Photo By Mark Scott | U.S. Army Privates First Class Jay Rideb, left, and Willie Aguilar, assigned to the...... read more read more
CHALAN PAGO, Guam (May 9, 2025) – The rhythm of sledgehammers and a chorus of power tools make the Guam Guard’s 1224th Engineer Support Company easy to find. They are out in town this morning, removing subfloors, rerouting electrical circuits, and sealing windows at Safe Haven, a resource center for new and expecting mothers in need.
The Engineers are on Annual Training, a two-week period for Guardsmen to practice their mission essential collective tasks. Often, units from Guam travel off-island for AT, where they can avail of larger maneuver areas and machine gun ranges. This year, the Engineers have chosen to train on Guam and use their skills to give back to the community.
Two of the Soldiers on the team, however, are not from Guam. Privates First Class Jay Rideb of Susupe Lake, and Willie Aguilar of Tuturam Road in San Vincente are from the island of Saipan, one of Guam’s neighbors in the Commonwealth of Northern Marianas Islands.
Part of the Guam Guard’s recent initiative to expand recruiting to the CNMI, Rideb and Aguilar are two of nearly 100 Guardsmen who travel to Guam for weekend drills and Annual Training. Although they face the additional challenges of airfare, living in barracks, and limited transportation during their travel to Guam, the Saipan Soldiers have shown extraordinary resiliency.
In fact, recruits from Saipan have been earning a disproportionate number of Honor Graduate awards during Basic Combat Training and Advanced Individual Training. More than one in ten recruits from Saipan has earned the title of Honor Graduate – a number normally not seen, especially in such an underrepresented group.
To help us understand their formula for their success, Rideb and Aguilar set down their tools and gave an interview.
What are you guys doing here today?
JR: Right now, we’re doing vertical construction operations to renovate this place. It’s called Safe Haven, a shelter for new mothers and expecting mothers to get the support they need. This is one of many missions we have going on, but we jumped on this one.
WA: Right now, we’re trying to troubleshoot a power source in a newly built room. I’m a 12-Romeo interior electrician so this is my expertise.
Why do you think our Soldiers from Saipan are excelling at Basic and AIT?
JR: I can’t speak for everybody else, but I can speak for myself. One of the reasons is this is part of my job on the daily. I’m an electrician with the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation in my civilian job. It’s not exactly the same but it’s relatable, dealing with high voltage. Also, I think our schools in Saipan play a big part because they offered a lot of trades and electives during my time.
WA: It doesn’t matter what award you get, but we want to bring something back home. Something to show the family that we’re thankful for their support. Yeah, it’s stressful out there, but we maintain that focus and that mindset that we’re coming back home with something.
What’s it like being from a relatively unknown place in a large training environment?
JR: It’s a sense of pride. You come from a small island and you’re facing the whole U.S. when you go – people from different states. You just want to show that you got this. I’m not just a little island boy who doesn’t know anything and just climbs coconut trees, no. There’s something up there as well
WA: Back home we start young by working with our hands, and that’s a good place to start. We can become book smart too with our profession, so then it doubles. So I think we have a good combination of being book smart and hands on as well.
How does it feel to be part of renovating this place that will help mothers and babies in need?
JR: It makes me feel really proud. The other day I was talking to my Sergeant, I didn’t know this was going to be a shelter. So now, the lady who runs this place, she’s going to be blessed. She’s helping the mothers who will come here, some can’t make it out there and some just need help, and it’s not necessarily their fault. You know it’s hard out there and it’s this lady who’s going to save at least that one person. And we’re going to make sure this lady is blessed in return.
WA: This is what we signed up for right? To serve the people. I love it, and giving back to the people is why we signed our name on the dotted line.
Is there anything else you’d like to add, or anyone you’d like to thank?
WA: First of all, I want to thank my wife, and also God for all the support because without them, we wouldn’t be here. Because of them every day is a good day to be alive.
JR: I just want to thank my family, my kids, my wife. Without them nothing will happen. I also want to thank the Guam Guard for making us a part of their family as well and making us feel welcome.
| Date Taken: | 05.14.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 05.13.2025 20:28 |
| Story ID: | 497892 |
| Location: | GU |
| Web Views: | 179 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Saipan Soldiers Excel in the Guam National Guard, by Mark Scott, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
