Sgt. David Rider, a practical nurse assigned to B Company, 256th Combat Support Hospital, with his wife, Alicia, talks to the cameras after being named the 2010 Army Reserve Best Warrior non-commissioned officer of the year. Photo by Sgt. Joshua Risner

The Army Reserve named Sgt. David W. Rider, a healthcare specialist assigned to B Company, 256th Support Hospital in Twinsburg, Ohio, as the “Best Warrior Noncommissioned Officer of the Year” here, July 30, after he endured grueling challenges throughout the weeklong competition.

During the past week, the best Soldiers from commands across the Army Reserve have fought pain, injury and each other for the title of Best Warrior. Rider will now move on to the Department of the Army Best Warrior Competition to be held in October.

This year was the first time since the Army Reserve started this competition four years ago that a husband and wife have teamed up as competitor and sponsor. Four days ago, Rider and his wife were sitting outside a board room studying.

“On what day did the Civil War end?” asked Sgt. Alicia Rider. He took a minute and answered, “April 9th, 1865.”

“Correct,” Alicia replied.

Down the hall in the auditorium, several other pairs of Soldiers and sponsors huddled together, reviewing current events, military history, tactical knowledge and spot-checking uniforms. The husband and wife were next in line for his board appearance.

Sponsors assist and encourage competitors prior to the event. During the week, they motivate competitors and handle administrative matters that could distract them from winning. It is only when the competitors begin graded tasks that the sponsors fade into the background and see if their assistance has paid off.

Seated together in a long hallway just outside the entrance to the board room Alicia and David, natives of Strongsville, Ohio, practiced several more questions before he is called and told to knock and enter. Command Sgt. Maj. Michael D. Schultz, the senior enlisted advisor for the Army Reserve, and several other command sergeants major wait to grill him with questions and inspect his uniform.

As David stood up and entered the board room, his wife moved down the hall to a lonely chair to wait out his board appearance.

“Preparing for this was harder than preparing for our wedding because when he goes out to compete I can only support him. I can’t ruck march for him and I can’t help him run two seconds faster,” said Alicia, a healthcare specialist assigned to the 371st Minimal Care Detachment in Twinsburg, Ohio.

David met his wife during a stateside mobilization for Operation Enduring Freedom at Fort Gordon, Ga. As a practical nurse for Maxim Healthcare, he provides home care of ventilator-dependant patients.

After changing their wedding date three times due to training, the two Soldiers were married on June 3, which is also the same day they began dating years earlier. They enjoyed a nice bed and breakfast honeymoon, and three days later, he left for Air Assault school.

Alicia said, “Over time I realized what it [Best Warrior Competition] was and it was pretty impressive to find out that he was competing at his unit’s Soldier of the month boards and winning. I wanted to be a part of it.”

Sgts. Alicia and David Rider, assigned to the 371st Minimal Care Detachment in and B Company, 256th Combat Support Hospital in Twinsburg, Ohio, a husband and wife -competitor and sponsor- team take a quiet moment to pray before eating chow after rifle qualification during the 2010 Army Reserve Best Warrior Competition here at Fort McCoy, Wis., July 28. Both soldiers are health care specialists and nursing students. Photo by Sgt. 1st Class Ronald Burke

Both Soldiers are attending college to earn a Bachelor of Science in nursing. She is studying at Kent State University and he is studying at the University of Akron, both in Ohio. He currently has a 4.0 grade point average despite the amount of training and preparation for this year’s competition.

“We have study sessions and we go over flashcards,” he said. “We also do physical training together and here she’s been running all over the post taking care of things for me.”

Sponsors for the competition must be ready to assist at a moment’s notice to ensure the success of their Soldier.

“I knew it [the competition] was important to him,” said Alicia. “I like seeing the things going on behind the scenes and not just getting the phone calls telling me what’s happening. Now that I’m here I can appreciate the competition that he has and see what he’s up against.”

The pairing between husband and wife during the competition was fruitful. David explained that having his wife as his sponsor allows for a more relaxing setting compared to a first sergeant and competitor pairing.

The door to the board room opened and as David came into view Alicia stood up expectantly. The couple left the board room waiting area and settled into the comfortable chairs of the building’s auditorium.

“I have a lot of respect and admiration for her,” he said after leaving the boardroom. “It makes me very happy to have her as my sponsor.”

