Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Leaders take “Staff Ride” lessons to heart


Officers, NCO learn from Battle of Shiloh

By Sergeant 1st Class Pete Mayes
101st Sustainment Brigade

FORT CAMPBELL, KY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2009 – First Lieutenant Chidiebere Kamalu’s first “staff Ride” in his military career took place some very hallowed ground in Tennessee.
He and 60 other officers and senior non-commissioned officers of the 101st Sustainment Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, spent two days learning about the Civil War at Shiloh National Military Park, the site of the famous “Battle of Shiloh.”
“The lessons from a century and a half ago are relevant in today’s army,” the assistant Officer-in-Charge of the S-2, 716th Military Police Battalion said. “In terms of intelligence, logistics, command and control, all of those things were big issues then, as they are today. I really learned a lot about those aspects.”
Sustainment Brigade leaders uses Leadership Professional Development, or “Staff Rides,” as a means of mentoring officers and NCOs under their command using history. Groups will travel to a historical landmark, where the Soldiers will be given an impromptu history lesson of what happened there.
The lessons learned from previous battles such as Shiloh help leaders and Soldiers as they fight future wars, said Sergeant Major James E. Davis, financial management operations Sergeant Major for the 101st Sustainment Brigade Financial Management Company.
“Shiloh was a logistical challenge, and we were able to discuss its advantages and disadvantages for both the Union and Confederate Soldiers,” he said. “We bring leaders here to discuss tactics, operations, and what the residual effects of the battle were.”
The Battle of Shiloh, commonly known as the Battle of Pittsburgh Landing, was a major Civil War battle fought in Western Tennessee April 6-7, 1862. The Confederate Army achieved some success on the first day of battle, but was ultimately defeated by General Ulysses S. Grant and his Union forces.

Navy Captain Steven Knott, an instructor at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle Barracks, Pa., said while war fighting tactics of the 19th Century differ from today, leadership issues remain the same.
“The human element of war does not change,” he said. “It’s all about leadership dynamics. When you go back and look through a historical lens and see how people were facing what I believe was the most dangerous time in history of the republic and how they dealt with a crisis of that magnitude, a lot can be learned from it.”
Fellow instructor and former Sustainment Brigade Commander Colonel James Scudiere said wanted the Soldiers to think about what they do and how it is done.
“What we saw here are folks trying to fight a war while conducting a military campaign,” he said. “The armies have to go from place to place and come up with a game plan, while requiring logistics support and sustainment.”

Monday, September 28, 2009

Transportation Soldiers sharpen driver’s skills


By Sergeant 1st Class Pete Mayes
101st Sustainment Brigade
FORT CAMPBELL, KY, September 28, 2009 – Mike Johnson has never been in combat, but he wants to give Soldiers a leg up when it comes to sharpening their driving skills.
“I want my Soldier in my Army to have control of everything in every given moment, so when things break bad, they can get out of town as smoothly and aggressively as possible,” said Mike Johnson, a driving instructor with Evolution Performance Driving School.
Johnson and his team of world-class driving instructors recently helped Soldiers with the 106th Transportation Battalion, 101st Sustainment Brigade, 101st Airborne Division prepare to tackle the hazardous driving conditions that await them in their upcoming deployment.
The Soldiers spent one week at Saber Army Airfield learning the nuances of evasive driving … skills and techniques that promote offensive and defensive driving should the need arise.
Johnson said the key to being successful is to look at what a skilled evasive driver brings to the table … or behind the wheel.
“I look at this from a driver’s standpoint: if I’m the gunner, I want my driver to be aggressive, yet smooth so I can actually function with my weapon,” he said. “If the driver is jerking me all around inside the vehicle, I’m shooting the ground, in the air, and I’m not effective.”
Soldiers learn both offensive and defensive driving skills using a typical civilian Sedan, then graduating to the Light Medium Tactical Vehicle and the 1088 Fuel Tanker. Classroom learning was followed by hands-on driving on an obstacle course specifically designed to sharpen the driver’s skills.
Second Lieutenant Brandon Croke said it’s very likely that the Soldiers will have to put their training to use as they prepare for the rugged terrain of their next deployment.
“When Soldiers are driving around on post, it’s not at high speed and they learn how to get from point A to point B. To have this type of stressful situation, where you’re forced to maneuver, forced to brake, and the serpentine, it’s just preparing them for any type of danger they might see downrange,” he said.
Specialist Billy Ward said the most important thing he learned from the training was to look down the road well in advance.
“That was you can react quicker to any obstacle that might come up,” he said.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

We have Facebook!

