Courtesy Photo | Reserve Soldiers with the 352nd Combat Sustainment Support Battalion listen to a...... read more read more
By Capt. Jamie Corson
352nd Combat Sustainment Support Battalion Chaplain
FORT MCCOY, Wis. - The picturesque scene of a lake side chapel service does not capture the essence of the Combat Support Training Exercise Soldiers faced at Forward Operating Base Big Sandy Lake – found deep in the woods of Fort McCoy, Wis.
After little sleep, tent living, very few showers and a high operational tempo, many of the Soldiers' motivation and minds fizzled. Two weeks into their annual training in August they were living with the need to continually adapt and constantly endure.
When the 352nd Combat Sustainment Support Battalion showed up on the FOB, they were welcomed to a bare piece of ground (a large dirt parking lot). The challenge to morale increased exponentially with the toil and strife that came with the lack of support and facilities.
It was an issue commonly encountered in austere locations – no USO, no dining facility, no showers, no real place to escape and enjoy moments of leisure, no place of solitude to alleviate the daily or hourly stress.
Even after the tents were erected, the operations established and the roving showers temporarily assembled, the routine of work/sleep/work/sleep (a schedule only interrupted by meals) became a difficult state of existence. There had to be an outlet for Soldiers.
It was providence which brought the 451st Army Band (Musical Performance Team Foxtrot) to entertain the Soldiers at dinner – when a Chapel Service was scheduled for 1930. At the FOB chaplain's invitation, the musicians gave an excellent performance of St. Anthony's Chorale, Amazing Grace and a minuet by Beethoven at the Sunset Service.
The awesome woodwind quintet, the cool summer air and the magnificent scenery made such a good primer for the sermon “Living in the Present” to be painted on the Soldiers' minds.
“In the present tense gifts are given and received, in the present all of our actions are made... the past and the future looks easier, but no action can be taken in either tense.”
On the FOB, showers were not consistent (though meatloaf for dinner was), the floors were dirt (which crept its gritty way into almost everything), and the enemy always attacked before dawn (as did the urge to hit the Porta-Jon), but we had the present tense where such great things were given and received – humor, fun, hope, love, faith, patience, friendship, trust, courage and all of the terrific dynamics that made life so exciting.
They all happened in the midst of difficult circumstances at FOB Big Sandy Lake.
| Date Taken: | 10.11.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 10.12.2015 15:02 |
| Story ID: | 178711 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WI, US |
| Web Views: | 106 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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