Photo By Susan Garling | During a Fort Lee tour, Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Snow, commanding general, U.S. Army...... read more read more
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FORT LEE, Va. (June 29, 2017) -- Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Snow, commanding general, U.S. Army Recruiting Command, Fort Knox, Ky., brought 28 national-level educators and Luis Soto-Ruiz, a civilian aide to the Secretary to the Army, to Fort Lee for a two-day tour June 21-22.
The goal of the 2017 National Educator Tour was to show the level of education, career choices and areas of specialty offered to young men and women who choose to come into the Army. The tour started with marksmanship testing with Engagement Skills Training simulators, and was followed with other activities such as going on a convoy using the Reconfigurable Vehicle Tactical Trainer simulator.
Maj. Gen. Paul C. Hurley Jr., CASCOM and Fort Lee commanding general, took part in a meet-and-greet and addressed the group. For 30 minutes, he shared his experiences working with “these dedicated and incredibly capable young men and women who serve our nation.” He shared stories of Soldiers “with profound courage, dedication and patriotism, many times from young individuals you never thought had it in them.”
After a tour of the ordnance barracks, the group was led to the Ordnance DFAC by 1st Sgt. Renee Aleman who had his company sing cadence for the group. Camera phones were plentiful as many educators climbed to the highest point to get the best photos.
Eating at the Ordnance Campus dining facility with hundreds of military members was unusual for these educators. They chose to sit along side these military members and strike up conversations. A casual military panel also took part, sharing their Army stories and educational opportunities offered to them while they serve and how that helps them should they choose to return to the civilian sector.
On the education side, they met Michael Williams, Army Logistics University president, and Col. Thomas Rogers, ALU commandant, along with their team of leaders for an intense briefing on the many aspects of educational training that take place at ALU. The audience was captivated as questions kept coming from the group. The level of education provided was of great interest to these national-level educators who included several college presidents and school board members from several public school systems across the U.S.
Time at the rigger facility and robotics lab offered perfect examples of the scope of technology used to train and keep troops safe.
Chief Warrant Officer 5 Cortez Frazier from Aerial Delivery and Field Services Department, Quartermaster School, briefed visitors as a young Soldier demonstrated how to pack his parachute in 15 minutes. Frazier stated he was ready to hand out gold stars because of the great questions, but then said as he looked at Snow, “Oh wait, you already have some.”
The visitors seemed to enjoy the hands-on activities. The most popular was an educator wearing the bomb suit during the ordnance campus tour, trying to make his way around the outdoor maze.
No Fort Lee tour is complete without showing off the specialties of the culinary staff. Joint Culinary Center of Excellence Training Director Ray Beu showed samples of meals prepared for the Advanced Culinary Skills Training end-of- course meal. They were able to go behind the scenes to see staff instructing the military culinarians before they took out plates of perfectly placed food items.
Additionally, the group attended the 275th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion deployment ceremony and then witnessed Snow giving the oath of enlistment to nine new recruits at Lee’s Military Entrance Processing Station.
Keeping this particular tour on schedule was difficult because the educators had so many questions at each stop. Snow took part in both days of the tour, once sitting in the back seat of the RVTT while his gunner, driver and radio personnel were civilian educators.
“As in past tours, military and civilian personnel at Fort Lee came together in professional fashion to create a remarkable experience for our guests,” said Stephen Baker, director, Fort Lee Public Affairs.
For the 28 educators, they will not forget this trip. The many young Soldiers who crossed their paths left an impression that they are now part of something much bigger than themselves. And they wouldn’t have it any other way, said one of the educators.
| Date Taken: | 06.29.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 06.29.2017 10:33 |
| Story ID: | 239605 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 52 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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