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    Guard Experience event lifts veil on Guard life for Soldiers on Staten Island

    145th Maintenance Company hosts Guard Experience

    Photo By Cpl. Nnaemeka Onyeagwa | U.S. Army Sgt. Cled Harris, a small arms and artillery repairer assigned to the 145th...... read more read more

    STATEN ISLAND , NY, UNITED STATES

    09.09.2018

    Story by Cpl. Nnaemeka Onyeagwa 

    New York National Guard

    Staten Island, N.Y. – Potential Soldiers got a chance to learn about the life in the New York Army National Guard during a Guard Experience event held by the 145th Maintenance Company here at the unit armory Sept. 9.

    The aim of the Guard Experience event was to give civilians and potential prospects an opportunity to experience firsthand career field of maintenance Soldiers, learning about the Soldiers’ equipment and current opportunities in the New York Army National Guard, said Sgt. Corye Douglas, a 369th Sustainment Brigade career counselor who helped organized the event.

    The event was held during a unit training weekend. This allowed unit Soldiers to be in the middle of training with their equipment and explain their jobs and responsibilities, Douglas said.

    It also gave other Soldiers not assigned to the unit a chance to come and learn about opportunities in the unit while the company was training.
    Equipment displayed for the public reflected the theme of shoot, move and communicate for the Army National Guard. These included:

    --Medium Tactical Vehicle cargo trucks with armor protection kits and armored rear troop carrier compartments.
    --Single-Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System, a combat-net radio for secure tactical communications.
    --Company weapons such as the M249 light machine gun, M4 carbine, and M203 grenade launcher.

    The Guard Experience for both fellow Soldiers and the public was a natural choice, Douglas said. There’s no retention without recruitment, he explained.

    New York Army National Guard Sgt. Cled Harris, a small arms and artillery repairer with 19 years of service with the 145th Maintenance Company, attended the Guard Experience with his son Tyquan.

    Tyquan Harris is already in the process of joining the Army National Guard, and the event gave him a better experience of life in a Guard unit for him to be better informed, the older Harris said. This kind of event would have been good for him, he added.

    “When I joined, guidance and counseling on military career paths was not available then,” Cled Harris said.

    “The Army was the best thing that happened to me. It gave me opportunities that I would never have growing up in Harlem,” he said.

    “I want opportunities for me and my family,” Tyquan Harris said. “My father, grandfather and sister have all served. I want to continue that lineage.”

    The retention benefit of the event focused on the career paths for Soldiers in the unit and in the region.

    “When I was recruited, they did not really tell me much, they just gave me my contract to sign,” said Fabian Estrada Reyes, a former member of the unit who came to finalize a new reenlistment contract.

    The Guard Experience helps explain what Soldiers do in the National Guard and what new Soldiers and their families might expect, Reyes said.
    “This is good way to get people steady and calm their nerves before maybe signing an enlistment contract,” Reyes said.

    This is the first time the unit has done this type of event, Douglas explained. The goal was to encourage Soldiers to invite their civilian coworkers, associates and friends to give them a taste of what they do on training weekends.

    The event allows Soldiers themselves to talk about the benefits their service has given them in their personal life, Douglas said.

    The Army helped him with structure and discipline in school, he said, without which he would not have been able to finish college.

    “I have been in the Guard this long because it has been fulfilling,” Douglas said. “I think most people should get to experience it.”

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    NEWS INFO

    Date Taken: 09.09.2018
    Date Posted: 10.16.2018 14:40
    Story ID: 296631
    Location: STATEN ISLAND , NY, US

    Web Views: 72
    Downloads: 0

    PUBLIC DOMAIN