“This experience is strengthening our relationship because we’ve had more time together and we have the common bond that is the Army,” she said. “If it wasn’t for the Army, we never would have met.”

And the board appearance? According to David, it went well. “The best board I’ve been to,” he said.

At the awards banquet, a shocked Sgt. Rider accepted his award and title of 2010 Army Reserve Best Warrior NCO of the Year, and his teammate, sponsor, and proud wife stood by his side.

After successfully overcoming physical and mental challenges, the couple now must set their sights on Fort Lee, Va., as they represent the Army Reserve Command at the Department of the Army Best Warrior Competition.

DVIDS
Story by Sgt. 1st Class Ronald Burke

FORT McCOY, Wis. — The Army Reserve’s Best Warrior Competition will be held here July 25-30, 2010. The two winners will be selected as the Army Reserve’s Soldier and NCO of the year and will compete against the entire Army in October at Fort Lee, Va. Only 29 Soldiers from the 205,000-strong Army Reserve were selected to compete.
For the first time, this year media will have the opportunity to “embed” and cover the Soldiers in the field 27-29 July.

The Soldiers will spend the week on a variety of challenges. They will take the Army Physical Fitness Test consisting of push-ups, sit-ups and a two mile-run; complete a written examination on general military topics; fire M-4 rifles; negotiate day and night Urban Warfighting Orienteering courses; and prove their mettle in other tests of skill such as hand-to-hand combat, first aid, and weapons assembly.

Their military backgrounds and experience represent the entire spectrum of the Army Reserve. Many have deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait and the Horn of Africa.  Several have been decorated in combat with Bronze Star Medals and Combat Action Badges.

Their career fields include infantry, military police, healthcare, mechanics, human resources, intelligence, and engineering.

They also represent a wide cross-section of America. This year’s Warriors hail from Alaska, California, Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin and as far away as Hawaii.

The winners will be announced at an awards dinner at 5 p.m. central time, July 30, at the American Legion Post in Sparta, Wis. The top NCO and Soldier will go on to represent Army Reserve at the Department of the Army “Best Warrior” Competition, to be held October 2010, at Fort Lee, Va.

US Army Reserve
Maj. Corey Schultz

Army Staff Sgt. Pamela Bleuel, a high school math teacher and mother of three from Kentucky, joined the Army Reserve in 2000. Now, at 43, she is a military police officer and a drill sergeant individually deployed to Contingency Operating Base Adder, Iraq.

Why would a 34-year-old mother of three — a high school teacher with two master’s degrees — join the Army Reserve? Just ask Staff Sgt. Pamela Bleuel.

Bleuel, who is assigned here with the 167th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, said she always felt she would do well in the military, but didn’t give it much thought until one day in August 2000. She was leaving the gym near her home in Frankfurt, Ky., when she noticed two soldiers hanging a banner outside a recruiting office. The banner said the Army would repay student loans.

Bleuel, a high school math teacher, decided to speak to them about repaying the loans on her three college degrees. “I spoke to the recruiter and everything sounded like what I needed to do,” she said.

While Bleuel was set on her new path, her family was set against it. “I went home to talk to my husband about it, but he wasn’t very enthusiastic.

“Everyone was saying, ‘You can’t do that’ and ‘How could you do that to your girls?’” she said, “That was my true motivator. Since nobody thought I could do it, it just made me want to do it that much more.”

She decided she was joining the Army, no matter what.

Bleuel is one of a growing number of U.S. soldiers who are making the decision to join the Army later in life.

“I joined the Army 19 days before my 35th birthday,” she said, explaining that, even though she worked out regularly, no one from her husband to her best friend had any faith in her ability to make it through basic training.

At the time she joined, the cut-off age for entering the Army was 35. In 2006, Congress raised the maximum age for entering all services to 42, but the Defense Department allows each of the services to set their own age limits up to 42.

“I don’t think I had a friend or family member that supported the idea,” she said. “My drill sergeant asked me if I thought I would be able to handle it. I said, ‘I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think I could.’”

She eliminated any doubt when she completed her first physical fitness evaluation. “I ran a seven-minute mile and he shut up.”