As your Brigade Public Affairs Officer, it's my duty to ensure that the Lifeliners message and stories are out in the public. Y'know, telling our stories, both positive and informational, to the general public. One of the great ways of doing so is social networking. It is with great pleasure to announce that the 101st Sustainment Brigade (Lifeliners) has its own Facebook page!

What is so cool about this? Well, it's a way of keeping in contact with those you've served with over the years here at Fort Campbell. Also, it's a means to keep you updated on the many events and activites happening here within our Brigade as we prepare to head back into the fight.

And it's something to have pride in.

I encourage everyone to get on board and check us out. To do so, go to your Facebook page (if you have one) and in the search box on the right side (the one with the blue tab bar), type in 101st Sustainment Brigade -Lifeliners. The Deathstar should automatically come up and you're in.

Show the Brigade some love and become a friend.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Warriors Bring in Top MP Award in XVIII Airborne Corps

By 1LT Chris Gasser
101st Sustainment Brigade
FORT CAMPBELL, Kentucky, September 22, 2009 -The 194th Military Police Company from Fort Campbell, KY was recently named the FY 09 XVIII Airborne Corp Freedom Award winner for excellence among Army military police companies.
The annual presentation recognizes the best Military Police Company in XVIII Ariborne Corps. The Fort Campbell based company is assigned to the 716th Military Police Battalion, 101st Sustainment Brigade.
"The 194th Military Police Company winning the Freedom Award is not only a reflection of the excellence and commitment to selfless service by the unit as whole, but also a testimony of the many individual achievements of the Soldiers and leaders during the last year,” said Master Sergeant Frederick L. Darden, 716th Military Police Battalion operations NCO.
The Fort Campbell military community continues to benefit from 194th Military Police Company’s service and dedicated law enforcement support.
“The 194 is truly a great unit with many accomplishments over the last year,” said Colonel Mary A. Maier, Commander 16th Military Police Brigade (Rear), before presenting the commander and first sergeant with the Freedom Award. During FY 09 the 194th MP Company extraordinarily completed a 13-month combat deployment with zero losses; produced the 18th MP Brigade Soldier of the Year, the 101st Sustainment Brigade NCO and Soldier of the Year, and the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) NCO of the Year.

"These Soldiers worked incredibly hard," said Captian Michael J. Cotovsky. He added that, “family members and Family Readiness Group members also played a significant role in helping the Soldiers accomplish their mission and win the Freedom Award. We've got a lot of Soldiers and family members who pour their heart into making a positive difference in everything they do. I am truly grateful to be working with some of the finest Soldiers, Non-Commissioned Officers, officers and families in the Army. We're looking forward to the future.”
To compete for the award units submit a packet that details their achievements in areas such as mission accomplishment, training, physical fitness, retention, weapons qualification, education, community service and family readiness.
The Brigadier General J.P. Holland Award is named after the former USAREUR provost marshal from 1953 to 1955. Holland sponsored the award after his retirement in 1969 to promote esprit de corps and professionalism in military police units throughout the active army.

Best of the MPs


716th Battalion Soldiers train to be SRT elite

By Sergeant 1st Class Pete Mayes
101st Sustainment Brigade

Sergeant Jeremiah Smith is trying to become part of a very elite unit within Fort Campbell’s Military Police community.
He and members of the 716th Military Police Battalion, 101st Sustainment Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, took part in a three -week long Special Reaction Team training. It afforded the Soldiers a chance to enhance their skills, as well as gave them a chance to be chosen to become part of the post’s military-style Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) unit.
It’s an experience the sergeant says he hopes his fellow classmates truly appreciate.
“This is a very special unit,” he said. “We are the last resort when all other means failed. I hope they take to heart that this type of training is meant to be last chance, and that we need to try other means to resolve a conflict before coming to these kind of special tactics.”
The training utilizes the standard crawl-walk-run approach: intense classroom teaching and slide show presentation, followed by hands-on field exercises, and finally, testing on what they’ve learned.
One particular exercise, Live Fire Room Entry Evaluation, proves challenging to the MP’s as they learn not only to rely on their own skills and teamwork, but to also focus on the details.
“Any of the big things, like safety violations, missing targets, moving with the weapon on safe … that cannot be tolerated,” said Craig Sachau, one of the instructors from the U.S. Army Military Police School, based out of Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. “You want to ensure that small things don’t snowball into bigger things and somebody getting seriously hurt.”
Sachau and his partner, Scott Langley, said roughly 29 MP’s from the ranks of private to captain began the course two weeks ago. Many of them have returned from combat deployment, and will be heading out again.
At the time of this writing, five of them had been dropped from the training.
Langley said the instructors stress safety without going overboard.
“We try not to make safety rules that apply just to shoot-house, but in the real world also,” he said. “Some of the things we were yelling at them about in the shoot-house, we wouldn’t want them doing anywhere.”
It took Specialist David Moske of the 194th Military Police Company, 716th Military Police Battalion, 101st Sustainment Brigade, two tries before he passed the Shoot-house exercise, but the lessons he learned are invaluable.
“This is more about focusing on being more precise and not just taking everything out,” he said. “You gotta watch what you’re doing and there more strict parameters on what you have to do.”

