First Annual Training: Learning and Teamwork

Photo By Sgt. Odaliska Almonte | SUNNY POINT, N.C. – Pvt. Noel Weeks with the 210th Military Police Company is assigned to the Tactical Operations Center where she was trained and familiarized with the Joint Capabilities Release equipment and 800 MHZ radios. She is tasked to keep the lines of communications open with her battalion and logs all personnel coming and going off post. She and her unit are participating in Operation Vigilant Sea Hawk is a two-week regional homeland security exercise with disaster response missions designed to test and improve communication and the response of the North Carolina National Guard and partners within the state and federal agencies.  

SUNNY POINT, NC, UNITED STATES

06.18.2016

Story by Sgt. Odaliska Almonte 

North Carolina National Guard

Initially, Pvt. Weeks was nervous and intimidated prior to her first annual training.

“I was assigned the Tactical Operations Center and was not familiar with the equipment I was assigned to work with, “said Weeks. I soon became familiar with it and was comfortable enough to manage the equipment on my own and show others how to use it.”

Operation Vigilant Sea Hawk is a two-week regional homeland security exercise with disaster response missions designed to test and improve communication and the response of the North Carolina National Guard and partners within the state and federal agencies.

Weeks is the first in her family to join the military. “My family is really patriotic, with a grandfather and uncle who were served in the military, I joined because I really wanted to deploy in order to serve my country.” Her close family bond helped her to integrate into her unit. She stated that her family values taught her to put others first. Her family is proud of her military service and her mom cried at her enlistment ceremony.

“In the TOC I work on keeping communications with battalion, making sure everything is running good,” said Weeks. “I also keep logs of who’s coming on base and who’s going off, everything like that.”

On the civilian side, Pvt. Weeks is a volunteer EMT who wishes to start her own sports medicine practice that conducts home visits. Her motivation? Her father, who suffers from severe back pain and has to travel one hour each way for therapy that leaves him feeling worse after all the traveling.

Over the past few days of Operation Vigilant Seahawk, Weeks has learned one of the most important lessons, teamwork.

“The biggest lesson I have learned from this annual training is to work as a team and not to let my frustrations get in the way of my work ethic,” said Weeks.

• Date Taken: 06.18.2016
• Date Posted: 06.18.2016 18:46
• Story ID: 201707
• Location: SUNNY POINT, NC, US