The combined military police training was 18 weeks and would extend into the school year for Bleuel. “I went to my school to try to visit with the principal to work out a schedule,” she said. Although some told her she would lose her teaching job, “the principal had a meeting with someone from the Army shortly after that and I still work there.”

Army Staff Sgt. Pamela Bleuel

Since she was with the reserves, she expected to only have to work one weekend a month and two weeks a year.

“My husband says I messed that up,” she said with a smile. “I was going through my ‘Rites of Passage’ as an MP when Sept. 11 [2001] happened. We didn’t find out about it until that night.”

Her reserve service hasn’t turned out to be quite how it was explained to her.

“Once I got in, I loved it,” she explained. “I love the structure and the camaraderie.”

Originally, Bleuel said, she looked for the shortest advanced individual training she could find. She ended up choosing military police “because of the cool DVD,” she laughed. “One of the first things that happened when I got to AIT was they handed me a set of keys to a [Humvee]. I didn’t know that much about preventive maintenance, checks and services, but I learned.”

Since arriving in Iraq, Bleuel has become a mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle driver and has been a convoy commander more than once. She has been in the Army Reserve for eight years now as an MP and became a drill sergeant in 2004, which she does during her summer breaks from teaching.

“I sometimes think about what would my life have been like if I had joined when I was 18. Then I think, I wouldn’t trade my life. I have a wonderful husband and three wonderful kids,” she said. “My girls are my biggest cheerleaders!”

Bleuel is used to being in the middle of the action, training soldiers and getting sweaty, she said. “The last thing I wanted to do was be behind a desk.”

Some cultural issues exist in regard to having female soldiers train Iraqi soldiers, but Bleuel hopes to extend for a time when she transfers to the 36th Sustainment Support Battalion.

“I haven’t been in [an MP] slot most of the time I’ve been here, so I haven’t been able to wear my MP patch, but I’m in an MP slot now,” she said.

“I love the Army,” she said. “You are responsible for your actions in the Army. I like that. There are very few loopholes.”

DoD
By Army Sgt. 1st Class Jeff Mullett

The United States military is far more innovative than it is given credit for. Here are a few examples:

Multinational Strategic Airlift Unit Activates in Hungary

Very few countries can afford to purchase the largest aircraft used for troop transportation and equipment transfers. The C-17 Globemaster is the heavy lifter in the United States Air Force but only a handful of countries are flying them other than the U.S.

On July 27, 2009, that began to change. The Strategic Airlift Capability program was activated at Pápa Air Base, Hungary. Twelve nations have joined together to create a joint heavy lifting capacity that
will be based there.

Army Training Embraces Web 2.0

Imagine an international company with over 500,000 employees and hundreds of manuals full of policies and procedures. Imagine that it requires all of the men and women in its executive training program to blog, Twitter and create a
Facebook page. Imagine that it has some of its hundreds of manuals on a wiki and open to change and rewriting by any of its employees from entry level to the CEO.

You do not have to imagine such a company. It already exists and is called the United States Army.

Army Reserve’s Employer Partnership Initiative

Imagine you are an employer. What if you knew of a place where you could find the following qualities in every prospective employee?

• discipline
• leadership
• ability to work under pressure
• tested drug free
• state of the art job skills

What if you knew of a place where every single person you might interview had these skills? Would you partner with that place and actively seek to hire some of those people? Of course you would.

Sgt. Daniell Torres, a member of the 304th Civil Affairs Brigade headquarters company, mounts an 84-pound M2 Browning .50 caliber barrel to the turret of a mine resistant ambush protected vehicle, Feb. 28, at Camp Slayer, Iraq. Torres is the only female gunner in the companies convoy security team.

“Cause she walk like a boss. Talk like a boss. Moves like a boss. Kinda woman that can do for herself.”

These lyrics from Ne-Yo’s song “Miss Independent” portray her perfectly. Standing at almost six-feet tall with broad shoulders, hair pulled tightly back into a bun, eyes veering intensely over her glasses, she demands respect as she hoists the 84-pound monster-of-a-gun up through the turret of the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle in preparation for the day’s mission.

She is humble about her strength and intimidating ability, as it is not every day in Iraq one might see a female lugging around a .50 caliber machine gun, let alone harnessed in as the gunner.

“I like being up there. I feel like I am contributing more than if I were in the back,” said 22-year-old Army Reserve Soldier, Sgt. Danielle Torres.

