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

Maj. Larissa G. Coon developed several stress coping programs as the occupational therapist officer at the Patriot Clinic on Joint Base Balad, Iraq. Photo by Spc. Brian Barbour

In order to be successful in their missions, Soldiers deployed throughout Iraq deal with combat stress daily whether they perform their duties inside or outside the wire.

The 1835th Medical Detachment (Combat Stress Control) helps Soldiers find positive ways to cope with that combat stress and reduce incidence of suicide through their work at the Patriot Clinic here.

Maj. Larissa G. Coon, Patriot Clinic occupational therapist officer describes combat stress as “dealing with one of the top life stressors while in a combat or deployed environment.”

“This combat stress can be identified through dramatic changes in habits or routines,” Coon said.

Coon, a resident of Goodland, Kan., designed and implemented many of the stress coping programs available here.

She said some of the top stressors that people deal with in their lives are: a job change, a divorce or marriage, the birth or adoption of a child, the death of a family member or close friend, or major purchases like a house or a car.

Coon said these stressors are challenging for anyone to cope with, but when the stressor is combined with a deployment, the stressor for a Soldier is magnified many times over.

When these triggers occur, the affects on a Soldier can be seen in several areas. Soldiers may become angry at everything, have a change in sleeping habits or become withdrawn from contact with family, friends, or coworkers, Coon said.

The combat-stressed Soldier may have a change in eating habits, or may no longer be interested in activities that once brought them pleasure, she said.

Coon said battle buddies and unit leaders need to watch for any dramatic and significant changes in a Soldier’s behavior; it could indicate the need for a “buddy check.”

“Change is the main clue – the key,” she said.

Coon explained that combat stress should not be mischaracterized as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. PTSD is a long-term mental health diagnosis where dramatic changes in a person’s habits or routines continue for six months or longer.

A 2003 Army Medical Command report on mental health indicated that forward deployed behavioral health units experienced more than a 95% rate of return to duty status for Soldiers who sought combat stress treatment. The report indicated that almost half of the Soldiers surveyed reported not knowing how to obtain their mental health unit’s services.

The presence of combat stress control units here in Iraq now reflects the efforts the Army has taken to make these services readily available to service members.

There are currently five clinics that offer stress coping programs to service members needing them. These clinics in Iraq are located at Joint Base Balad, Contingency Operating Base Speicher, Camp Liberty, Camp Taji and Forward Operating Base Diamondback.

There are behavioral health assets dispersed across Iraq in more than 25 locations.

Coon said an overwhelming majority of the service members visiting the clinic come voluntarily with only 1 percent of Soldiers being command referred.

When a battle buddy accompanies a fellow Soldier to the Patriot Clinic for assistance, the clinic has no obligation to report the visit to the Soldiers command. The only time this happens is when there is a fear for the immediate safety of the Soldier.

Coon said that Soldiers exhibiting combat stress do not all need to be treated as being a risk of suicide.

“Sometimes they just need someone, like their battle buddy, to offer some help,” she said. Coon said the help a Soldier needs might not be anything more than hearing a buddy’s offer of advice or guidance to some of the resources to help them handle an issue.

The Soldier talking about the stressors they are experiencing can do a lot to relieve some of the pressure they are dealing with alone, Coon said.

If a Soldier needs additional help, Coon listed some other resources besides the clinic where Soldiers can turn to. Such resources are the Judge

Advocate General’s office for legal issues; the finance office for pay issues; the chaplain for spiritual guidance; the Army Emergency Relief fund for unexpected financial shortfalls; the Veterans of Foreign Wars or American Legion for support to loved ones back home; and Military OneSource as a gateway to numerous other agencies and organizations who provide military support, counseling, and assistance in the states.

Coon said: “I have the best job in the Army as I get to supply the activities to make people forget about their stress!”

The 1835th Med. Det. is an Army Reserve unit from Aurora, Colo. The fifty Soldiers of this unit will return to the Fitzsimmons Reserve Center in the spring of 2009 at the end of their deployment.

DVIDS
Story by Maj. Christopher Emmons

Megan Schlotthauer, left, and her mother, Lisa Altoon, enlisted together in the Army Reserve

Like many high school seniors, Megan Schlotthauer wasn’t sure what she wanted to do after graduation. Her grades weren’t the best, and college is expensive.

Searching for a purpose, the 17-year-old decided to explore her options in the Army Reserve.

“I was looking at the community colleges, and thought I would go there,” she said. “Then I was talking to some people I know who are in the Navy Reserve, and some friends who have been in the military, and I thought that’s what I wanted to do.”

