Photo By Maj. Robert Taylor | Command Chief Warrant Officer Tim Roberts will retire from the Idaho Army National...... read more read more
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As the son of a career Army non-commissioned officer, Chief Warrant Officer 5 Tim Roberts grew up thinking the Army wasn’t for him. On Jan. 31, Roberts will retire from the Idaho Army National Guard after nearly 39 years of total military service, including the past four as the Idaho’s Command Chief Warrant Officer.
It’s been a career full of change as he’s seen the Army Guard convert from Vietnam-era helicopters and equipment to its more modern aircraft, with the facilities to match.
“I often look back at my tenure here and I’m always amazed at how things do change,” Roberts said. “It’s been an evolutionary change instead of a revolutionary change.
His father’s career took his family through New Jersey, California, France, New Jersey, Hawaii, California, Kansas and California before settling down in Washington, where Roberts graduated high school.
His dad, a retired master sergeant, wanted Roberts to go to West Point, but Roberts decided to attend community college instead. He had already completed vocational training in electronics technology in a high school technical annex and took courses in computer architecture at a technical college. These skills would eventually lead to his selection in 2013 as the Idaho Army National Guard’s fourth Command Chief Warrant Officer.
It probably wasn’t an assignment Roberts thought was a possibility when he enlisted in the Washington Air National Guard in 1979 to help fund the rest of his education.
From the ground to the sky
Roberts had joined the Washington Air National Guard because he grew up with a strong love of airplanes, but he had joined a unit without planes. When the saw the Army National Guard unit across the street had received new AH-1F Cobras, he quickly transferred into the unit.
Because of his civilian education and training, he wasn’t required to attend a Military Occupational Specialty school.
That unit, part of the 116th Armored Calvary Regiment, was a sister unit to the Idaho Army National Guard’s 116th element. Through that connection, Roberts learned of a full-time civilian position opening in Idaho and moved to the state in 1984 after getting hired for that job.
As an avionics technician, Roberts spent a lot of time in the cockpit with test pilots. It wasn’t very long until those pilots started to suggest that he became a pilot himself.
The self-described airplane nut had strong interest flying airplanes, but had never considered flying helicopters. Growing up, a family friend, who was an Air Force pilot and like an uncle to him, would let him fly in his small plane.
“The helicopter looked intriguing to me,” Roberts said. “I never actually considered flying them until I saw those Cobras and thought, ‘those are kind of interesting. I wonder what those are like to fly.’”
With the encouragement and support of his unit, he applied and was selected to flight school as a warrant officer candidate in 1986.
Today, warrant officer candidates attend Warrant Officer Candidate School (WOCS) and are promoted to the rank of warrant officer 1 upon completing that school. However, warrant officer candidates in 1986 had to attend warrant officer school and their follow-up basic officer course, and flight school in Roberts’ case, to be promoted past the candidate rank. Roberts had to attend the year-long flight school as a warrant officer candidate and would not have been promoted to warrant officer 1 without successfully completing flight school.
Roberts has been a rated aviator since and has logged nearly 2,400 hours of flight time.
He was selected as the company training officer for Company B, 1-116th Attack Helicopter Battalion in 1988 by then Maj. John Goodale, in an Active Guard Reserve (AGR) position, a couple years before the 116th’s realignment and formation of the 1st Battalion, 183rd Aviation Regiment (Attack Helicopter).
In 1993, Capt. Michael Garshak left the active duty branch to become Company B’s company commander. Garshak currently serves as the state’s adjutant general and Goodale is the assistant adjutant general- Army.
Since 1988 Roberts has served in a number of both traditional and full-time positions.
“Every time I’d get a new assignment, I’d look at it as a new challenge,” Roberts said. “I like adapting to and learning new things.”
In 2000, he was selected as the Army Aviation Support Facilities (AASF) production control officer, which he considers the most challenging position in his career. This position made him responsible for the maintenance of the Idaho Army Guard’s rotary-wing fleet for the next seven years.
Operation Enduring Freedom 05-07
Roberts deployed in that role in 2006 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom 05-07 with Task Force Talon, which was made up of the Idaho Army National Guard’s 1-183rd Aviation Battalion (Attack) and additional units.
There he worked closely with the task force commander, Lt. Col. Collier Lipple, and provided him with the combat aircraft he used to complete daily missions. Roberts oversaw operational maintenance on eight Apaches, ten Blackhawks and two Chinooks.
The task force deployed to Forward Operating Base Salerno, located near Khost, Afghanistan, and close to the Pakistan border. The FOB received so many rocket and indirect fire attacks that it was known as “Rocket City.”
However, rockets were not what caused the most damage to the task force’s helicopters during the deployment. Hail did.
During the deployment, the task force was hailed on by baseball to softball-sized hail, which left seven Apaches severely damaged. The only one that was not damaged had been inside the maintenance tent during the storm.
Most of the Apaches’ windscreens and main rotor blades were damaged and required replacement. It took a week and an all-out coordinated effort across the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) and Aviation and Mission Command (AMCOM) to help mend all of the damage. Parts were shipped from as far away as the East Coast of the United States to repair the helicopters.
Roberts became the AASF’s quality assurance/quality control officer in 2007 and the aviation material officer/aviation group property book officer in 2010.
Leading the way for the Warrant Officer Corps
Roberts said his final position as the state’s Command Chief Warrant Officer was his most rewarding position, and said it was the capstone of all of his previous assignments.
“Each assignment prepared me for the next one,” he said.
His biggest challenge was developing the position’s role within the Idaho Army National Guard and the warrant officer cohort. There was no handoff for him to build from, so he started by researching what the position should be by contacting the National Guard Bureau, which put him in contact with the executive council chair for its senior warrant officer group.
Roberts used the information and knowledge gained there to develop his position’s job description, day-to-day responsibilities, and contributions to the state’s warrant officer cohort.
He said his two biggest accomplishments were establishing a senior warrant officer advisory council, which gives the state’s senior warrant officers the chance to weigh in on issues important to the cohort at the state level; and development of the Idaho warrant officer career management and leader development strategy that eventually became IDARNG PAM 600-101.
Roberts’ retirement ends a near 39-year career that spans five decades, including 33 years in the Idaho Army National Guard.
“Over the years, I witnessed IDARNG Soldiers grow as a culture, through fundamental changes in attitude, character, leadership, and professionalism from the post-Vietnam era when we were a second-class, underfunded and underequipped Compo, to today’s outstanding combat and support units,” he said. “Turning final approach toward retirement, it’s good to look back fondly to see how the Idaho Army National Guard has evolved into a first-class organization.”
Just as he’s witnessed the growth of the organization’s culture, he’s also witnessed the growth of Gowen Field facilities throughout this career.
“One of the big changes has been the facilities here, which came with the different kinds of equipment we’ve brought in. The more advanced equipment is, the more advanced the facilities are. The leadership has been very good about modernizing the base as we’ve gone along.”
“As I close this chapter of my life, I would like everyone to know that it was the people of this fine organization that made this journey so rewarding. Idaho’s Guard truly represents magnificently at the national level because of you, the exceptional members past and present that call this great state home.”
Roberts married Tammy Roberts in 1993. They live in Boise, Idaho, with their four children: Michael, 21; Tia, 17; Mitchell, 14; and Tara, 8.
| Date Taken: | 11.21.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 11.21.2017 19:12 |
| Story ID: | 256212 |
| Location: | BOISE, ID, US |
| Hometown: | BOISE, ID, US |
| Web Views: | 714 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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