Photo By Amabilia Payen | Alpha Battery, 1st Battalion, 158th Field Artillery Regiment commemorated their...... read more read more
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FORT BLISS, Texas - Alpha Battery, 1st Battalion, 158th Field Artillery Regiment, from the Oklahoma Army National Guard redeployed July 1, at the Silas L. Copeland Arrival/Departure Air Control Group and each Soldier appeared full of pride of the mission they completed in Afghanistan.
Capt. Sean Bryant, Battery A commander, claimed his unit was the first in the Oklahoma National Guard to fire rockets of the High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System platform in a combat situation. The last time 1-158th fired rockets in a combat zone was in Desert Storm, using the Multiple Launch Rocket Systems. The rockets that were launched against Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi Republican Guard during that conflict in the ‘90s were initiated by Battery A then, and now, for Operation Enduring Freedom, the battery kept the tradition alive by being the first for the Oklahoma Army National Guard in firing rockets against insurgents in Afghanistan.
Battery A commemorated their success by designing a coin that will forever depict this moment in history, and one of the coins was given to Brig. Gen. Robbie Asher, director of the Joint Staff for the Oklahoma Army National Guard. Asher came to Fort Bliss to welcome home the Soldiers of the Oklahoma Army National Guard.
“It’s always a much better day when one of our units comes home,” said Asher. “They have done a great job and we are proud of them, both as Soldiers of the U.S. Army and as Oklahoma Guardsmen.”
Sgt. Joshua Hale has been given the tap on the back from his brothers in arms, because as a gunner and HIMARS launcher in his unit, he was the one to fire the first rocket that marked the historic milestone for the 1-158th.
“It is very honorable for me to be able to do it because my dad did the same thing in Desert Storm,” said Hale. “To be one of the first people to do it since then makes me feel good to be able to carry on the family name.”
Hale said he is now focused on returning to his wife, Reva, and to his civilian job as an information technology security specialist with Storage ‘R’ Us Company.
“Thank you to my family,” said Hale. “This is definitely the hardest nine months that I had to ever deal with-especially for my wife; she stayed with me throughout the entire thing (and) supported me 10 percent and nothing could amount to that.”
“Our focus now is (demobilization) and to get everything taken care of here at Fort Bliss and get home to our families,” said Bryant. “We went through this deployment without failure, and I want to end this deployment with honor.”
Battery A will conduct demobilization with the Directorate of Mobilization and Deployment for about a week. Once the battery is 100 percent complete, they will then be transported to their home base station which is Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
“DoMaD has done a good job when we came through the first time,” said Bryant. “Hopefully they’ll do just as good job or better sending us home.”
DoMaD provides unity of command and unity of effort for all administrative, logistical support, and movement requirements for all units and individuals supported by the Fort Bliss Joint Mobilization Station (JMS). Simultaneously, DoMaD operates the Soldier Resilience and Readiness Center and coordinates all flight operations at the Silas L. Copeland A/DACG.
| Date Taken: | 07.01.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 07.18.2014 14:13 |
| Story ID: | 136552 |
| Location: | FORT BLISS, TX, US |
| Hometown: | FORT SILL, OK, US |
| Hometown: | OKLAHOMA CITY, OK, US |
| Web Views: | 492 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, HIMARS combat launch makes OKARNG history, by Amabilia Payen, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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