Photo By Sgt. Cody Quinn | Pvt. Emanuel Zavala (right), a cannon crewmember with 1st Battalion, 37th Field...... read more read more
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JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. -- The story is common: a potential Soldier walks into a recruiting station. An Army recruiter walks the Soldier through their options, tells them about education benefits, how they will see the world and shows them a few videos about how awesome the Army is.
The pitch highlights the fruits of hard labor earned through training in harsh environments. Places like the low swamplands of Fort Polk, Louisiana, where the humidity is as difficult to combat as the opposition forces, or Fort Irwin, California, where a desolate eternity stretches between objectives and tries a Soldier’s mettle.
New Soldiers at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, get tested in the barren hills of Yakima Training Center, Washington, affectionately referred to as “Yakistan”.
“The mountains here are cool,” said Pfc. Marquise Lockhart, an ammunition specialist and a native of Orlando, Florida, with the 16th Combat Aviation Brigade, 7th Infantry Division. “Being from Florida, I’ve never seen a place like this.”
YTC is all rolling hills and seas of scrub brush, crisscrossed with tank trails and wandering tire tracks. The wind whistles and chills the bones at night. A relentless sun bakes mud into dust during the day.
It is a place of perpetual discomfort; perfect for introducing Soldiers to the more austere aspects of being a professional Soldier.
“I was hoping to go overseas, but it’s nice to visit different states,” said Pvt. Emanuel Zavala, a tall, easy-going canon crewmember with a So-Cal smile inherited from his hometown of Burbank, California.
Zavala reflected on his training at YTC with his fellow 1st Battalion, 37th Field Artillery Brigade, 1-2 Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 7th Inf. Div., M777 howitzer crew members.
“Doing it over and over gets tedious, but once you start firing it’s all fun,” he said.
Training at YTC is punctuated stasis: long periods of waiting followed by bursts of excitement.
“It’s an incredibly huge adrenaline rush,” said Pfc. Joshua Todak, an armor crewmember with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 5th Battalion, 20th Inf. Regt., 1-2 SBCT, 7th Inf. Div.
Todak, who hails from Uniontown, Pennsylvania, spent a week at YTC learning the ins-and-outs of the MGS Stryker in preparations of putting the vehicle’s thundering 105mm canon into action.
“We ran into a couple of issues, but we’re pushing through,” he said. “When we fire there’s a crazy loud explosion and you can hear the shell fall out the back. It’ll rock you like crazy,” he said with a grin.
The stasis also benefits Soldiers. Few things bring people together like long periods of waiting with no modern conveniences.
“Other than not getting cell phone service, it’s all right,” Lockhart said. “During our downtime, we bond.”
Lockhart trained as a member of a forward arming and refueling point crew during his three weeks of training at YTC with his crew responsible for resupplying 16th CAB AH-64 “Apache” helicopters participating in a combined field exercise with Soldiers in 5th Bn., 20th Inf. Regt., and canon crew with 1st Bn., 37th FA Brig.
They spent their downtime joking, playing Spades and learning more about each other’s jobs.
“I’ve learned some of the other jobs out here. I’ve learned how important it is to communicate,” Lockhart said. “Knowing how to do other jobs makes me more versatile.”
Learning on they fly, enduring difficult environments and making the best of hard situations are traits instilled in Soldiers since basic training.
Canon crew member Zavala embraced working in a minimally manned crew operating an M777.
“This was the right opportunity to move up quickly,” he said. “It’s exciting. It’s a lot of power in one person’s hand, pulling that string and feeling that explosion.”
Sometimes when the thunder roars in Yakima, it is the weather, but most of the time it is an Apache raining steel loaded by Lockhart.
Sometimes it is Todak making his MGS Stryker sing at a distant target.
Sometimes it is Zavala sending an 155mm shell soaring through heaven to earth.
Sometimes it’s a Soldier just a few months removed from having a recruiter explain their options, how they will see the world and show them a few videos about how awesome the Army is.
| Date Taken: | 02.25.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 02.26.2016 00:45 |
| Story ID: | 190172 |
| Location: | YAKIMA TRAINING CENTER, WASHINGTON, US |
| Hometown: | BURBANK, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Hometown: | ORLANDO, FLORIDA, US |
| Hometown: | UNIONTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA, US |
| Web Views: | 111 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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