Photo By Sgt. Christopher Gaylord | Gen. David Rodriguez (far right), commanding general of U.S. Army Forces Command,...... read more read more
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JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. – During a routine visit here, March 15-16, to meet with the installation’s brigade-level commanders, Gen. David Rodriguez, commanding general of U.S. Army Forces Command, said the recent Afghan killings allegedly carried out by a JBLM-based staff sergeant in no way reflect the climate here.
“Things like that are not part of who we are and who Joint Base Lewis-McChord is,” Rodriguez said during his visit. “This is a great installation, and it’s really made up of the people. That’s what’s most important.
“Every day, thousands of soldiers and their families from this installation do great things, and they’re doing them today, right now, downrange.”
Rodriguez, who ensures adequate training, equipping and readiness of Army units for deployments worldwide, took some time during his stopover to visit a couple of installation facilities he referred to as state-of-the-art.
He met with staff at the Soldiers Medical Home, a newly established facility that pulls together a myriad of resources, to include behavioral health specialists, to support soldiers in the process of medical evaluation boards. The center sets up prompter appointments for soldiers and offers closer, more centrally located healthcare in the immediate vicinity of the soldiers’ units.
“It was a great visit to see all the things they’re doing up here to take care of soldiers,” Rodriguez said of his time touring the center, which is essentially a merging of the aid stations for JBLM’s 17th Fires Brigade and 555th Engineer Brigade, with additional resources.
Rodriguez also visited soldiers at the Warrior Zone, a multi-million dollar high-tech recreational facility on Lewis-North that opened Jan. 27 and offers 53 high-definition TVs, video and computer games, a 15-foot movie screen and pool tables for soldiers.
Speaking officially to members of the press and local media at French Theater March 16, Rodriguez said that for the last 10 years JBLM has upheld one of the Army’s most vital missions.
And that mission, he said, has never suffered.
“This base is a powerful platform for projecting soldiers worldwide,” he said. “These units continue serving with professionalism and remarkable strength after more than ten years of combat service.”
Rodriguez said JBLM has successfully deployed more than 116,000 soldiers and more than 30,000 airmen to Iraq and Afghanistan during the last decade.
“This is a great post for accomplishing the mission we’ve given it over the last ten years,” he said.
The general also said that, regardless of a few tragic incidents tied to the installation over the last few years and despite his shock toward the March 11 incident in Afghanistan, JBLM is like any other installation.
“There’s nothing different here than most places,” he said. “Those things happen. Everybody knows that doesn’t reflect our standards and our values, nor does it reflect the majority of leaders and soldiers who serve here every day, as well as overseas.”
Command Sgt. Maj. Daniel Verbeke, the rear detachment senior enlisted leader for I Corps, said the incident is not indicative of the quality or character of most JBLM soldiers.
“There are 34,000 soldiers on this base; there’s a handful who have done something wrong,” he said.
Verbeke said soldiers at JBLM are constantly doing good things and cited the installation’s widespread community outreach as just one example.
“They (JBLM soldiers) are helping out in schools, they’re volunteering in their communities, they’re volunteering with the chambers of commerce,” Verbeke said, recalling the resourcefulness of soldiers with the 555th Engineer Brigade, who helped the city of Roy, Wash., last year to build a new park.
“You’ve got to go almost 50 miles from JBLM to find a community of any size that doesn’t have a ‘community connector,’” Col. Steven Bullimore, I Corps’ chief of staff, said of the program that pairs JBLM brigades with communities for event support, community service and other relationship-building engagements.
“The soldiers are there for every holiday. We’re at their schools; we’re at all their civic events.”
And Bullimore knows the public recognizes that.
“I think that negative perception is the angle the media’s taking,” he said. “I think the public has a different view. I think this (incident in Afghanistan) has them scratching their heads.”
Rodriguez stressed during his visit that the Army will look into every aspect of the actions committed March 11 and hold anyone involved accountable.
“We’re pretty good at getting to the bottom of it with due diligence and due process, and then holding people accountable, if that’s what’s required,” he said.
“We’ve got a tradition of doing what’s right when we have challenges, and we’re going to continue to do that.”
| Date Taken: | 03.20.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 03.20.2012 21:53 |
| Story ID: | 85516 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, WA, US |
| Web Views: | 245 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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