Discipline Above All

Photo By NaSwana Moon | Cpl. Luis Ballester is an Army Reserve Soldier with the 841st Engineer Battalion, 926th Engineer Brigade. Here he operates a D7 dozer, smoothing out riprap for a tank firing position. He works as a heavy equipment operator at the Joint National Training Center, Cincu, Romania as part of Resolute Castle 17, an operation which builds relationships with the NATO alliance and enhances its capacity for joint training and response to threats within the region.  

CINCU, ROMANIA

07.29.2017

Story by NaSwana Moon 

926th Engineer Brigade

CINCU, Romania -- Cpl. Luis Ballester was born in Cuba but moved to the United States “in pursuit of a better life and freedom.” Six years later, he joined the U.S. military. Ballester is a U.S. Army Reserve Soldier with the 758th Engineer Company, 841st Engineer Battalion, 926th Engineer Brigade, which is a company element located in Birmingham, AL.

A 12N heavy equipment operator, Ballester and his team work with scrapers, dump trucks, cranes, and bulldozers. He is currently deployed to Joint National Training Center, Cincu, Romania, where his unit is building fighting positions for tanks to conduct training. He is a participant of Resolute Castle 17, an operation which builds relationships with the NATO alliance, enhances its capacity for joint training and response to threats within the region.

As a civilian, Ballester works at United Technology overhauling the landing gear for commercial planes. He has worked in aviation for the last 3 years and before that was in minor construction. The military has positively contributed to his civilian job: “The leadership skills and the discipline at my job, there’s a lot of peers that have been veterans so they understand where I come from and they appreciated the hard work that I do. I know my peers appreciate me a lot, things translate into the civilian world like the army values, the discipline and service.”

Ballester has been married five years and has a 3-year-old daughter. His family supports him even though it’s tough when he has to leave for training. He says that they always work through it.

A quote that he carries with him is, “Discipline above all.” He stated that to him it means, “that you always have to try to carry yourself the best that you can since we live in a society where there are a lot of people, not just you and me, so you have to think about those things, and always try to do the best thing no matter what or if it’s a good thing among your peers.”

Ballester strives to be a good husband to his wife, role model for his daughter, and Soldier in the military. He works hard in his fields of expertise, using the discipline he’s learned from the military to guide him in his work and life as he balances civilian life and serving in the Army Reserve.

Resolute Castle particularly focuses on engineer skillsets, deploying active Navy, Army Reserve, and Army National Guard engineer units to work alongside the Romanian 10th Engineer Brigade and the U.K. Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers on training infrastructure at the Joint National Training Center in Cincu, Romania. Additionally, Resolute Castle has overseen engineering operations in Poland conducted by the 15th Engineer Battalion, 18th Military Police Brigade.

The mission supports Operation Atlantic Resolve through developing training infrastructure in eastern Europe, creating interoperability among NATO forces, and enhancing stability and resolve among Allied nations.

• Date Taken: 07.29.2017
• Date Posted: 07.30.2017 10:05
• Story ID: 243090
• Location: CINCU, RO
• Hometown: BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA, US
• Hometown: CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA, US
• Hometown: COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA, US
• Hometown: GREENVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA, US
• Hometown: MOBILE, ALABAMA, US
• Hometown: MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA, US
• Hometown: SUMMERVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA, US