Photo By Adam Holguin | Col. Seth Goldberg, deputy commander, 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, gives a...... read more read more
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FORT BLISS, Texas—The 315th Engineer Company, a California Army National Guard unit, deployed to Kuwait Jan. 29 on a mission in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. The vertical construction company based out of two armories in Southern California, Oxnard and Riverside, departed the Silas L. Copeland Arrival Departure Control Group Thursday after completing a variety of training here at Fort Bliss in preparation for this deployment.
Once in Kuwait, the 315th Eng. Company will be available for any missions in that area of operations.
“In Kuwait they are essentially going to be on a ready status and could get deployed anywhere within the region at a moment’s notice,” said Col. Seth Goldberg, Deputy Commander, 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, who was here to send off the 315th Eng. Co.
The unit completed 56 days of training here at Fort Bliss which allowed the unit to get up to speed in a variety of ways.
“The training here has been very good. We got a lot of weapons training, that’s something my company needed a little bit more work on,” said 1st Sgt. Frank Guizar, First Sergeant, 315th Eng. Co. “The modern vehicles, the MRAPs (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) and the M-ATVs (MRAP All-Terrain Vehicle), those vehicles we had never seen in California. So we got a lot of training on that. The lane training was excellent.”
The training completed here at Fort Bliss and McGregor Range, New Mexico also allowed time for unit cohesion.
“Absolutely it was beneficial… it gave us the opportunity to come here and take what we have done in the past back at home station and actually utilize it in a training environment where we can hash out our Standard Operating Procedures,” said Cpt. Gericson Carpo, company commander, 315th Eng. Co. “Being together 24/7 we were able to come together as a unit, do the training, and execute the missions that were given to us. So it was good training.”
Goldberg echoed that sentiment, “they have been well trained, they know what the mission is and will execute it faithfully and very professionally and we expect them all to come home.”
Carpo said the preparation for this mission included two Annual Trainings last year, as well as the post mob training completed here, “I think it has been a long road, but I am just happy to go downrange and finally do our mission, get started.”
Guizar showed much gratitude to the families of the 315th Eng. Co. for their support on this deployment.
“I would like to thank them very much, from the bottom of my heart, for allowing these Soldiers the opportunity to serve their country,” said Guizar. “Every one of these soldiers is excited, they want to do their part for their country and the support that we get back home is tremendous, it’s awesome. It brings a tear to my eye.”
“I am proud to serve my country. I’m getting close to the end of my career,” said Guizar, “so this is probably my last opportunity to serve my country. I am going to take care of these kids and going to bring them all home.”
| Date Taken: | 01.29.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 02.05.2015 13:55 |
| Story ID: | 153655 |
| Location: | FORT BLISS, TX, US |
| Hometown: | OXNARD, CA, US |
| Hometown: | RIVERSIDE, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 1,410 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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