Photo By Tech. Sgt. Jennifer Stai | Sergeant First Class Shane Coulon, 1st Brigade Engineer Battalion, 1st Armored Brigade...... read more read more
Ever since he was three years old he knew he wanted to be in the military. Sergeant First Class Shane Coulon, 1st Brigade Engineer Battalion, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, master gunner, grew up in a loving farming family who taught him to work hard, know your job, respect your elders and never give up.
Coulon joined the Army in 1998 as a Bradley Fighting Vehicle Mechanic. He had a young family that remained in the United States when he left for his first duty station in South Korea. His family then joined him at his next assignment as the Commanding General’s Mounted Color Guard at Fort Riley, Kansas. While assigned to the Calvary unit, he had been away from home due to assignments to Europe, Kosovo and various locations stateside.
“Then the war broke out and I was sent to Iraq for 14 months”, said Coulon. His first combat deployment did not come without some scars. “I blew out my ankle only a few months into my deployment and I had spent 48 of 96 months of my career away from my family, so I decided to separate at my expiration-term of service date.”
What Coulon doesn’t like to talk about is that he was in Iraq during The Second Battle of Fallujah. He wasn’t injured during this battle, but someone he knew was. Command Sergeant Major Steven Faulkenburg was serving with the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division on the morning of Nov. 9, 2004, when he led his unit into combat action against enemy forces. He was on foot as enemy small arms fire burst out from two sides. He commanded to his gunner to fire and was mortally wounded as they raced forward into the contact.
Coulon hesitantly shared a memory of Faulkenburg, “We had coffee almost every morning together. I liked how he always took care of the soldiers first. He taught me how to take care of them and still be stern. He always made sure they had what they needed, and I was always more motivated and empowered when I was around him.”
Coulon said Faulkenburg helped him grow as a leader during the time they shared.
The loss of a friend, a mentor and a strong leader still weighs on Coulon today. He separated from the Army about seven months after returning from Iraq, having served eight years. He then transitioned into being a civilian and was eventually offered a job by his uncle, working at an oil field support company in Alaska.
“I worked that job for about three months before I realized I wanted to go back into the Army,” said Coulon. “I didn’t fit in with the civilian populous, I had nothing in common, couldn’t talk to them the same way [as I could with soldiers] and there was no camaraderie.”
Every time he talked about going back, his boss offered him a promotion. Promotions that he accepted until the desire to re-enlist was too great to ignore.
After four years in the civilian workforce, Coulon went against his family’s wishes, walked away from a $100,000 salary and rejoined the Army at a lower rank than when he left and had to choose a job that was different than the one he had.
The decision wasn’t made over night, nor was it easy, but he believed that serving in the Army is where he belonged. He said the loss during his combat tour may have contributed to him wanting to return and to continue to honor the duty and sacrifice of soldiers like Faulkenburg. He missed the military mentality and his other family, his soldiers, that he left four years earlier.
Coulon rejoined as an engineer. Even as he learned a new career, he did not take his responsibilities lightly. He insisted on his instructors at Advanced Individual Training spend extra time teaching him the material again during breaks so knew the information thoroughly.
He told his instructors, “When I hit the unit, I need to know what the privates know, but I also needed to be technical and tactical.”
Teaching and leading his troops were always top priorities for Coulon, and his ability to impact others didn’t stop at just his soldiers.
Captain Thomas Hoyt, Area Support Group-Jordan, Headquarters & Headquarters Company, company commander, first worked with Coulon in 2017 while they were both on a rotational deployment with 1EN BN to the Republic of Korea.
After they returned, Hoyt was assigned as a Platoon Leader and Coulon was assigned as the Platoon Sergeant.
“At first, I was upset to be receiving Coulon as my Platoon Sergeant. I wanted to bring a Light Fighter mentality, and I worried that an injury he had at the time would be a disadvantage,” said Hoyt.
“I was completely wrong about him; he brought more energy to that unit than anyone ever could have.”
Hoyt went on to say that during their first field exercise as a team, Coulon held the Platoon together through the cold January days despite an incredibly steep learning curve.
“From the start, he mentored and taught me everything there was to know about Bradley Fighting Vehicles, Armored Maneuver, and Heavy Breaching. We were an incredible team and the tightest pair of hooligans in the Battalion. To the woe of our commander at the time, we were inseparable,” Hoyt said.
Coulon said he doesn’t always see what he does as being more than just his duty, “Sometimes I don’t feel I make that big of an impact.”
Hoyt explained how Coulon was able to transform 1st Platoon from being down to being widely regarded as the best Sapper Platoon in the unit by the time they left.
“His ability to take something hard and make it enjoyable was contagious. He completely reinvigorated and reinvented our Platoon and a lot of that positive change was because of his energy,” explained Hoyt.
Coulon recently had his retirement ceremony and is nearly done with his 20 years of service in the Army. He’s carried with him the values learned from Faulkenburg, and as an homage has passed them on to his fellow soldiers before he transitions out of the Army and into the next chapter of his life.
Hoyt expressed his heartfelt thoughts about Coulon’s impact throughout the years, “The Army is losing a truly transformational leader. Every organization he touched in his career turned into something spectacular. The way he truly cared about Soldiers, the way he grew and developed Leaders around him, and the way he made the unit better every single day were something to behold. I consider myself truly lucky to have had him as my mentor, my battle buddy, and my friend.”
What’s next for Coulon? He has plans to move to Texas to spend his time relaxing with his family and enjoying his retirement.
| Date Taken: | 10.29.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 10.29.2021 23:42 |
| Story ID: | 408388 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 133 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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