Photo By Sgt. Wesley Landrum | 395th Ordnance Soldiers stand in line waiting to receive commander's coins from Maj....... read more read more
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By Spc. Wes Landrum
Desert Voice staff writer
CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait — The Soldiers were sitting at the table eating the evening meal. The group of six sat there discussing the events of the day when another Soldier walked up to the group.
"Is this seat taken," Maj. Gen. Robert Pollmann, 88th Regional Readiness Command commanding officer, asked motioning toward the empty seat at the table.
The group immediately rose to their feet but Pollman nodded for them to sit down and continue their meal. The general sat down, looked at his meal of steak and lobster and began eating with his Soldiers.
"You guys eat better here than we do back in the States," the general joked with the Soldiers. "This looks really delicious."
Pollman and his command sergeant major, John Vacho, were members of a party of Army Reserve leaders that traveled to the Middle East to talk with Soldiers about life in U. S. Army Central area of operations. Spc. Justin J. Mianecki, an ammunition transport specialist with the 395th Ordnance Company said the topics of conversation varied from topics here to topics back at home.
"We discussed the nature of our jobs, everyone in the unit, training that we did prior to or while we were here," the Green Bay, Wisc., native said. "We even talked about the Packers and how, as a Vikings fan, he was happy to see Green Bay do well this year."
After dinner and a conversation, Pollmann addressed the crowd of more than 75. During the speech, Pollmann told the crowd that he and Vacho were very proud of the job that the unit has performed. The general then tackled an issue facing the reserve members – transformation.
Pollmann continued saying transformation was necessary because it will set up operational functional commands, such as The Enginering Command and The Military Police Command. The units will be able to give more Soldiers time in their specialties.
"Often guys, you have a Soldier who will bounce between different units and not get to do his or her job," Pollmann said. "Then that person gets deployed and is asked to go build a bridge and they can't because they have not had to do that job for 10 or 15 years.
"You will have a lot to offer any combatant commander in this theater," the general continued. "They'll know the people coming from the Army Reserve are very skillfully trained and they've had a lot of practice time in their MOS."
Spc. David M. Hallmark, a mechanic with the 395th Ordnance Company, said eating dinner with the general and sergeant major was intimidating at first but he gradually became comfortable with the two leaders.
"It's because he's a pretty high rank and as a lower enlisted, it can seem a little overwhelming," he said. "You aren't really scared of him asking questions but you are like 'Please don't ask me that.'"
Pollmann concluded his talk by telling the unit that he was proud of the unit for the job they're doing in Kuwait. He said the unit's professionalism shows in everything they do and it did not matter if they were reservist or not.
"You look at that patch over your heart and it says U.S. Army on it. That's because we're apart of a bigger team. A team that's doing a fantastic job for our country," the general told the Soldiers. "It does not matter if we're active component or reserve component – we are all one team fighting one fight."
| Date Taken: | 03.01.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 03.01.2008 13:14 |
| Story ID: | 16880 |
| Location: | CAMP ARIFJAN, KW |
| Web Views: | 335 |
| Downloads: | 280 |
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