodies the make-up of the National Guard’s citizen-soldier force. On the surface you see armor-clad, camouflaged warriors, but underneath you might find someone who specializes in a secondary skill that makes that person a “force-multiplier” – perhaps a weapons expert for the Guard who also knows how to restore an electrical circuit during a disaster-response mission because of his civilian expertise.
But being a part-time guardsman also has its drawbacks. The battalion’s motto, “Let's Go!” signifies the quick reaction of a well-oiled team. Having each squad member attend every training weekend and the two-week annual training period is key to that efficiency. Even then, time is critical, and the short training window makes each task harder. But that is what the National Guard has been doing successfully for 376 years.
“I was pretty surprised to find out one of my squad members was a baker,” said Poulter, a Ranger-qualified soldier who recently transitioned from the active duty Army’s 25th Infantry Division. “I have guys from all over the place with various backgrounds, and even I’m new. This is just my second time training with the unit.”
Poulter’s squad has been training in the subtropical heated hills of Fort Hunter Liggett for a week, but it typically still takes a while to move into the “run” phase of training when the starter pistol goes off. The situation was complicated by Balikatan, a massive exercise in the Philippines in April. About 175 troops from the 1-184th fulfilled their annual training requirement during Balikatan and therefore were not at Fort Hunter Liggett in July.
“We are a lot better now than we were on day one,” Poulter said. “[Balikatan] spilt us up, so not only do we have guys we don’t usually work with on a daily basis, we have a few we haven’t had a chance to work with on a monthly basis.
“[Overcoming] that shyness you get meeting someone new … was the key part,” he continued. “Communication is absolutely critical to any job and even more so as an infantryman.”
Third Squad knocked out a variety of mission-essential training tasks at Fort Hunter Liggett, including helicopter insertion and extraction, reacting to unexploded ordnance, casualty management, movement to contact and clearing a building.
“We have been throwing a lot of stuff at our guys, like hitting them with a fire hose, to catch them up,” Poulter said. “They caught on pretty quick.”
Poulter said his battalion battle buddies seemed eager to learn because they don’t train every day and therefore don’t burn out.
“Some people join [the active duty Army] and it turns out it wasn’t what they expected,” he said. “These guys are here and re-enlisting … because they want to be here. When you teach them, they get excited, really involved in it.
They might not all have the skills of an active duty infantry unit or Ranger battalion, but they have the hunger, and that’s what helps them gather the information and the skills so quick,” he added.
Before the day was done, Poulter’s squad headed back to the terrorist’s hideout for another run, but this time smoother and faster.
“I want to hear you. Communicate,” Sgt. 1st Class Alejandro Lopez-Gutierrez, 1st Platoon sergeant, told the troops while standing on an observation catwalk above the building.
The fireman then kicked in the door and “enemy” mannequins fell to the ground.
“One more time,” Lopez-Gutierrez said.
| Date Taken: | 07.26.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 09.08.2013 15:43 |
| Story ID: | 113282 |
| Location: | FORT HUNTER LIGGETT, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Hometown: | MODESTO, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Hometown: | PACIFIC, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Hometown: | PLEASANTON, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Hometown: | RED BLUFF, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Hometown: | SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 198 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Mixed infantry squad mirrors National Guard make-up, by MSG Paul Wade, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
