Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Shane Smith | Spc. Kristine Kennedy (left), Spc. Hannah Beck (center right), and Pvt. Juan Pastrana...... read more read more
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FORT IRWIN, Calif. – Soldiers with the 213th Personnel Company, 213th Regional Support Group, Pennsylvania Army National Guard play a vital role in the management of troops during annual training at the National Training Center here.
One major responsibility of the 213th PC troops is the reception, staging, onward movement, and integration, commonly referred to as RSOI, of troops as they arrive and depart from a training location.
“Personnel accountability is critical to ensure we know who is on ground, when they got here and when they left,” said Cpt. Michael Janze, commander of the 213th PC. “We’ve in-processed more than 5,000 Soldiers coming in to the National Training Center for annual training, and are now in the process of out-processing them.”
Managing data for so many individuals can be challenging at times, especially with a staff of just 28 Soldiers.
“My guys are covering a variety of tasks, to include the RSOI, but are also involved with postal services, casualty reporting, a casualty liaison team, and database administration. Many have had to micromanage multiple responsibilities at once,” said Janze. “The biggest challenge is managing such enormous amounts of data efficiently.”
Many overlook the fact that the 213th Soldiers, though they have a very real mission to perform, are also at annual training to do just that – train.
“It’s important to realize that my guys are here to train just like everyone else, so during annual training we are learning how to improve our procedures, meaning we’re not immune to mistakes,” Janze admitted. “We have procedures in place to ensure we can backtrack and catch where things went wrong so we can correct the data,” he continued. “Every time we run into something that we stumble on we use it as a learning experience.”
With practice comes competency, something the members of the 213th PC have learned for themselves first-hand.
“I stress to my guys often that challenges are opportunities for growth; we would never improve if we never faced these challenges,” said Janze. “Overcoming these challenges here, rather than in a deployed environment, aids us in building deployment readiness.”
The 213th PC Soldiers have already out-processed several units under the 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 28th Infantry Division, and will continue their work over the following days until all Pennsylvania Army National Guard personnel are out-processed and accounted for.
"We start by collecting and scanning the military ID's of every Soldier in the unit being out-processed," said Pvt. Juan Pastrana, a signal support systems specialist with the 213th PC. "We then weigh their bags and the Soldiers themselves to create a flight manifest used for their transportation back to Pennsylvania," added Pastrana.
"The guys out-processing us have been doing a good job," said Spc. Jacob Dorian, an infantryman with Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 110th Infantry Regiment, 56th SBCT. "They seem like they know what they're doing and have made this a very streamlined process," Dorian continued, "they take a lot of the stress off of us guys who have been here for a month now and are eager to wrap things up and return home to see our families."
| Date Taken: | 08.22.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 08.23.2018 20:49 |
| Story ID: | 289800 |
| Location: | FORT IRWIN, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 376 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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