She presented the idea to her mother, Lisa Altoon, who wasn’t receptive to the notion of her cheerleader daughter joining the Army.

“I was dead set against it from the beginning,” she said.

Altoon, like many parents, was concerned about the possibility of Megan deploying to a combat zone. That is, until she met her daughter’s recruiter, Army Sgt. 1st Class Jessica Dean of the Fremont, Calif., recruiting station. Dean proved to be a persuasive recruiter.

After learning about the Army Reserve, Altoon, a postal carrier in Fremont, decided that she, too, would become a soldier. Until recently, someone her age with no prior service would have been too old to enlist. Since the Army increased its maximum age to 42 in 2006, however, the door was wide open for the 39-year-old.

Mother and daughter enlisted in the same military occupational specialty — computer information specialist — and were assigned to the same unit, the 351st Civil Affairs Command in Mountain View, Calif.

Though Altoon originally was skeptical about her daughter joining, she said being in the same Reserve unit has its advantages.

“I’m a mom,” she said. “This will give me a chance to protect her and keep an eye on her.”

Altoon began basic training at Fort Jackson, S.C., in October, followed by advanced individual training at Fort Gordon, Ga., to train as a computer specialist. Schlotthauer leaves for Fort Jackson in August.

Both soldiers said they’re aware they might be deployed in support of the global war on terrorism, but insist they’ll be ready if that time comes.

“Honestly, if I’m meant to go to Iraq, I’ll go to Iraq,” Schlotthauer said.

Her mother, and now her fellow soldier, agreed. “If it’s meant for me to go, then that’s what’s going to happen,” Altoon said.

DVIDS
By Al Laxamana
Special to American Forces Press Service

Silver Star, Purple Heart

Army Sgt. Gregory S. Ruske is quick to call himself an ordinary Soldier, but later this month the Army Reserve will single him out for extraordinary heroism in Afghanistan that earned him the Silver Star medal.

The 28-year-old Colorado Springs, Colo., native will become the fourth Army reservist to receive the prestigious award for heroism in the war on terror. Army Lt. Gen. Jack C. Stultz, chief of the Army Reserve, will present Ruske the Silver Star during a ceremony in Orlando, Fla.

Ruske visited Washington yesterday to meet with Stultz and other Army Reserve officials and to attend the Association of the U.S. Army annual meeting taking place here. He said he doesn’t see the actions he took when his platoon was attacked by a much larger Taliban force as anything exceptional.

“I don’t consider myself a hero,” he said. “I was just an ordinary guy put in an extraordinary situation. I reacted based on my upbringing, training and compassion, and thankfully, it worked out in the end.”

AMBUSH
Ruske was assigned to Combined Joint Task Force 101, operating in Afghanistan’s Kapisa province, when the incident that led to his Silver Star award took place, April 21, 2008. He and his fellow Soldiers from 3rd Platoon, A Company, Task Force Gladiator, were on a patrol in a remote area not accessible by vehicle when Taliban operatives attacked them with heavy grenade, machine-gun and rifle fire.

“There was no way our gun truck support could get to us, so we were kind of out here by ourselves when all Hades broke loose,” he said.

Trapped with his unit in an exposed position, Ruske returned fire so most of the platoon could move to protective cover. Ruske then moved to a rooftop and continued laying fire even after taking a bullet to the hip.

At that point, Ruske realized that two Afghan national police officers were still pinned down in the open, taking fire from their Taliban attackers. One ran for cover, but the other officer — one Ruske had worked with at vehicle checkpoints and chatted with through an interpreter – had been shot and was trying to crawl to safety through a hail of bullets.

A WOUNDED FELLOW SOLDIER
“Seeing that dirt kick up no more than six inches from his head, I said, ‘Man, this is jacked up,’” Ruske recalled thinking. “They are still shooting at this guy. He is still bleeding and shot. And I said, ‘We have to go get him.’”

Ruske said he didn’t take time to think about his own safety, but simply reacted to the training the Army had used to prepare him for combat.

Ruske credited his mentor during his three years of active duty, Sgt. 1st Class Glen Boucher, with instilling the discipline and skills that he drew on while under fire.

“He was fair, but if you stepped across that line, he would check you, and that was good,” Ruske said of his former squad leader, then a Bradley infantry fighting vehicle commander. “He could joke with you and mess around with you, but when it came down to work, it was time to work.”

A stickler for soldiering skills, Boucher taught Ruske tactics he said enabled him to assist the fallen Afghan police officer.

“He’s the one who taught me all the ins and outs of dismounted and mounted techniques, and actually it was the ‘Z’ pattern he taught me that I had my [squad automatic weapon] gunner do to suppress [enemy fire] and buy us a little time when they were shooting at us,” Ruske said.

