School Can Wait: Puerto Rico Guardsmen Postpone College to Serve

By Army 1st Lt. Dustin Lawson, Ohio National Guard

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, Oct. 25, 2017 — When a soldier receives the order that they are being deployed to another country, they often have months to prepare. When a National Guardsman is called up to help with recovery efforts for a natural disaster, they usually only have days to prepare.

But, joining the National Guard comes with the understanding that when a crisis hits the United States, a guardsman must be ready to quickly put life on hold to answer the call to help.

For many in school, that may mean taking a semester off from college that has already started. This is the case for several Ohio Army National Guardsmen who deployed to Puerto Rico Oct. 5 with the 285th Medical Company and have been providing medical services to citizens in San Juan and surrounding cities after Hurricane Maria.

Chance to Help

“The opportunity to help others is more important to me than continuing classes right now,” said Army Spc. Jacob Parker, a health care specialist who also attends Hocking College in Nelsonville, Ohio, where he is working toward a degree in wildlife management. When he was given the option to go on the mission to Puerto Rico, Parker said he didn’t take long to make his decision to volunteer. “The same classes will be there in the spring; this opportunity to assist will not,” he said.

Army Pfc. Matthew Gamble, an ambulance aide attached to the 285th, is a 21-year-old junior at Youngstown State, majoring in exercise science. He said he eventually wants to work in the cardiac rehabilitation field. Gamble was a month and a half into the semester when he was given the option to join the mission. It took him only one day to decide to take the semester off. “The people in Puerto Rico need my help more than I need another semester of school,” he said.

Army Pfc. Spencer Smith is a 19-year-old freshman studying public and leadership management at Ohio State University in Columbus. Smith was only three weeks into his first semester when the call came to deploy as a health care specialist with the 285th.

“For me, the decision was easy, Ohio State wasn’t going anywhere,” Smith said. “But, I wanted to help people. This is what I joined the National Guard for.”

Parker, Gamble and Smith all said their professors were understanding and said they would work with them if they wanted to stay enrolled for the semester. However, Parker and Gamble both decided to take the semester off so they could focus entirely on the mission without the worry of schoolwork lingering. Smith decided to balance his class work while serving in Puerto Rico, showcasing the unique strengths of an Ohio citizen-soldier.

Not Alone

Though they each said the decision to volunteer for the Puerto Rico mission was easy, they still had concerns about leaving in the middle of a semester. Those concerns were silenced one morning before leaving when they were visited by Army Maj. Gen. John C. Harris Jr., the Ohio assistant adjutant general. Harris asked a group of 285th soldiers who among them had dropped out of college for the semester to go on the mission. About 10 people raised their hands.

“When I saw the amount of people on this mission who raised their hands when asked who took time off from school, I gained more respect for them. I felt less alone,” Smith said.

It is a sacrifice to take a semester off, but each of the Ohio Army National Guardsmen who volunteered to deploy in support of hurricane relief efforts put the mission first and said they consider their sacrifice to be minor in comparison to the importance of helping their fellow Americans in Puerto Rico -- in their greatest time of need.

Marine Corps World War II Vets Visit Pohakuloa Training Area

By Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Isabelo Tabanguil III Marine Expeditionary Force

POHAKULOA TRAINING AREA, Hawaii, Oct. 25, 2017 — Veterans of the 5th Marine Division visited here Oct. 20 as part of the 68th annual reunion of the 5th Marine Division Association.

During their stay they viewed displays of the current weapons and equipment used by Marines with 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment.

“It was really nice to meet the Iwo Jima veterans as everyone in the Marine Corps knows Iwo Jima was a huge part of our history and background,” said Marine Corps Pfc. Nick Bensette, a machine gunner with 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines. “I never got to meet my grandfather who served during World War II and passed away when I was still young, so meeting all of these veterans is a good way for me to get new knowledge and pass it on to the next generation.”

Bensette said he was proud to demonstrate and explain how the modern equipment belonging to the current generation of Marines works.

“It’s nice to give back to the people who have served us before,” he said. “I’m kind of following in their footsteps, which is a big accomplishment for me to do what they did as Marines.”

Personal Memories

Ralph Simoneau said he was immediately reminded of his time on Iwo Jima with the 5th Marines when he arrived at PTA.

“I worked with the 60-millimeter mortars, and when they opened the door of the bus at the training camp [today] I could instantly smell it,” he said. “I went straight to the mortar like a bird dog, and knew exactly where it was going to be.”

Simoneau said he was amazed how the equipment he saw compared to what they had during his time in the Marines.

“I was telling one young Marine the difference between his equipment and mine was that we had bows and arrows, and they had guns that could shoot,” he said. “The only real superior weapon we had was the Browning automatic rifle. You could bury that in the sand, take it back out, and it would never misfire.”

Louie Lepore said he trained at nearby Camp Tarawa before he deployed to Iwo Jima with the 5th Marine Division.

“We had regimental practice landings for the invasion of Japan, but they dropped the atom bombs,” he said. “We went aboard ship right away down at Hilo, and went to participate in the occupation of Japan.”

Gratitude

Lepore said he was relieved that Marines never had to invade Japan after witnessing what he saw during the occupation.