Torres, a civil affairs specialist working in the operations and intelligence section with the 304th Civil Affairs Brigade headquarters company from Philadelphia, is the only female gunner in their convoy security team.

“I chose her because she is strong, capable and does not flinch under pressure,” said Maj. Betty S. Cummiskey, 304th CA BDE HHC commander.

The 304th CA Bde. was activated in April 2008 and deployed to Iraq in support of the XVIII Airborne Corps. The 304th CA Bde. headquarters company is responsible for supporting all of the brigades efforts while in theater, including providing tactical movements for brigade assets and the brigade commander.

The convoy security team is a collaboration of Soldiers from the HHC platoons. Over the course of their deployment the team has made a variety of missions all throughout the country, as far north as Tirkrit; some 90 miles north of Baghdad and 110 miles south to Diwaniya.

Not just any Soldier can carry the responsibility of being a gunner for a tactical vehicle, said Sgt. 1st Class Daniel MacDonald, Torres’ non-commissioned officer in charge.

First, one must qualify on the M2 Browning .50 caliber machine gun; then be able to pickup it up, carry it, hoist and mount it onto the turret.

Sgt. Daniell Torres, a member of the 304th Civil Affairs Brigade headquarters company, mounts an 84-pound M2 Browning .50 caliber barrel to the turret of a mine resistant ambush protected vehicle, Feb. 28, at Camp Slayer, Iraq.

“I have had to kick guys off because they couldn’t hack it,” MacDonald said.

The second and most important element of being a gunner is not only possessing the knowledge of what the varying degrees of escalation-of-force are, but being able to react quickly to any situation.

Sgt. Orlando R. Cheatham, assistant operations sergeant and lead convoy security team driver, said he would take a female gunner over a male any day. He said on a previous deployment his unit was ambushed and he had a female gunner who stayed calm and focused.

“Torres has good judgment, and if she doesn’t know something she’s not afraid to ask,” Cheatham said.

There is not much Torres is afraid of. She said she has had an “I can do it too” attitude for as long as she can remember. In the fifth grade, she joined her school’s football team, where she played defensive end. It was the first time in more than 15 years a girl had signed up for the team and her coach was accepting, Torres said.

“I held my own and I think I earned the respect of the other guys,” Torres said.

Like the challenge of playing football with her male counterparts, the military culture, also a predominately male world, appealed to Torres. In 2004 during her senior year of high school she decided to join the Army Reserve as a Civil Affairs specialist.

“I didn’t go to college right away because I was undecided on what I was going to do,” Torres said. “Joining the Army [Reserve] gave me an option on both and enabled me to feel like I was doing something more with my life.”

Eventually Torres would like to join a civilian police department. But in the mean time, back in her native town of Galloway, N.J., she is a corrections officer at a county jail. Two years ago she took the civil service exam and sent it out to different departments.

“Corrections was the first to go through and I was very excited about it,” Torres said.

Without question, the experience she has gained from working at the jail has given her valuable skills she has been able to employ in her military career.

“As reserve Civil Affairs Soldiers and officers, we would not be able to do our job if it were not for the wealth of knowledge they offer from their civilian education and careers,” MacDonald said. “It is what makes us different from the active duty.”

MacDonald is a captain in the Philadelphia Police Department and said much of his military and civilian training goes hand in hand. He said he has been able to share his knowledge and expertise from his past deployments and from the police department with his Soldiers.

“I taught Torres everything I know,” MacDonald joked.

Torres recognizes she is the minority in her civilian and military career fields, but it does not stop her from following her dreams. In fact, it drives and motivates her to work that much harder to prove she is capable of doing anything she sets her mind to. Being almost six-feet tall is an advantage. But Torres said even if she were only five feet she would find a way to still be the gunner.

“If you can do the job; if you are physically and mentally strong then it doesn’t matter what your sex is,” MacDonald said.

MacDonald admits he was a bit hesitant when he learned Torres would be joining his convoy security team, but he quickly learned she was willing to learn and competent.

“She’s a squared away Soldier and I push her real hard to be the best she can be,” he said.

On March 1, Torres achieved another personal goal and was promoted from specialist to sergeant during a company ceremony.

DVIDS
Story by Spc. Autumn A. Hope