Photo By Master Sgt. Brandon Bednarek | Officers from the 210th Field Artillery Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, take part in a...... read more read more
CAMP CASEY, South Korea - With today’s high operational tempo and continuous battle-focused demands of Army units on the Korean Peninsula, it’s important to ensure morale and cohesion are consistently maintained among the ranks.
One method leaders at the 210th Field Artillery Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division use to balance productivity and amusement is through the implementation its annual organization day.
Soldiers of the "Thunder Brigade" recently participated in the unit’s yearly occurrence Feb. 20 at several locations across Camps Casey and Hovey in northern South Korea.
Troops from each of the battalions spent the day engaging in the activity-packed event, which included everything from sports and card games to billiards, table tennis and a video game football tournament.
“A lot of Soldiers come to Korea on a one-year tour and do three years of work in that one-year time,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Mark L. Brinton, the brigade’s senior enlisted leader. “I think it’s good for the Soldiers to take the day to relax and recharge.”
“Everyone here works hard,” mirrored Pfc. Tyler Carson, a wheeled vehicle mechanic with the brigade’s 333rd Forward Targeting Acquisition Battery, 1st Battalion, 38th Field Artillery Regiment. “Being able to come here and take a day off to have fun means a lot.”
For Carson, taking a breaking and having fun meant outshooting some of the brigade’s best pool players to become champion of the event’s nine-ball pool tournament.
“The first couple of game I was nervous,” said Carson, a native of New Castle, Colorado. “But I was feeling ready and prepared. I was told by everyone in FTAB that I better win this, or if I couldn’t, at least make sure anyone else who’s playing from 1-38 does.”
The day of events culminated with a no-holds dodge ball match among the battalion’s officers, something Brinton says helps Soldiers see leaders in a different light - one of shared appreciation for fun.
“I think it’s good for young Soldiers to see that their officers can have fun just as they were able to and that they’re not always strictly about business every day.”
The implementation of organization days is not local to Army units in Korea. In fact, organization days are a military tradition practiced Army-wide near the anniversary date of a unit’s initial activation.
Despite being held a few weeks after the brigade’s anniversary of Jan. 24, 1944, the event still served as a means to honor their lineage through individual and team-building competitions, said Brinton.
| Date Taken: | 02.20.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 02.24.2015 02:27 |
| Story ID: | 155207 |
| Location: | CAMP CASEY, KR |
| Hometown: | NEW CASTLE, COLORADO, US |
| Web Views: | 215 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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