Photo By Staff Sgt. Caitlyn Byrne | Cpl. Nicole Mattoon, native of Bayamon, Puerto Rico, horizontal construction engineer...... read more read more
Subscribe
MONROVIA, Liberia – For Cpl. Nicole Mattoon, native of Bayamon, Puerto Rico, horizontal construction engineer for the 62nd Engineer Battalion, 36th Engineer Brigade, going above and beyond the basic requirements of her duties while deployed at the National Police Training Academy, Paynesville, Liberia, is just part of doing her job.
Mattoon said if she isn’t working her hardest every day, then there’s something wrong. Even when that job is one that she is not originally accustomed to and when the position that she is filling is at least two ranks above her own, she adjusts, adapts and marches on.
Mattoon was recognized Jan. 2, for her exemplary service supporting Operation United Assistance.
Every Friday at the Barclay Training Center in Monrovia, Liberia, a service member supporting JFC-UA is selected as the service member of the week by Maj. Gen. Gary Volesky, commanding general, JFC-UA. Volesky recognizes the nominated service member, honors them with a command coin and takes them on a helicopter flight around the JFC-UA area of operation to see the work that has been accomplished thanks, in part, to their own hard work and dedication.
“I have been given the duty of mail noncommissioned officer for Task Force Rugged at the [NPTA],” said Mattoon. “I’m a 12N, a horizontal construction engineer, so I’ve never dealt with mail or the human resources department before. To start with, they pretty much just gave me an address and told me to go from there. So I had to establish a post office for [NPTA] pretty much by myself, or well, I was put in charge, which was daunting, but I was up for it.”
Mattoon had to procure a site for the post office, get supplies, coordinate transportation and due to the small number of Soldiers assigned to the NPTA post office, help sort the thousands of pounds of mail that come in with every shipment, she said.
“There are 517 Soldiers at [NPTA], and once we receive notice that mail has arrived at Roberts International Airport, we go pick it up, record all the packages that come in and for who they are for, resort them once we get back to [NPTA], and then, of course, hand them all out to our Soldiers all within the same day,” Mattoon said.
But Mattoon doesn’t just simply watch from the sidelines as Soldiers underneath her sort, store and distribute all the mail that they receive. She works tirelessly right next to her Soldiers, sometimes sorting from evening to morning, so that her fellow Soldiers at NPTA can get their care packages as soon as possible.
Sgt. Guadalupe Flores, human resources noncommissioned officer in charge for the 62nd Eng. Bn., 36th Eng. Bde., commended Mattoon for her hard work.
“I immediately put her in charge as a mailroom NCO and without guidance, she established a fully operational mailroom,” said Flores. “We were the first camp to receive mail. We have a minimum amount of troops so she works day and night to go pick up mail.”
Flores explained that Mattoon was chosen as the service member of the week not just because of the work she does, but more because of the way she conducts herself while she works.
“She has sorted and handled over 100,000 pounds of mail since she has been deployed here,” said Flores. “Especially on the holidays, for both Thanksgiving and Christmas, she went back and forth numerous times between Roberts and the [NPTA], picking up and delivering mail to Soldiers, making the extra effort for the holidays.”
Mattoon doesn’t just travel between the airport and her camp at NPTA though. She also made it her priority to ensure that all Soldiers, including those camped out at the Ebola Treatment unit construction sites, received something from home via either ground or air transportation.
“She really helped lift the morale of all the Soldiers at the [NPTA],” said Flores. “She affected the morale of the camp big time. Once mail arrived the mood around camp really lifted, it was incredible.”
Mattoon said that she really appreciates the work she is able to do while deployed in Liberia. She even signed up all the Soldiers at NPTA for Home Front Hugs, an organization that sends care packages to deployed Soldiers, ensuring that everyone had something to open on the holidays. She is happy to provide and do her job.
“The best part of this job is the motivation that people get when they get their mail,” said Mattoon. “I get to meet new people everyday and I really enjoy that person-to-person relations factor. Whether I’m thinking about my husband, who is also in the Army, and how I want to make him proud, or whether I’m giving someone their mail, it’s that human interaction that keeps me motivated.”
| Date Taken: | 01.02.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 01.02.2015 10:57 |
| Story ID: | 151314 |
| Location: | MONROVIA, LR |
| Hometown: | BAYAMON, PR |
| Hometown: | FORT CAVAZOS, TX, US |
| Web Views: | 509 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, JFC-UA service member delivers exceptional service, mail, by SSG Caitlyn Byrne, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
LEAVE A COMMENT