Photo By Edward Dixon | Capt. Steve Brown (left), commanding officer, Navy Operational Support Center San...... read more read more
SAN ANTONIO - Navy Reservists are celebrating a centennial of service to the Alamo city and to the country, honoring their heritage during a March ceremony that included reading a proclamation from the City of San Antonio, unveiling a Fiesta medal featuring the Navy Reserve Centennial logo, and of course, cutting a special birthday cake.
The ceremony at the Navy Operational Support Center or NOSC San Antonio aboard Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston opened with an awards presentation to the Sailors of the Quarter, and then Cmdr. Stephen Cazalas, executive officer for NOSC San Antonio, paid special tribute to the local detachments of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion-22 and Amphibious Construction Battalion One, both known as Seabees, for their 73rd anniversary.
Although Reservists are full-time civilians who serve in the Navy part time, San Antonio Navy Reservists have deployed with their units and individually to Iraq, Afghanistan and worldwide numerous times providing surge capacity to the active duty military.
“In every conflict since World War I, Navy Reserve Sailors have deployed to protect our nation’s freedom or served their communities,” Cazalas said.
“Although Reserve Sailors in San Antonio mustered and were paid,” Cazalas said, describing the early years, “the first site for Navy Reservists to meet and drill regularly was established in 1950, at 311 Arsenal St. and occupied five floors.”
Commissioned as San Antonio’s Naval and Marine Corps Training Center only four units drilled regularly at that time. In the early 1980s, the Naval Reserve Center moved to its current location at 3837 Binz-Engleman Road on JBSA-Fort Sam Houston, where 630 Reserve Sailors comprising 15 units drill once a month and then spend two weeks training annually with gaining commands. In 2005 the Reserve Center was re-christened NOSC.
In Navy tradition, the centennial birthday cake was cut by the most senior person in the NOSC, Commanding Officer Capt. Steve Brown, and the most junior person, Hospitalman Kimberly Lacey.
“We are kicking off an entire year of celebrations where we are trying to show people the great things the Navy Reserve does for the nation and the Navy,” Capt. Brown said during an interview with a local television station. Brown has served primarily with the submarine force for 26 years.
“Getting to cut the cake with the Skipper? I never thought I would do anything like that,” Lacey said enthusiastically after the ceremony.
Lacey recently graduated from the tri-service Medical Education and Training Campus in February. She sees her training as an opportunity and said her experience in the Reserve has already prepared her for her life’s work as a pediatrics nurse.
“Making it was the best accomplishment I’ve ever done,” said 18-year-old Lacey, about graduating from corpsman school. “It makes me feel like the rest of my life – I’ll be able to do anything – knowing that it was so hard, but pushing through. It was a good life lesson to learn that you can do anything you put your mind to.”
| Date Taken: | 03.30.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 03.30.2015 12:34 |
| Story ID: | 158558 |
| Location: | SAN ANTONIO, TX, US |
| Hometown: | DAYTON, OH, US |
| Hometown: | MONTGOMERY, AL, US |
| Hometown: | SAN ANTONIO, TX, US |
| Web Views: | 514 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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