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TAHLEQUAH, Oklahoma - Oklahoma National Guard Soldiers from 90th Troop Command are hard at work in Tahlequah, Oklahoma building homes and working in local health clinics treating patients in Eastern Oklahoma.
They are able to directly help fellow Oklahomans thanks in part to the Innovative Readiness Training program – a Department of Defense initiative in a joint environment of National Guard Soldiers and Airmen.
While Soldiers of the 2120th Engineer Company, 120th Engineer Battalion, 90th Troop Command are in Tahlequah building homes as part of the Cherokee Veterans Housing Initiative, the battalion also has medics and medical providers from the 120th Medical Company (Area Support) working with local clinics and first responders in Tahlequah and Tulsa, Oklahoma.
“Joint projects between the Cherokee Nation, Oklahoma National Guard, and other military units from around the country are examples of true government-to-government collaboration and the benefits it can provide not only to our tribal nation, but to the men and women of participating military units who will gain first-hand experience in areas such as engineering and health care,” said Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. “Perhaps more importantly, these projects will instill in participants a better understanding of what it means to serve others, whether they are building houses for Cherokee veterans or helping improve the health and well-being of Native American patients who use the Cherokee Nation Health System. I am proud of our collaboration and I know what we accomplish together will make a generational impact on the lives of many.”
More than 20 Soldiers of the 2120th are working alongside Airmen from the Utah National Guard and Airmen from the Idaho National Guard’s 124th Fighter Wing making a joint force of more than 50 Army and Air National Guard engineers.
The Oklahoma National Guard engineers are set to help build seven homes this summer as part of a mission spanning three years said 2nd Lt. Cecil D’Souza, a member of the Washington Air National Guard and the project manager for the Cherokee Nation housing initiative.
D’Souza described the IRT program as one that gives many military members a chance to do their jobs while building relationships with other organizations.
“The IRT party’s main intent is to build partnerships at our local communities. In turn we get the hands on training that we require in order to be mission ready,” said D’Souza. “The amount of homes that we’re building on here, last year we built seven, this year we are building seven and next year was allotted for another seven. So that’s a total of 21 homes that we’re going to build.”
1st Lt. Addam Orsburn, the executive officer for the 2120th Engineer Company, said Soldiers are able to use the mission as an opportunity to learn from each other while giving back to their local community.
“Our Soldiers over the last few years have done a lot of state active duty missions typically because of a natural disaster, and those things are great and the state knows us for that,” Orsburn said. “However, being able to work with the Cherokee Nation, away from a natural disaster really gets Soldiers involved in their community on a deeper level, and not just because something bad happened, but because we actually want to engage with our community to do things for them.”
Sgt. Austin Brown, with the 2120th Engineer Company, helped with this same housing project last year and is back for his second year of construction. Brown said he is glad to be out helping the community.
“It’s a very enjoyable thing for me and for the entire National Guard to just be out here and helping Oklahomans without it being a natural disaster or a state active duty mission like we’ve done in the past.” Brown said. “It just gives me joy to help people and just be out here and ready to go if anybody needs anything, it’s just a joy for me to be out here.”
Soldiers from the 120th MCAS are also working with Airmen from the 157th Medical Group in assisting local clinics serve patients. Maj. Nathan Bowen, 120th MCAS, said that they are also getting good hands-on training for their jobs, while also directly helping the citizens Tahlequah.
“If we improve [patients] overall health then we're going to have less medical emergencies, better access to care, and then also better education for the patients and for our teammates here to know how to serve and help each other,” Bowen said. “Everyone's been super positive. Everyone's looking for opportunities to grow and learn and the best thing is that we're learning new things and we're learning how to work together.”
| Date Taken: | 06.09.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 06.09.2022 18:07 |
| Story ID: | 422612 |
| Location: | TAHLEQUAH, OKLAHOMA, US |
| Web Views: | 90 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, OKNG conducts Innovative Readiness Training, by SSG Reece Heck, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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