Utah Guard Marathon Team Shines at Lincoln, Passes the Torch

Story and photos by Lt. Col. Hank McIntire

Click here for additional photos of Utah Guard runners.

Click here for photos of the awards ceremony.

LINCOLN, Neb. — It was a blend of the old and the new as five members of the Utah National Guard marathon team competed here May 4 for spots on the All-Guard team.

The race, known for the last several years as the Lincoln-National Guard Marathon, is jointly sponsored by the Lincoln Track Club and the National Guard.

Two team members, Maj. DeAnne Trauba and Lt. Col. Eric Petersen, each have more than a dozen Lincoln races under their belts, qualifying each time for All-Guard honors. With them were three “sophomores,” Capt. Cody Adamson, Capt. Lex Grimley and Sgt. Andrea Graff, running their second Lincoln after making the All-Guard team here a year ago.

Graff, of St. George, and a member of the 213th Forward Support Company, has three years in the Guard and served a combat tour in Iraq in 2011 with the 2-222nd Field Artillery. She not only has Trauba and Petersen to help her learn the ropes, but her father, Col. George Graff, is also a mentor as a longtime member of both the Utah Guard and the All-Guard marathon team.

“I feel a whole lot of pressure, like I have to do good,” chuckled Graff.“Ninety percent of my decision to enlist was the fact that my dad was in the Guard and on the marathon team. I loved coming to the events with him and being around the runners and soldiers.”

Competing at this level was also a draw for Adamson and Grimley to join the Utah team.

“I do marathons anyway,” said Adamson, a Lehi resident and executive officer for the 144th Area Support Medical Company. He deployed to Iraq in 2003-2004 with the 1457th Engineer Battalion. “Competing with the Guard seemed like a lot of fun, and I like racing and traveling.”

“I had never heard of the marathon team,” admitted Grimley, of Saratoga Springs, a medical officer with the 300th Military Intelligence Brigade, who served in Iraq in 2003-2005 with the 142nd Military Intelligence Battalion. “I got an e-mail last year. They heard I was a runner and asked me to run.”

Petersen, of Holladay, is a judge advocate with the 204th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade. He returned just weeks ago from a yearlong deployment to Kosovo. Early on, his commander there asked him to help train 45 soldiers of Multi-National Battle Group East to run in the Athens (Greece) Marathon. Petersen competed himself and saw 39 of his trainees meet their time goals in the race.

“It was a challenge to find time to exercise in Kosovo,” said Petersen, “I don’t feel quite as prepared for this race as in years past.”

And Trauba, deputy state surgeon for the Utah Guard and a Draper resident, also had some hurdles to clear before coming to Lincoln, nursing a sore Achilles tendon, and there was the small matter of running the Boston Marathon just two weeks ago.

“I haven’t been able to train the way I normally do, with my injury—no speed and no hills,” she explained. “I didn’t want to push too hard at Boston, knowing I was coming straight to Lincoln.”

But setbacks aside, each of the five Utah athletes were here, ready to give it their best. They joined the other 12,500 marathoners and half-marathoners on race morning in gusty winds and warm temperatures. They snaked their way on the fairly flat course through the greater Lincoln area, finishing at the 50-yard line of Memorial Stadium, the football home of the five-time, national champion Nebraska Cornhuskers.

Grimley crossed the finish line first in 3:04, followed by Peterson with a 3:15 time. Adamson came in with a 3:46, and Graff and Trauba finished in 3:51 and 4:02, respectively.

While each runner had hopes to make the All-Guard team, the competition was fierce, and Grimley was the only Utah Guardmember selected. For the coming year he will represent the National Guard at selected marathons or half-marathons throughout the U.S.

For the other four members of the team, there are many positives to pull from their efforts at Lincoln.

“From a team standpoint, Lincoln is great for morale and esprit de corps,”said Petersen. “It brings our Utah team closer together.”

There is also the personal benefit of staying marathon ready, competing locally and looking ahead to next year.

“I enjoy running,” said Trauba. “It helps me focus and balance my life.”

“Just training all year long has kept me more fit,” added Graff.

“I can help other soldiers in my unit who struggle with running,” observed Adamson. “It helps me be a better leader and mentor.”

They will all be back in Lincoln next year, looking to make the All-Guard once again. And for now, Grimley will carry the torch for the other four as he competes nationally.

“There’s nothing better than getting out and representing the National Guard and your individual state,” Grimley said. “You want to perform well, but in the end it doesn’t really matter because there’s a brotherhood in all of this.”

See You in Afghanistan

Contributor, Staff Sgt. Rich Stowell

 

On the eve of a major movement, I sit in my bunk at a NATO base in Romania. It is very interesting how the world changes. Less than a generation ago, this installation likely housed troops of the Warsaw Pact. Now it’s the staging center for the largest and longest ever NATO operation.

