Photo By Sgt. Salvatore Ottaviano | Spc. Erik Allen, an automated logistical specialist with the 237th Support Maintenance...... read more read more
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FORT TOTTEN, N.Y. - As the sun beams down and illuminates a dimly lit Army motor pool, a twenty two year old specialist conducts preventive maintenance on vehicles, thinking about his mother. Breathing steadily through a face mask, he looks under the hood of a high mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicle looking steadily for any cracks alongside members of his team. As the Soldiers re familiarize themselves with the vehicles, the young man strives to work hard because he is his mother's child.
Even though he's an adult with two jobs, the Brooklyn native credits his mother support to the success of his military career. “My mother is my biggest supporter,” said Spc. Erik Allen, an automated logistical specialist 237th Maintenance Support Command. “She loves me a lot…I’m her favorite. In her eyes, I did the right thing [enlisting in the military].”
“She calls me to check if I did things,” Allen said. After going in detail about his mother, the Soldier explains that she strove to instill his family’s African American heritage while noting the high expectations placed on each member within the family, giving no quarter to laziness.
“I’m pretty sure my grandma did the same thing as I’m told she was pretty strict.”
Allen said he's self-aware of his heritage and credits knowing his family identity to instilling a hard worker mentality, which drives him to be the best Soldier he can be. “My African American Heritage is on both sides of my family and goes back to my great grandparents," said Allen. “As far as my generation, I’m the only one in the military and I’m the only one with some sort of higher education.”
Allen, a New York City Housing Authority caretaker references to the importance and impact on his life in one of his great grandmothers, ‘Beebe,’ who was born in the British West Indies and is still around at 97 years old.
Allen explains that he combined his military and educational interests by choosing his military occupational specialty because he not only wanted maintain a hard work ethic, but continue to thrive as a Soldier.
“Just being around parts and all kinds of stuff, I wanted to learn about them and how they come together,” Allen said. “My great uncle Anthony was a Marine in Vietnam .... I love to learn, I hate being stagnant. I started to get interested in the Army when I was younger and watched some documentaries and movies like Black Hawk Down which had invasions and a lot of moving parts.”
With a smile on his face, the Soldier describes his duties and the impact his job has on the force. “I love my job! It touches every MOS at some point…we do inventory, work orders, and utilize the Global Combat Support System Allen said. “Every company needs me as and that’s why I come here at 100% to work.”
Forever grateful to the work ethic instilled in him by his mother, the Soldier continues to push his team mates to finish strong as they work to maintain their ability to answer the nations call. With every complete inspection, this Soldier carries on his family’s heritage of not only working hard, but being a conscientious manager.
| Date Taken: | 08.10.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 08.10.2020 18:57 |
| Story ID: | 375675 |
| Location: | NEW YORK, NY, US |
| Web Views: | 105 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, 237th MSC Soldier uses heritage to overcome challenges, by SGT Salvatore Ottaviano, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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