Photo By Spc. Michael Germundson | The newest group of Oregon Army National Guard officers pose for a photo after their...... read more read more
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The Oregon Army National Guard’s 249th Regional Training Institute (RTI) held a commissioning ceremony for Class 61 of the Officer Candidate School (OCS), September 8, 2018, at Camp Withycombe, in Clackamas, Oregon.
The 14 new lieutenants spent the better part of 18 months training in the part-time OCS program. Local colleges offer Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) while attending school, however the 249th RTI offers the traditional OCS program in a three-phase course for Oregon Army National Guard Soldiers who already have a college degree.
“I wanted to challenge myself after 16 years enlisted - I wanted a leadership role,” said 2nd Lt. Brock Eckstein, with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 116th Cavalry Regiment.
For 2nd Lt. Brian Heil, an engineer with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 741st Brigade Engineer Battalion, the 249th RTI's OCS program fit his full-time job schedule and allowed him to be at home between drills with his wife and young daughter.
“I had deployed to Afghanistan and was a non-commissioned officer, but after 12 years and graduating with my master’s degree, I felt there’s a lot I can give back to the Guard as an officer,” said Heil. "OCS felt like a marathon, with hard weekends each month, but you come out more calm, collected and resilient.”
The Oregon Army National Guard OCS program was established 60 years ago on the site of the former Hill Military Academy in Portland, Oregon. In 1992, the Oregon Military Academy (OMA) was built to house the OCS program on the Western Oregon University campus in Monmouth, Oregon, and was the first armed service training center on the campus of a four-year, degree-granting university in the country. This year’s class is the 61st to commission, but the first to come from the newest OCS training site at Camp Rilea Armed Forces Training Center, in Warrenton, Oregon. In 2014, the 249th RTI headquarters was relocated to Camp Umatilla, but the OCS program stayed in Monmouth until a suitable space was secured at Camp Rilea to meet the school’s training needs and facility requirements.
Attending the 61st commissioning ceremony was retired Brig. Gen. Robert Wilson, a graduate of the first Oregon National Guard OCS class and the first alumni to become a general officer. He said the candidates and instructors were trailblazers in the new Oregon Guard OCS program at that time.
“There were forty of us and some were World War II Veterans,” Wilson said about the first class.
Wilson described what will help this new generation of officers succeed, “Having sensitivity to Soldiers, being the source of council, seeing the Soldiers are taken care of - being the example.”
The Oregon OCS program counts many alumni over the years, including Brig. Gen. William J. Prendergast, the current Oregon Army National Guard Land Component Commander.
| Date Taken: | 09.14.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 09.14.2018 20:04 |
| Story ID: | 292933 |
| Location: | CLACKAMAS, OR, US |
| Web Views: | 813 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
This work, Oregon Army National Guard commissions 61st class of officer candidates, by SPC Michael Germundson, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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