The room looks like it belongs in the Ikea military catalog—small and minimalist. White and shiny.

I can’t say that I’ll miss this place. I stare at the few belongings the Army was kind enough to let me hold onto for the 36 hours we were here. It all fits into a single backpack. The extra Rubbermaid container is along for the ride simply because I refused to have spent $4 on it without keeping it a while longer.

H. just walked in. He is abundantly optimistic. I wish I possessed that quality, in slightly less measure than he. Not that I am pessimistic, by any means. It’s just that I am easily annoyed. If you like this blog, you ought to be glad, I suppose, since a good portion of the posts are outlets for Army-induced frustration.

E. and I have been texting. We’ll find out next billing cycle how badly T-Mobile is going to shake us down. Right now I don’t care.

Eth., who per habit went to sleep several hours ago (it is now 11:00 pm), has just woken up. We argue for a bit about the past participle of “wake.” Solomon argues that I should just write “awaken.” I don’t want to. Eth. asserts that the sentence should read, “He has been awaken by the people in his room.” He promised to smother us in our sleep.

How does it feel to be on my way to Afghanistan? Hard to describe. I am trying to remember what is was like at this point on the Kosovo tour. I really can’t remember.

I am excited, for one thing. I have been hyping this thing up in my mind for over a year. I just sent an email to my dissertation committee members explaining to them my proposed timeline. Breaking away from school, work, family, and life is a huge emotional challenge. Part of that challenge is talking myself into looking forward to something that’s going to be so hard.

One emotion that I am not feeling is sadness. I got choked up a few days ago, when we were leaving Fort Dix. E. and I talked on the phone and the thought of finally leaving the United States put us both in a state. We’re both past that point now, and just planning on how to make things easier on the boys.

We show up at 6:45 am in front of the Ikea barracks to catch a bus to the flight line. They say we’ll get on a C-17, which is kind of cool for about eight minutes. It’ll be a five-hour flight.

Now the guys are talking about going to midnight chow. I don’t want to get out of my bunk, but I probably will.

See you in Afghanistan.

 

Stowell posted this message sometime after posting the above:

 

Just wanted to let you all know that I'm safe, settling in to this base in the middle of Afghanistan. Feels like Las Vegas, but smells worse. So far so good.

A Highly Resilient Army?

Contributor, Staff Stg. Rich Stowell

Karl Weick is a brilliant scholar and researcher of organization. His latest work, co-authored by Kathleen Sutcliffe, is about highly-resilient organizations (HROs), among which he includes the sailors on an aircraft carrier. HROs display characteristics that distinguish them from typical organizations-- things like a willingness to track small failures, a resistance to oversimplification, and a sensitivity to operations.

A carrier crew might be the prototypical HRO, but Army units offer a more practical case study, at least for yours truly. I'll be in such a unit in Afghanistan within a fortnight.

The goal of any organization, resilient or not, is high performance. Effective organizations are organized so as to negotiate changing environments. Certainly the military has a need to be so organized. Uncertainty has a way of auditing these organizations. In a market, the organization that fails the audit goes bankrupt. In war, it suffers defeat.

According to Weick and Sutcliffe, they have identified a particular class of organizations that reduce "the brutality of audits and speeds up the process of recovery."

News from Afghanistan suggests a relatively stable operating environment for the Army. Compared to the deadliest years of 2009 - 2011, over 60 percent of all OEF casualties occurred, 2014 is shaping up to be the year of Afghanistan security. That means dramatically different missions for US troops. Whether the Army can shift from an offensive combat posture to stability operations will be a real test of its organizational resilience.

Weick and Sutcliffe offer some advice to those organizations looking to stay resilient and adaptive to a changing environment: defer to expertise. Not all commanders, and certainly not all Soldiers, are experts at the type of operations coming down the pike. If the powers that be can identify who the real experts are, then the Army should be able to manage the coming changes.

Utah Guard Engineers Recognized for Flood Response in Colorado

Lt. Col. Mike Turley, commander of the Utah Army Guard's 1457th Engineer Battalion, captures the siginficance of an article recently published in the Army Engineer magazine:

The publication of a technical engineering article written by the 1457th Engineer Battalion in Army Engineer Magazine is significant in the history of the Battalion and for the Army National Guard as a whole. It provides a medium to extol the virtues of a storied and decorated unit in the Utah Army National Guard and shows how valuable Citizen-Soldiers can be in times of need.

“Army Engineer Magazine is the official publication of The Army Engineer Association, a member-based, non-profit corporation specifically organized to facilitate cohesion, interaction, and networking within the United States Army Corps of Engineers total family of soldiers, civilians, family members, and alumni. As such, AEA serves as both the honor fraternity and alumni association for the Army Engineer Regiment.