THE RESCUE
Ruske ordered his SAW gunner, Spc. Walter Reed, to spray the enemy in a Z-shaped pattern, expending a whole box of 200 rounds to give Ruske and his buddy, Spc. Eric Seagraves, time to run out to retrieve the officer.

The two dodged bullets as they grabbed the Afghan police officer’s arms and dragged him toward a wall that provided protective covering.

Only when Ruske and Seagraves went to lift the man behind the wall did they realize that Ruske’s leg had been shattered.

Later that day, after Ruske was taken to Bagram Air Base to receive treatment for his gunshot wound, he checked on the Afghan officer and was relieved to see that he had survived and would keep both legs.

Almost six months later, Ruske said he finds it amazing that he will receive a Silver Star for his actions. “I still don’t really believe it,” he said. Ruske deflected attention from himself, emphasizing that he acted as part of a team.

“I had help the whole time. It’s not like it was just me,” he said. “None of it would have been possible without Reed [and] with the SAW and Seagraves helping me with the guy. It was the one plan that turned out all right.”

BACK TO CIVILIAN LIFE
Now back at his civilian job as a juvenile corrections officer in Denver, Ruske is awaiting his reassignment to a new Army Reserve unit because his former unit was deactivated. Once he gets his new assignment, he said, he hopes to be like the combat veterans within the Army Reserve who helped him get ready to deploy by sharing what they had learned about roadside bombs, search techniques and other combat techniques.

“I picked their brains, and they passed their experience and lessons learned to me,” Ruske said. “Now that I’m back, it’s my turn to pass on my knowledge and experience to some of the newer guys, just like the other guys did for me.”

DVIDS
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service

“I don’t consider myself a hero,” said Army Resere Sgt. Gregory S. Ruske. “I was just an ordinary guy put in an extraordinary situation. I reacted based on my upbringing, training and compassion, and thankfully, it worked out in the end.”

That extraordinary situation and Ruske’s quick and decisive action would bring him the Silver Star, the nation’s third-highest award for valor and gallantry in the face of the enemy. It was presented to him at a ceremony Thursday in Orlando, Fla., by Chief of the Army Reserve Lt. Gen. Jack C. Stultz.

Recalling April 12, 28-year-old Ruske from Colorado Springs, Colo., was on patrol with six Soldiers and two Afghan National Police officers in the Afghanya Valley, Kapisa Province, Afghanistan, when “all hades broke loose,” sending his fellow Soldiers to the ground in a shallow ditch. Ruske was serving with 3rd platoon, A company, Task Force Gladiator, Combined Task Force 101.

“I was pulling rear security when the opening barrage happened and that’s when the two ANP officers got hit because they were in the lead as our guides,” Ruske said. “I managed to get over to the corner of this little house and started lobbing M-203 grenades and returning fire with my rifle as well.”

Ruske’s fellow Soldiers were able to peel back and take cover behind the building. He thought if he could get access to the roof or a window he would have a better angle to see the enemy. After negotiating with the house’s owner, he made it to the roof when everything started exploding around him.

“Then I felt something, like a rubber band, hit me in the hip, so I fell to the roof, looked at my glove, which was covered in blood… at that point I decided the roof was not a good place to be, so I got myself off the roof,” he said.

After being treated with a field dressing, Ruske found one of the ANP officers who had been ambushed was still in the field about 50 meters from where he’d been ambushed. He had managed to crawl into a small ditch for cover, but the enemy was still laying down rounds.

“I grabbed my SAW (squad automatic weapon, an M-249 light machine gun) gunner and told him to give me a nice “z” pattern on the count of three and then just empty the entire drum, to suppress the enemy’s fire,” Ruske said.

He and another Solder then ran out, one grabbing the policeman’s arms, Ruske lifting his legs.

“I lifted his legs, not knowing that the round had hit him shattering his femur,” he said. “At this point he was screaming, but we managed to carry him into the compound and get a tourniquet on his leg, then we went back to fighting.”

After Ruske was medically evacuated and treated, he visited the police officer. His leg had been put back together, his other wounds treated and he was “good to go.”

Looking back on everything that occurred that day, Ruske remembered how his father had been in the Army during World War II, his stepdad in the Army in the chemical corps.

“I remember hearing my grandfather’s stories, the sense of pride and patriotism he had,” Ruske said. “You know, what’s a couple of years of my life for a country that has given me 28 years of pretty good living compared with what I’ve seen overseas.”

“The people there are a lot like us. They want to make some money, raise their families, live their lives and be happy,” he said.

As for the Silver Star he now wears for his heroic actions, Ruske remains humble.

