Unsung heroes make a difference

Photo By Staff Sgt. Patrick Caldwell | Spc. Doreneia Baird, Baker City, Ore., and a member of eastern Oregon’s Oregon Army National Guard unit, Fox Company, 3rd Battalion, 116th Cavalry Regiment, stirs a pot of rice at the Orchard Combat Training Center in July. Baird is one of a number of cooks that work to keep the 500-plus Oregon combined arms outfit fed twice a day during the unit’s annual training.  

BAKER CITY , OR, UNITED STATES

08.09.2013

Story by Staff Sgt. Patrick Caldwell 

116th Cavalry Brigade Combat Team

ORCHARD COMBAT TRAINING CENTER, Idaho - They are the unsung heroes and rarely do they grab headlines or glory in war.

Yet without the men and women, who cook, drive trucks, haul ammunition and provide fuel, Eastern Oregon’s Army National Guard unit, the 3rd Battalion, 116th Cavalry Regiment, will stall and sputter and come to a screeching halt.

It is all dubbed logistics but it is really the ability to furnish combat units with the supplies necessary to be successful. That includes fuel for the big M1-A2 SEP tanks; ammo for all the armored vehicles in the battalion, water and food, spare parts and showers.

Photos of big explosions or of Citizen-Soldier’s performing the tasks of the modern-day warrior may splash across the internet and front pages but if those seemingly nameless, faceless people behind the scenes fail, the big show closes down, quickly. In short, no combat unit can function for very long without support in the form of ammunition, fuel and food.

The commander of the 3rd Battalion, Lt. Col. Jason Lambert, of Hermiston, Ore., said he understands how important logistics is to success.

“As a commander, you have to understand the amount of support required,” he said.

Lambert said the battalion support personnel - fuelers, cooks, and ammo specialists – are the keys to success for any Guard unit.

“They do a lot of hard work without any of the glory. Their jobs are as important, if not more, than anyone else’s,” he said.

The equation is a simple one. Tanks need fuel and ammunition. If they do not get either, they are pricey, metal slabs with a fancy computer and a big gun. That’s all.

And, if the men who operate the tanks do not get food and water they will eventually become useless as well.

That behind-the-scenes type of footprint was evident in July on a secluded section of Idaho desert under a series of large camouflage nets where the battalion’s cook section was busy preparing the evening meal for the battalion.

There, as heat waves shimmered off the high-desert terrain, Staff Sgt. Howard Coyle – a Priest River, Idaho, resident - the Mess Sergeant for 3rd Battalion, chatted with the cooks under his supervision, filled out paperwork and reflected on the huge challenge his team must tackle each day to feed a battalion. Coyle said he and his cooks understand that a good, hot meal once or twice a day makes a huge difference in terms of morale for the tankers and scouts out on the desert gunnery ranges.

“The way I look at it is we are the only thing, besides going home, those line units have to look forward too,” he said.

Early on in the annual training cycle, Lambert said, the battalion’s cooks delivered a pledge to provide two hot meals a day. That promise may seem insignificant, but when framed against the fact that the battalion was stretched out over the massive Orchard Combat Training Center, it appeared to be a gamble.

Lambert said, though, the meals were delivered - twice a day and on time.

“I couldn’t be more proud. Their level of motivation has been impressive,” he said.

Producing those meals isn’t easy. The days are divided up into long periods of work and little rest for the cooks.

“We try to get up at 2:30 in the morning. And we’ve been getting done around 8 and 9 p.m.,” battalion cook, Sgt. Justin Hoeft, of Heppner, Ore., said.

Sgt. Joshua Tarvin, Wallowa, Ore., another 3rd Battalion cook, agreed the schedule can be grueling.

“It is very demanding. You worry about the battalion getting its chow all the time,” he said. “It can be, easily, a 20-hour day. People don’t realize that breakfast, for example, starts at 2 a.m. for us.”

Both Hoeft and Tarvin said the key to success is unity.

“You’ve got to have a lot of teamwork. There are no individuals,” Hoeft said.

The battalion cooks must have the dinner meal ready to go by 4:00 p.m. and at one point in July the mess section was feeding more than 500 people twice a day. Ninety-percent of the food, Hoeft said, is made from scratch.

The food is prepared inside what is known as a Containerized Kitchen – or CK – that resembles a small, self-contained restaurant. The CK is a mobile kitchen and showcases all the features of a modern-day grill including running water, ovens, refrigerators, sinks and grills. And all of it is powered by mobile generators. When the mess section is going full speed with meals, the CK can be a hot place to work.

“You get up there and it is 160 degrees. But you can’t stop. You’ve got to get it done,” Tarvin said. Even after the meal is finished and sent off to the battalion line units, the work does not stop.

“There is a lot of scrubbing. You are constantly cleaning,” Coyle said.

Spc. Doreneia Baird, Baker City, Ore., her work as a cook is steeped in the ethos of pride in ownership.

“When I cook, I make sure it’s done right. I love doing this,” Baird said.

The 3rd Battalion cooks and all the rest of its support personnel are assigned to Baker City’s Fox Company. Coyle said that the cook section is now in a rebuilding phase and is still contains several open slots.

“A lot of guys just retired. Now we are starting to build it back up,” Coyle said.

Coyle said despite the long hours and difficult work schedule he is glad he is able to make a difference for the battalion every day.

“I still enjoy it. I enjoy teaching some of the new people stuff. If I didn’t enjoy it, I’d probably retire,” Coyle said.

The 3rd Battalion, 116th Cavalry Regiment consists of citizen-soldier units from Woodburn, Hood River, The Dalles, Hermiston, Pendleton, La Grande, Baker City and Ontario Oregon.

• Date Taken: 08.09.2013
• Date Posted: 08.09.2013 18:39
• Story ID: 111700
• Location: BAKER CITY , OR, US
• Hometown: BAKER CITY, OR, US
• Hometown: HEPPNER, OR, US
• Hometown: PRIEST RIVER, ID, US
• Hometown: WALLOWA, OR, US