Photo By Sgt. Dustin Roberts | 1st Lt. Guillermo Guandique (left), Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2-1 Special...... read more read more
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By Spc. Dustin Roberts
2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division
BAGHDAD – Usually when a Soldier is promoted during a deployment, his or her family members hear about it over the phone or views photos of the ceremony in an email.
In a rare promotion ceremony, a Multi-National Division – Baghdad officer was promoted, Nov. 26, with his wife and father in attendance of the ceremony.
1st Lt. Guillermo Guandique, personal security detachment platoon leader, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2-1 Special Troops Battalion, 2nd Heavy Brigade Combat Team "Dagger," 1st Infantry Division, MND-B, was promoted from second lieutenant to first lieutenant, Nov. 26, in front of the battalion's headquarters building at Camp Liberty, Iraq.
His wife, 1st Lt. Maja Guandique, the intelligence analyst officer-in-charge, HHC, 2nd HBCT, 1st Inf. Div., MND-B, and his father, Sgt. 1st Class Ramon Guandique, Military Transition Team Advisor, 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division attached to the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Div., MND-B, stationed at Camp Rustimiyah, Iraq, attended the ceremony.
"It was great having my wife promote me in country and it was especially a great experience to have my father there with us," Guillermo said. "He's someone who I have always looked up to and has mentored me in both my personal life and military career."
Guillermo elected his wife to promote him, and following tradition, she jokingly punched him in the chest after placing the new rank on him.
"I almost knocked him over; I say it's because I'm tough, but he says it was because he was off- balance and it was a cheap shot," said the laughing Maja. "We've always picked on each other because I am a year group ahead of him; he was a second lieutenant and I am a first lieutenant and I wasn't sure if he was going to actually let me promote him."
Both of the Guandique officers live on Camp Liberty and Maja said it is a blessing to be deployed together on the same Forward Operating Base.
"I know several married couples in the brigade who are still separated [because they live on separate FOBs]," she said. "Just the fact that we are able to be together on the same FOB makes it easier and us sharing this experience together makes the deployment a lot easier; that coupled with the fact that his father got to be here is a rare blessing."
Even more uncommon is the three deployed Guandiques are all a part of the 1st Inf. Div., the oldest division in the U.S. Army and known as the "Big Red One."
"It's not very often that father, son and wife share the same combat patch," Guillermo said. "It's a proud moment for all of us to join the ranks of those who have fought with the 1st Infantry Division."
| Date Taken: | 12.16.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 12.16.2008 09:21 |
| Story ID: | 27742 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 301 |
| Downloads: | 186 |
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