“People in a much higher position than I made that decision, but it seems to me that I was smart enough to come up with a plan, stupid enough to try it and lucky enough to survive it,” he said. “It means I was doing my job.”

US Army

Army Reservist Sgt. Zsuzsanna Lee provides security while waiting to extract a casualty Tuesday, Jan. 29, during a simulated insurgent attack at Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center, Ind. Lee is a member of the 55th Sustainment Brigade, Fort Belvoir, Va., which is currently training at Camp Atterbury prior to their scheduled deployment to Iraq in February. (U.S. Army photo/Sgt. 1st Class Peter Eustaquio)

DVIDS

Since the beginning, coalition forces in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom have championed the cause of engaging enemy forces in Iraq and developing the country into a free, democratic nation. While operations still carry on, a metamorphosis of hope is taking place as news of success and progress becomes more prevalent.

As the focus becomes more on construction and rebuilding, U.S. Army forces are called to serve a vital roll supplying logistics crucial to the mission. From the basic beans and bullets to building equipment, logistical supply and control units throughout Iraq are there to provide timely and secure assistance to coalition forces.

The Army Reserve’s 55th Sustainment Brigade, Fort Belvoir, Va., is one such unit answering the call. The unit, currently training at Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center, Ind., is scheduled to deploy to Iraq later this year, where they will be tasked with providing supervision and security for a large majority of logistics moving throughout Iraq.

“We don’t want to fight a war; we want to assist Iraq in becoming self-sustaining,” said 55th Commander Col. Therese O’Brien. “Our plan is to provide support to the Iraqi people to sustain them and help them get on with the rest of their lives.”

Using Maintenance Assistance and Instruction Teams, the 55th will provide oversight of critical commodities, O’Brien said. The logistics will include food, water, fuel and construction and engineering equipment. The unit will also provide security forces to civilians, military and local national logistic convoys.

“Our job is to make sure that these logistics are safely and securely delivered throughout the theater,” O’Brien said. “Timing is everything, and we make sure that things are set up for supplies at the right place and the right time.”

Perfecting the art of supplying comes from experience, O’Brien said. Although the 55th is relatively new, many of its members have prior experience in Iraq or Afghanistan. Warrant Officer Tricia Leupp, a logistics supply officer, will be deploying to Iraq for the second time.

“I think if you’ve been deployed before, you’re better acclimated to the environment and can put aside the uncertainty and jump right into the mission with clearer expectations,” she said. “This experience also builds confidence in those who haven’t deployed before.”

Pfc. Angel Johnson, a human relations specialist with the 55th, will be deploying for the first time. “I’ve never been overseas, so I’m really looking forward to it,” Johnson said. “This unit has many high-ranking leaders, which is good because they’re experienced.”

The 55th incorporates Army Reservists from around the country. Despite a collage of new faces, members of the unit are finding close camaraderie amongst each other.

“One thing that’s striking in this unit is the level of morale,” Leupp said. “There’s a huge motivation and desire to work together. I’m very impressed with Col. O’Brien’s leadership, and a successful mission starts with that.”

“The unique thing about the 55th is that a large degree of our Soldiers are new to the unit, but that’s no problem,” O’Brien said. “We learn together and make sure to communicate down to each person. I try to meet individual needs. I started in the Army as an enlisted Soldier, so I remember standing in formation with lots of questions. I try and concentrate on my roots and put myself in their boots.”

As the 55th makes its final preparations for the mission ahead, its members said that their mission will reflect the same professional and positive manner as their mobilization training.

“The question isn’t how well we can make Iraq, but how can we make it better,” O’Brien said. “The sky’s the limit for this unit.”

Previous post on the death of this Army officer here.

WGRZ

Rain poured as the remains of Lieutenant Colonel Terrence Crowe returned home in a flag draped casket. He was killed in Iraq. He was there serving with the Army Reserve’s 98th division training and advising Iraqi troops.

At a memorial service in Veterans Park on Grand Island, 10 trees were planted as a living memorial. Many called Lt. Col. Crowe a hero, his sister, Kate Olin said if her brother heard the word “hero” he would “be looking for a beer to go with a sub sandwich.”

Crowe graduated from Niagara University. He was a military professor at Canisius College where he worked with ROTC Cadets.

Lt. Col. Crowe leaves behind two children, Clara and Jeremiah, his parents, siblings and a host of relatives and friends.

A viewing is scheduled for Wednesday, June 15th, 3:00-8:00, at Kaiser Funeral home on Whitehaven Road, Grand Island. A funeral service will be held Thursday at 10:00, St. Stephens Church, 2100

Previous blog post here. Featured in

More info here.