The Engineer Regiment includes those now serving, as well as veterans who served honorably for any length of time. By their dedicated service, each earned a distinct place within the Regiment, whether it be as a part of an Engineer troop unit or part of a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) organization (District, Division, Laboratory, etc.)

AEA provides its members with an Army Engineer network for life. Why is this important? Army Engineers excel at completing complex and demanding missions in war and peace, always performed with uncommon dedication, ingenuity, and unsurpassed standards of excellence. All members of this network are thus inseparably linked for life by their service.”

By publishing this article; highlighting the technical expertise, selfless service, and duty to our fellow countrymen, Army Engineer Magazine has solidified the reputation of the Battalion as one of the premier organizations of the US Army Corps of Engineers. This article trumpets a legacy of excellence for past, present, and future members of the 1457th Engineer Battalion.

In addtion, the 116th Engineer Company (Horizontal), which was heavily involved in the flood-recovery mission in Colorado in late 2013, was recently selected for the Itschner Award.

The Itschner Plaque, first awarded by the Society of American Military Engineers in 1960, is named in honor of Lt. Gen. Emerson C. Itschner, USA. The plaque was presented to the most outstanding U.S. Army engineering company during a year.

In 1974, the competition for the Itschner Award was broadened to include the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve.

Hitting the Home Stretch

Guest Blogger

Captain Chris Vernon

Commander, 624th Engineer Company

 

Happy Super Bowl Sunday!

Things continue to move along very rapidly and we remain busy. We are in the process of moving from our current FOB (Forward Operating Base) to Sharana. Our RIP (Relief in Place)  will take place in Sharana. The OPCON (Operational Control) relationship is officially over and we have 2^nd Platoon back. I am actually visiting them right now and they are doing very well.

I am not going to go through a platoon-by-platoon breakdown of what everyone is doing right now, but for the most part all the platoons are tying up loose ends and finishing up smaller projects while preparing to move. 

 

We are also putting a lot of emphasis on our ANA (Afghan National Army) partnerships and training the three engineer Coys (Afghan Army equivalent to a company) we work with. Now that we have 2^nd Platoon back, our company is responsible for all the ANA partnerships in the entire battalion.

Our replacing unit will arrive at their mobilization station very shortly. It is starting to feel real that we are not going to be here for much longer. We continue to remind ourselves and our Soldiers to avoid complacency.

One of our main efforts right now is making sure all our i’s are dotted and t’s crossed so we finish strong and set up our replacing unit for success.

Logan Armory Reopens after Yearlong Remodel

By Lt. Col. Hank McIntire

Click here for more photos of this event.

LOGAN, Utah — Logan Armory was formally reopened Jan. 12 in a ribbon-cutting ceremony following nearly a year of remodeling the building.

Dignitaries at the event included Randy Watts, mayor of Logan; Col. Val Peterson, Land Component Commander for the Utah National Guard; Lt. Col. Matt Price, director of facilities for the Utah Guard; and the commanders of the two units based at the armory, Maj. James Helco, of Delta Company, 142^nd Military Intelligence Battalion; and Capt. Chris Kroeber, of Alpha Battery, 1-145^th Field Artillery.

 

Logan Mayor Randy Watts, center, is joined by leaders of the Utah National Guardto cut
the ribbon, officially reopening the Logan Armory Jan. 12. Photo by Lt. Col. Hank McIntire.

Originally completed in 1969, the $1.1-million remodeling project included the following improvements:

     ·  New paint, carpet, floor and ceiling tile and landscaping
     ·  New electrical wiring
     ·  Heating and cooling system upgrades
     ·  Lighting and energy-efficient improvements that will reduce electricity 
        costs by 20 percent
     ·  New doors and windows
     ·  Communication and data-system infrastructure

“This is more than a building,” said Lt. Col. Matt Price at the ceremony. “It’s a wonderful place for soldiers to come train and prepare for deployments in response to domestic and overseas emergencies. It does send a message to our soldiers that we care about them and expect them to be professional.”

“Our soldiers are the citizens here,” said Col. Val Peterson. “Many of them are students or work here and create the fabric of our community. When we look at this facility we think, ‘What a tremendous asset.’ It creates a place to train our soldiers and prepare for the unexpected.”

 “We hope that it will be a resource that the community uses,” added Peterson, drawing attention to the many improvements, including a brand-new basketball floor.

Logan mayor Randy Watts praised soldiers for the good they do for the community.

“The beauty of this valley is one thing, but we are really blessed with the quality of people we have,” he said. “I give my gratitude to those of you who serve. It’s a huge sacrifice.”

“I hope this remodeled facility will continue to train you for the unknown obstacles this world has,” concluded Watts.

A number of veterans of Korea, Vietnam and more recent conflicts were also in attendance, swapping stories and memories of the old days at the armory.

