Photo By Staff Sgt. Anthony Jones | Sgt. 1st Class Nicholas Jones, first sergeant of Company A, 45th Brigade Special...... read more read more
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By Sgt. Anthony Jones, 145th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment
MOORE, Okla. – Oklahoma National Guardsmen are no strangers to the Army value of selfless service. This Army value states that a soldier will, “Put the welfare of the nation, the Army, and your subordinates before your own”. Dozens of Oklahoma guardsmen who have been wounded in combat have lived this value to its fullest. Many of these brave warriors once again lived this value when they came to the aid of their fellow Oklahomans on May 20 following one of the most deadly tornadoes in Oklahoma history.
When this massive tornado ripped its way through southern Oklahoma City and Moore, Okla., combat veterans of the 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team were among the first Oklahoma guardsmen on the scene.
Sgt. 1st Class Nicholas Jones’ company is one of the Oklahoma National Guard units called into action when an EF-5 tornado tore a 17 mile-long, 1.3 mile-wide path of destruction across southern Oklahoma City and Moore, leaving an estimated $2 billion in damages and 24 people dead.
Jones, injured multiple times by improvised explosive devices and direct enemy fire during his recent deployment to Afghanistan, serves as the senior enlisted soldier for Company A, 45th Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (IBCT), Oklahoma Army National Guard.
In the combat zone, Company A was tasked with clearing roads and obstacles ensuring no roadside bombs or other dangers are present allowing military forces and local residents to move safely through the area. This is an exceptionally dangerous mission, which injured Jones and many of his fellow soldiers on multiple occasions during their deployment to Afghanistan in 2011.
As the May 20 tornado was tearing its way across Moore, many of the soldiers assigned to Company A were watching the massive storm on local television, already preparing to report to their armory in Norman, Okla. Once the official call to report was issued, the company was ordered to secure the area and conduct presence patrols across the stricken community.
Company A’s soldiers were tasked with operating traffic control points, conducting patrols to watch for looters and providing assistance to the local agencies leading the relief effort. Part of this mission involved constant coordination with the incident command center, which was managed by the Moore Police Department.
Staff Sgt. Jason Mallory, a soldier with Company A, and another injured veteran of the 45th’s Afghanistan deployment, worked as the Company’s night shift supervisor and worked closely with the incident command.
“This is your community and you hate to see your own countrymen hurting,” Mallory said, and he is familiar with hurting. While deployed to Afghanistan he was injured in an IED blast that broke his back and took him from the combat zone to Fort Hood, Texas to recover.
However, his injury did not end his service. After months of rehabilitation, Mallory was able to return to his unit in Afghanistan and finish his combat tour. A year later he answered the call for help in Moore.
Mallory’s devotion to his soldiers is one of the driving forces behind his return to combat. He says he was one of very few soldiers in his Warrior Transition Unit (WTU), a specialized Army unit focused on medical rehabilitation of wounded or ill soldiers, to be able to return to duty.
“My case manager has been working with different WTUs for eight years and I am the first soldier she’s seen return to duty with their primary MOS and the first soldier in the battalion to return to combat,” Mallory said. “I got crazy looks when I told everyone I was going back, but we had a dangerous mission. I still had a job to do and my soldiers were overseas and like any non-commissioned officer, I wanted to be with them.”
When Company A was tasked with helping fellow Oklahomans in the wake of the tornado that ripped homes and buildings off their foundations, Mallory knew he had to be there to help.
“I had an opportunity to miss this because of out of state work. I used to live in Moore and the damaged area is close to my [former] home,” Mallory said “I knew I would have soldiers out here and I just wanted to do my part.”
Spc. Tyrell Rembert moved to Oklahoma City from North Carolina in December and the EF-5 tornado that leveled parts of Moore was his first exposure to the power of a tornado.
“This is the first tornado I’ve ever been up close and personal with,” Rembert said. “In North Carolina we get hurricanes and a hurricane will bash a city to death, but this is far more devastating than anything I have ever seen.”
Rembert lives in Oklahoma City and works in Norman, Okla. His daily commute takes him through the heart of Moore and directly across the tornado’s path.
“Driving past the damage every day, it started to get to me. I begged and begged to come in and as soon as they had a spot they put me in it,” Rembert said. “Helping is a very gratifying experience. The people here are resilient and I really wanted to be here to help them get back on their feet.”
Rembert joined the military at age 17 and says he joined to help people in situations like the one in Moore. His first taste of the Oklahoma National Guard came when he volunteered to join the 45th IBCT for a deployment to Iraq in 2008 and returned to the 45th for their 2011 Afghanistan tour.
During his Afghanistan tour, Rembert was wounded twice by IED explosions and suffered a brain injury, he has since been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder.
“Doing this helps me mentally recover,” Rembert said. “It helps me to help others, most people try therapy dogs or [other types of] therapy, as long as I’m helping people that’s all I need.”
| Date Taken: | 06.05.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 06.11.2013 09:46 |
| Story ID: | 108442 |
| Location: | MOORE, OK, US |
| Hometown: | MOORE, OK, US |
| Hometown: | OKLAHOMA CITY, OK, US |
| Web Views: | 189 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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