Note: The MP’s are scheduled to graduate this Friday. The Ceremony will be at the 716th MP battalion.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

“Lifeliners” Remember 9/11


By Specialist LaTwanya Robinson
101st Sustainment Brigade
(photo by PV2 Kylee Burnham)

When Captain Tanya Bindernagel first joined the Army in 2001, she said it was for the experience. Things quickly turned real for her following the events of September 11, 2001.
She said she spent the entire day glued in front of her television set. A Delayed Entry Program recipient who attended basic training at Fort Jackson, SC in November, she said she never considered backing out of her enlistment.
“It made me more excited to leave,” Captain Bindernagel, chaplain for the 129th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 101st Sustainment Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, said. “Nothing in our training seemed general; everything had a purpose.”
The battalion chaplain joined hundreds of Soldiers of the “Lifeliners” brigade as they marked the eighth anniversary of the September 11th attack during a special luncheon at the Cole Park Commons.
Brigade Chaplain Major Sun Macupa said the Brigade Unit Ministry team organized the luncheon with the purpose of remembrance and reflection, as well as instilling a sense of camaraderie.
“It was important to hold this luncheon and other events like it because it’s shows how much the Brigade cares about the soldiers, physically, mentally and spiritually,” she said.
Fort Campbell Installation Chaplain Colonel Ken Brown was the keynote speaker for the event, and reminded Soldiers to keep going through the difficult periods.
“We have seen hard times before and we have come through those times, just as we will again and again. Never come down from the wall,” he said.
Sept. 11th had special meaning for other brigade Soldiers as well.
Private First Class Lyle Johnson, a Motor Transport Operator with the 129th CSSB, was in the eighth grade when 9/11 occurred. He said he remembers being given a choice: stay in his history class and watching the events unfold during that day, or continue on with his regular class schedule.
PFC Johnson said he chose to stay in his history class and “take pages of notes on what
he was hearing and seeing on the news.”
The 22-year-old Soldier from Post Falls, Idaho, said 9/11 had some influence on him joining the Army in 2007.
“I feel it’s important to remember the bravery that was shown that day by the officials that died attempting to save lives,” he said.
SFC Kim Bell, a Platoon Sergeant for the 101st Sustainment Brigades Integration and Reception
Team, was stationed at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina and was in-processing a Soldier there when heard news of the attack. He said his unit instituted an alert, which meant all soldiers assigned to his unit had to report in to work, and security had increased.
It was a late night for SFC Bell, as he stayed at work longer than usual, he said.
SFC Bell, who joined the Army in January 1992, said the most important thing to remember about what transpired on 9/11 is that we are fighting for freedom.
He also recalled having mixed emotions.
“On one hand, I was saddened with what had happened and felt the deep sense of loss
that sparked a wide range of feelings. But on the other hand, it made me ready, ready for
war,” he said.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

“Lifeliners” look to take “Showers in a Box”


Portable showers boost morale, health for combat Soldiers
By SFC Pete Mayes
101st Sustainment Brigade