“We went through Nagasaki and I saw the devastation of the A-Bomb there,” he said. “On the island of Kyushu, where we were supposed to land for the invasion, we saw a kamikaze base and caves with planes in them. I wouldn’t be here today after seeing the way they were prepared for us.”

Lepore said he’s extremely grateful and glad that history unfolded as it did.

“I’m very lucky to be here and I know it,” he said. “I’m 94 years old; I went through World War II and the Korean War. I retired in 1971 with almost 29 years in service. They wanted me to go to Vietnam because of my knowledge of French, and I said: ‘Forget it. Once was enough.’”

Face of Defense: Citizen-Soldier Helps Others in Dual Careers

By Army Sgt. 1st Class Ryan Matson U.S. Army Reserve Command

COLUMBIA, S.C., Oct. 26, 2017 — Whether the situation is a child facing problems at home or in school, or a person who is displaced hundreds of miles from their home in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, Army Maj. Karean Troy is ready to help.

Caring for others

Troy is a patient administration officer in the Army Reserve and a full-time elementary school counselor. She is a citizen-soldier. But the common theme in her military and civilian occupations, as well as her life in general, is a devotion to caring for others.

“From getting to know Miss Troy over the last couple of years, whether it’s in the military or with our students at school, she is always looking out for everyone else,” said Spencer Bobian, a school counselor with Troy at Fairfield Elementary School in Winnsboro, South Carolina.

Bobian was not at all surprised when he found out Troy was one of the key players in the Army Reserve-led Federal Coordination Center Columbia. Based out of a hangar at the Columbia Metropolitan Airport, the team was responsible for receiving evacuated patients on flights from either Puerto Rico or the U.S. Virgin Islands, evaluating the patients, and then setting them up with care at a local hospital.

Troy’s duty was to track the patients from the time they boarded a plane until the time they arrived in the care of a local hospital. She received basic information on the condition of the patients, and served as a liaison between the military and local hospitals by maintaining a data base of available beds for the patients.

Helping Others

“I guess when I look back on it, in either situation I’m in a helping profession,” Troy said. “Many times things I do here in the FCC is troubleshooting. Someone may come up to me with an issue and it may not have anything to do with patient administration but I’ll kind of troubleshoot it, and look at the problem and say ‘Hey, maybe have you tried this?’ I do the same thing with my students as an elementary school counselor. I think my greatest ability is linking people together and getting them where they need to be, and I just bring it to this particular mission.”

Troy grew up in Detroit, Michigan, and attended Henry Ford High School. She dreamed of being a lawyer, until she had what would prove to be a life-changing experience.

“While I was in college, I changed my major to communications and I had a scholarship to do graduate work in communications,” Troy said. “Part of the scholarship was that I had to teach a speech class and have office hours. What I found was, the students would come in and see me during office hours, and I really enjoyed sitting there and talking to them about their problems or whatever was going on. Someone suggested I take a counseling class, and I loved it.”

As a result of the experience, Troy actually forfeited her scholarship in communications to pursue a career in counseling. It was a natural fit, and she’s been doing it ever since.

Answering the Call to Serve

Troy has served as a counselor in a variety of positions through the years. She was an academic advisor at Wayne State University, a high school counselor for several years, and also worked with the Families First program as a counselor to help resolve issues for parents who were in jeopardy of losing their children.

While studying counseling at Central Michigan, Troy’s college roommate, who was in the military, spurred her interest in joining. She decided to take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery test, and scored very highly, especially in the science categories.

Troy again felt the calling to help other people. She decided to enlist in 1990 as an operating room technician. Her first unit was the 323rd Combat Support Hospital in Southfield, Michigan. She climbed from the rank of private first class to sergeant before earning a direct commission in the Medical Service Corps.

“It was never my intention to make it a career,” Troy said, chuckling. She’s now been in the Army Reserve for 27 years.

“I figured I’d get in, do my time [and] get some experience. But at about the 10-year mark, I knew I had to make the decision: I decided I’d try something different,” she said. “I was mobilized here at Fort Jackson and worked in operations. The second year I was here, I had a friend who talked me in to talking to the hospital commander about being the commander of the Warrior Transition Unit, a job I really had no interest in doing. I went over there and what they were actually doing was interviewing me for the job. I ended up taking the job.”

Troy spent two years working with wounded soldiers in the WTU, and, she said, it was one of the most rewarding experiences of her career.

Outside of her civilian and military careers, Troy has been active in a wide array of voluntary services. She was a den mother for her son, Allen, volunteered at his school, and is active in her church, Journey United Methodist Church in Columbia, where she serves as a lay shepherd and has taught bible study classes. She said one of her main life goals is to participate in a ministry mission.

Journey United Methodist Church Pastor George Ashford has known Troy for about seven years.

“She has a passion for helping others and not everyone is necessarily given to that,” Ashford said. “She has a way of understanding people’s lives and hearts that many others may not possess.”

Though Troy has been working long hours with the FCC as part of the hurricane evacuation mission, Bobian said she has a host of children awaiting her return to the school.

“Every day they keep asking me when she’s coming back,” he said. “They look forward to seeing her and look at her almost as another parent or mother figure.”