Photo By Master Sgt. Nathan Hutchison | (left) Staff Sgt. Anthony Ciccariello Jr., Spc. Evan Lipp and Sgt. James Smith, 10th...... read more read more
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Three Soldiers went to a bar in Watertown. Before the night was over, the police were called.
“We fight as we’ve been trained,” said Maj. Douglas P. Herrmann. “So out there on their off time, they did exactly how they’ve been trained.”
The training Herrmann was referring to is not the typical Soldier skills that might come to mind, but one he oversees as the 10th Mountain Division Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention program manager.
These Soldiers discovered a female at a local bar had taken an unknown drug from a man in the bar and was acting overly impaired. Their training kicked in and the result was a suspect being questioned by police and a potential victim being checked out by paramedics.
“It really just felt like we were playing out one of the vignettes we go through in our quarterly training,” said Spc. Evan Lipp, one of the 10th Mountain Division Soldiers who intervened. “We decided it wasn’t a good situation and we needed to separate them and call the authorities.”
SHARP training, like all Army training, has evolved over the years. The vignettes Lipp referred to were part of that evolution. Rather than just talking about what sexual assault or harassment look like, SHARP trainers put Soldiers in arranged scenarios where they must make decisions.
So just like a Soldier would conditionally react correctly on the battlefield because of continuous hours of simulated war training, these Soldiers used their honed skills to stop a bad situation from getting worse.
“Rather than being confrontational, they took the right steps,” Herrmann said. “They notified the management of the establishment and the local authorities.”
On Nov. 16, Staff Sgt. Anthony Ciccariello Jr., Sgt. James Smith and Spc. Evan Lipp were recognized by Maj. Gen. Jeffrey L. Bannister, 10th Mountain Division Commanding General, for intervening in a SHARP incident.
Their opinion was they didn’t need any recognition. They were just doing the right thing.
“If you notice something and you don’t do anything about it, you’re part of the problem,” Lipp said. “If we would have just let that situation play out then it would have probably ended up a lot different- it would have probably ended up with someone getting hurt. You can’t just be a bystander and let things happen. You have to act.”
“Your job is never done, and with the community looking at us to set the example, we’re looked at to do the right thing,” Smith said. “So hopefully that is something that settles in the Watertown area. There are people out there that do the right thing.”
| Date Taken: | 11.17.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 11.30.2016 15:32 |
| Story ID: | 216032 |
| Location: | WATERTOWN, NY, US |
| Web Views: | 11,759 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
This work, Soldiers Intervene at Watertown Bar, by MSG Nathan Hutchison, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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