FORT CAMPBELL, KENTUCKY, September 12, 2009 – One of the Army’s most effective tools in combating terrorist in Iraq and Afghanistan doesn’t use bullets … it takes a gallon and half of water instead.
The Bath Portable Unit – also known as “the shower in a box” - has proven not only effective in saving lives through sanitation, but also provides a much need morale boost to those Soldiers who don’t have access or the ability to take a hot shower daily.
“If you can imagine being in one of these remote outposts where you’re constantly sweaty, itching, and your skin is starting to crack and bleed, how good it feels to use one of these showers, and come out feeling clean and totally, refreshed,” said Chief Warrant Officer Two Josh Hughes, Field Services Officer in Charge of the 101st Sustainment Brigade Support Operations (SPO), 101st Sustainment Brigade, 101st Airborne Division.
Brigade leaders were given a demonstration of one such Shower unit from U.S. Thermal Inc.,an Ohio-based manufacturer this past Wednesday.
Sustainment brigades as a rule do not deploy as an entire organization into theater; they can augment Brigade Combat Teams and other units in remote locations. The brigade is looking to purchase these several of these units as they prepare for an upcoming deployment to Afghanistan next year.
Sergeant Major Fred Stewart, Supply and Services Sergeant Major for the SPO, said each unit weighs less than 75 pounds and comes in two bags. It takes only 15 minutes to assemble. Once it’s ready to operate, four Soldiers can shower at the same time within the individual shower stalls.
SPO Supply and Services NCOIC Sergeant First Class Mark Surber said having the portable shower units at the remote site makes it easier for the Soldiers because of the difficulty of getting fresh water to the Soldiers.
“We can’t always get water to them using trucks because of the terrain,” he said.
Mr. Hughes said many Soldiers in remote Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) go for several days without a hot shower, and resort to having their buddies pour bottles of water over their bodies in an attempt to clean themselves.
He also said the showers help cut down on the spread of infections. “There are a lot of germs and bacteria the Soldiers are exposed to because of it. By controlling infections, we’re savings lives as well,” Mr. Hughes said.

Monday, September 7, 2009

Bringing “Safety” Home


Army wife finds her niche through life-altering injury

By Sergeant First Class Pete Mayes
101st Sustainment Brigade

FORT CAMPBELL, KY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2009 - It all started 11 years ago, on September 27, 1998 … that’s a date Kelly Narowski will forever have etched in her memory.
Back then, she was 25-years-old, three months into her exciting new life in California, a career as a personal trainer, and a great boyfriend. An automobile accident involving her and a friend she was driving home and left her paralyzed from the chest down changed everything that day.
Now age 36, Narowski, has since created a new life for herself, one that involves sharing her story with anyone who will listen, about practicing safety behind the wheel. She also views her injury differently.
“I don’s see it as a depressing thing anymore. Now I just see it as a huge inconvenience in my life,” she said. “I don’t concentrate on it because it’s negative, and negative energy won’t change it.”
The wife of an Army Lieutenant Colonel stationed at Fort Lee, Va., Narowski recently visited Fort Campbell and shared her story with Soldiers of the 101st Sustainment Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, during a recent brigade-level “Safety Standown.”
She began sharing her experiences four years ago by working with a non-profit organization, “Think First,” a Chicago-based group comprised of neuro-surgeons who have treated victims of Spinal Cord and Traumatic Brain Injuries. She first began speaking at various schools, and eventually began talking to Soldiers while she and her husband were stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
Her message is simple: take responsibility for your life and make your personal safety a priority. Not doing it, she said, can turn a car into “a two-ton killing machine.”
Narowski’s presentation is not standard by any means: she wheels around the floor talking to the Soldiers, offering a mini biology class on the functions of the brain and spine using replicas, and shows how they are impacted after sustaining a traumatic injury.
She also includes several short video presentations, including a traffic accident involving a baby. The images had a definite impact on several Soldiers, who bristled in their chairs and shook their heads in disbelief as images of the infant being strapped onto a gurney, eyes wide open, flashed across the screen.
Nawarski also touched on other traffic accident factors such as fatigue, cell phone and texting while driving. Nothing is left untouched and there’s no beating around the bush in her message. “You gotta tell it like it is,” she said. “To sugar-coat it would not be getting the true message across. Some people are harder to reach than others, and so you need to tell it like it is.”
Finally, she shares her own story.
Narowski’s friend drank too much that afternoon when she got behind the wheel of her Jeep Wrangler. She realized they she’d be better off letting Kelly drive, who had only “had a couple of drinks and was slightly buzzed,” she said.
By her own admission, the two drinks had “impaired her judgment.” Narowski was not wearing a seatbelt when she took a curve too quickly and ended up smashing the jeep into a guardrail. She was thrown from the vehicle and suffered numerous injuries, including broken ribs, collarbone, back, and a spinal injury.
She described the first year adjusting to life in a wheelchair as “extremely difficult.” “I didn’t want to live like this, and then you realize you have two choices: you can either get on with life or lay in bed for the next 50 or 60 years,” Narowaski said.
Getting on with life meant re-learning how to take of herself. She learned to put her pants on without bending her legs, how to eat properly, and how to get around. The journey has paid off: she’s since learned to drive a car, has gone skydiving, and even took a trip overseas by herself.
She said she often wonders whether or not her message has reached her audience. A Soldier walked up to her after her presentation and thanked her. That’s when she knows she’s made a difference, she said.
“That makes me feel good, like they got something out of it,” she said. “They were reminded of how important a smart decision on the road is.”