Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Mark Patton | Soldiers of the 94th Engineer Battalion stand in formation during an Oct. 8...... read more read more
FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. - The wheelchair-bound former sergeant settled into the spot reserved for the distinguished guest as he watched his former battalion march onto Fort Leonard Wood’s Gammon Field one last time.
The bill of Sgt. Erik Schei’s Operation Iraqi Freedom cap couldn’t disguise his smile.
On Oct. 26, 2005, then Spc. Schei’s life changed forever as a sniper’s armor-piercing bullet entered his skull above his left ear and exited above the right one while he was in the turret of a Humvee on the outskirts of Mosul, Iraq.
Fast forward almost nine years later to Oct. 8.
Schei once again joined his beloved 94th Engineer Battalion for one more hooah as he witnessed the storied “Wolverines” case their colors during an inactivation ceremony.
Lt. Col. Samuel Volkman, commander of the 94th Engineer Battalion, which is part of the 4th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, said Schei will always be a Wolverine.
“He sacrificed so much for us, and we were elated to have him with us for the ceremony,” Volkman said. “The trust we have in the U.S. Army stems from taking care of our wounded and fallen.”
As the narrator recited a laundry list of 94th Engineer Battalion accomplishments over the 81 years of unit existence, it wasn’t the World War II campaigns, the deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo that provided the essence of being a Wolverine. It wasn’t even the unit’s work with security road construction at the U.S.-Mexican border or the countless improvements the battalion has made to their home communities.
Soldiers and leaders say it was, however, the common thread that unites the Wolverines’ success throughout the years, the Soldiers who reported to work each morning with the motto “Cohortibus Auxilia - aid to any division” etched in their mind.
Volkman said his proudest moment serving at the battalion’s helm was the sense of pride and accomplishment his troops took in completing a task, whether completing a landing strip at Fort Riley, Kansas, or passing an Army Physical Fitness Test.
“There is no greater feeling than seeing the excitement in our Soldiers' eyes from doing a job well-done,” said Volkman, who will be headed to the Pentagon for his next assignment, where he’ll be working Installation Management operations at the Department of the Army level.
That sense of excitement and engineering prowess is something that unit officials say the Soldiers are bound to carry on to their follow-on assignments.
Although the day was bittersweet for attendees as they watched the cased colors make their way off the field, many thought about the future and a day where the Army may once again awaken the Wolverines to dominate the battlefield.
Col. Andy Munera, commander of the 4th MEB, had a message for past and present Wolverine Soldiers in attendance as he stated the inactivation shouldn’t be a cause for disappointment, but rather a celebration of accomplishments.
“Today marks a point in history where we can say to the Wolverine battalion, 'mission accomplished, job well-done,'” Munera said. “America owes you a debt of gratitude for which we can never repay.”
| Date Taken: | 10.13.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 10.16.2014 16:55 |
| Story ID: | 145270 |
| Location: | FORT LEONARD WOOD, MISSOURI, US |
| Web Views: | 320 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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