Photo By Sgt. Kenneth Tucceri | A soldier takes aim at the paintball field at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay March 1,...... read more read more
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GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba - The cavalry is one of the most iconic areas of the United States military. Its image and accomplishments are recognizable, widely known and celebrated. From their black campaign hats, now black Stetsons, to the horses that galloped underneath them to, perhaps most of all, the spurs that kept the horse going case they grew tired from lengthy rides. Missions and assignments from western expansion all the way to World War II, U.S. Cavalry squadrons rode horses to defend and grow our nation.
Even prior to the birth of our country, Gen. George Washington distinguished the effectiveness of cavalry troopers, initially known as dragoons, during our colonies’ fight for freedom against the British.
With so much history, modern-day cavalry squadrons, which contemporarily serve with the armor branch, are rife with tradition.
One such tradition is the spur ride. A process that initially started with new cavalry troops having to prove themselves deft atop horses before they were granted the privilege to wear spurs.
Hours before the rise of the sun on Saturday, March 1 at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, 82 spur candidates amassed at Phillip Dive Park to carry on the tradition and pride of the United States cavalry with the ambition of wearing spurs by completing a day-long spur ride.
Though there is no equine element to a contemporary spur ride, modern-day troops who partake in the tradition to achieve the privilege of wearing their spurs face a broad spectrum of tasks with ranging difficulties, and GTMO’s spur ride was no different.
“Overall the Spur Ride consisted of a total of 10 miles,” said 1st Lt. Emory Eludui, Alpha Troop, 3rd Squadron, 89th Cavalry Regiment, “which was broken up into 10 different stations. Each station was focused on a different soldier task.”
Eludui was one of the numerous spur holders of the event. These were soldiers who previously completed a spur ride. They were easily identified during the event as soldiers wearing ACU bottoms with a black 3-89th cavalry t-shirt, a traditional black Stetson hat, and of course, their spurs.
“Today I was one of the spur holders,” said Eludui, “which means throughout the course of the spur ride I was the one who was providing extra motivation, purpose and direction for all of the candidates coming through.”
The first station was call for fire, added Eludui, ensuring soldiers know how to perform the basics for this operation.
Other stations included 9-line medevac, movement to contact drills and incorporating some of the unique elements of Cuba. At windmill beach they were able to perform rescuing a drowning swimmer and basic first aid, according to Eludui.
“Every station poses a little bit different of a challenge,” said Army Staff Sgt. Bradley Kimball, with Alpha Troop, 3-89th. “Some are a little more physical than others. Some are a little more knowledge based. It’s all about esprit de corps, teamwork, getting through the challenge together and not as an individual and making them work as a unit to achieve a common goal.”
“This is probably one of the hallmark traditional events that we conduct as a cavalry unit,” added Kimball.
Prior to starting at the first station, the day began in the early morning as spur candidates were put into teams and got familiar with the spur holders.
“The hardest part was in the morning,” said a spur candidate. “It was chaos and everybody was trying to work together as a team and they kept telling you contradicting things like dump out your ruck, pack up your ruck, dump it out again, pack it up.”
“It was a pretty long day,” said a soldier. “We started really early. We had to do some exercises for a little while. Then we picked up our rucks and started rucking.”
First Sgt. Jason Barton, with the 3-89th, who has participated in five prior spur rides, was the senior spur holder for the event.
“As the senior spur holder you’re overall in charge of the spur ride,” said Barton. “You’re responsible for generating the stations, making sure the task conditions and standards are feasible. There are safety measures in place to reduce and mitigate any risk we might have.”
Two distinct variables made this spur ride special.
Firstly, it very well may be the first here at GTMO.
“There has only been one or two other cavalry units here,” said Eludui, “ and just because of that statistic I would venture to guess that this has been the first spur ride that’s been conducted here at Guantanamo Bay.”
Second, spur rides usually consist of primarily cavalry members. For this event, there were soldiers from many backgrounds and a wide variety of ranks.
“The biggest difference was the fact that we got to incorporate a lot of the different type of Army branches,” said Eludui. “We had MPs, Quartermasters. Traditionally it is usually just strictly CAV so I thought adding the greater depth of personnel really added more variety to the spur ride as a whole.”
After the spur candidates completed the nine prior stations and rucked to station 10, they were required to answer questions from a board of spur holders. The questions focused mainly on cavalry tradition. After the completion of the question portion, the soldiers, now with ACUs caked with mud from the day’s activity, gathered for the end of the day ceremony.
It was here, under dark skies, similar to the darkness the participants were under during the start of the event, that the spur candidates stood in a big formation as their sponsors put their silver spurs on their boots.
“Do you find your candidate worthy of the spur?” was propositioned to the sponsor prior to their application of the earned spurs, symbolic in history and tradition.
After concluding words from the senior spur holder, Barton, the spur candidates joined their motivators and guides of the day as spur holders.
“This totally made my deployment,” said one brand-new spur holder. “It was the best and worst day.”
“It was an all around team effort,” said a successful participant. “It was a long day but it feels great to finish.”
“We all kept together strong as a team and kept motivating each other,” added a new spur holder. “So I fed off everyone else. I
tried to motivate them as well too.”
As the troopers wore their new silver spurs, they walked around gingerly with noted fatigue from the long day. There was a triumphant aura of accomplishment that is only achieved by hard work and accomplishing a goal as a team.
“I’m extremely proud,” said Barton. “This is kind of a bittersweet spur ride for me because I’ll be retiring next year. It’s good to be a part of this, but at the same time the bittersweet part is this is going to be my last one.”
Thanks to the effort and pride in tradition from soldiers like Barton, the Army and its cavalrymen can ensure this fine tradition will continue.
| Date Taken: | 03.07.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 03.07.2014 12:16 |
| Story ID: | 121676 |
| Location: | GUANTANAMO BAY , CU |
| Web Views: | 161 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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