Veterans of previous conflicts were present for the Logan Armory
ribbon-cutting Jan. 12. Photo by Lt. Col. Hank McIntire

Still-serving Command Sgt. Maj. Victor Gonzalez, of the 142^nd Military Intelligence Battalion, began his career in 1991 in Logan Armory.

“I lived in Rexburg, Idaho, and I would come down for drill and stay in the armory for the weekend,” reminisced Gonzalez. “After 22 years [in the military] I’ve been all over the world, but it still feels like coming back home. It was emotional when I drove up today.”

Les Patterson retired a few years ago after spending decades at Logan Armory as a soldier in Bravo Battery, 1-148^th Field Artillery, the predecessor to Alpha Battery, 1-145^th.

“It’s cool to come back and see this place; I spent several years here,” he said. “It’s good to see some of the vets from Vietnam here and how they still give back to the vets of today. I’m all right being done [with my military career], but I still love it.”

Utah Guard Fulfills Traditional Role in Utah Governor Gary Herbert's Inauguration

By Lt. Col. Hank McIntire

Click here for more photos of this event.

SALT LAKE CITY — In keeping with long-standing tradition, the Utah National Guard was a key part of Utah Governor Gary R. Herbert’s inauguration ceremony at the Utah State Capitol Jan. 7.

Herbert is commander in chief of the 7,000 Airmen and Soldiers of the Utah National Guard, which historically has had significant involvement in the inauguration of each of Utah’s 17 governors.

 
Beginning with Governor Heber M. Wells' inauguration on Jan. 6, 1896, where members and officers of the Utah Guard marched in a pre-inauguration parade through the streets of Salt Lake City, Utah Airmen and Soldiers have been a highly visible part of each subsequent inauguration.

Maj. Gen. Jefferson Burton, adjutant general of the Utah National Guard, was master of
ceremonies for Governor Gary Herbert's inauguration Jan. 7. Photo by Ileen Kennedy.

As called for by state statute, Utah Guard Adjutant General Maj. Gen. Jefferson S. Burton served as master of ceremonies at the event, his first opportunity to do so after being appointed adjutant general by Herbert in October 2012.

“It was an amazing event and one that everyone here will remember,” said Burton. “I felt like it was a good opportunity for me to serve.”

Dozens of Utah Guard Airmen and Soldiers followed Burton’s lead, giving their time and expertise to ensure that the event was carried out with the right mix of pageantry and professionalism.

The 23rd Army Band, let by Chief Warrant Officer 2 Denny Saunders, performed prelude and postlude music, while Second Battalion, 211th Aviation Regiment, provided a a flyover consisting of three UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters. First Battalion, 145th Field Artillery, rendered a 19-gun salute to Herbert just after he took the oath of office to begin his first, full, four-year term as governor.

Other Utah Guard support to the event included the 85th Civil Support Team’s standing by in the event of a hazardous-materials incident, and several senior officers and enlisted personnel functioning as escorts for the many dignitaries attending the event. Other Guardmembers provided security or rendered logistical or administrative support.



Members of the 1-145th Field Artillery stand by to render a 19-gun salute at
Utah Governor Gary Herbert's  inaguration Jan. 7. Photo by Capt. Ryan Sutherland.

Herbert noted the presence and involvement of the Utah National Guard at the top of his remarks at the ceremony.

“We thank the men and women of our Utah Army and Air National Guard for their service,” he said, “not only on this day, but for the service and sacrifice they offer us every single day.”

According to Lt. Matt Price, director of facilities for the Utah Guard and chairman of its inauguration committee, planning for the ceremony began days after Herbert won reelection in November. Price was pleased with the final result, and officials and guests were also lavish in their praise of the Utah Guard’s role in the inauguration.

“There were a lot of scripted items that had to hit the mark exactly,” said Price. “The people out on the floor thought it looked wonderful.”

Brigadier Gen. David Fountain, Utah Guard Assistant Adjutant General—Air, noted with pride the importance of the Utah Guard’s traditional role in the inauguration.

 
“History is everything,” he said. “The ceremonial aspect is so important, not only what we do in uniform, but also for our civic leadership. When we think about how often we hear the National Anthem when we’re in uniform and all the different renditions, I stood a little straighter today. It really makes you want to be a part of this organization.”

UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters fly over the Utah State Capitol Jan. 7 as part of the inau-
guration ceremonies for Utah Governor Gary Herbert. Photo by Staff Sgt. Renae Saylock. 

The inauguration, Burton observed, also demonstrated the effectiveness of the continuing partnership of the military and elected representatives.

“We answer to our elected civilian officials,” he said. “It’s important that we have a good relationship with the governor because he can do a lot to help us in the execution of our duties. We need his support, and we need the support of the legislature to do our job.”
 

“It’s an opportunity to be this beautiful Capitol building and witness something that many people don’t get the opportunity to witness,” Burton concluded. “I feel very honored for us to showcase what we can do.”