Photo By Sgt. Andrew Winchell | Awards being set for future presentation to Soldiers October 14, 2020 in Kuwait....... read more read more
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Story by Sgt. Andrew Winchell, Task Force Spartan Public Affairs
ARIFJAN, Kuwait-- Soldiers in the personnel section or G-1 work hard to make sure Soldier movements and personal information for awards and other actions are correct and done promptly.
"Within the G-1, our primary focus is to take care of Soldiers," said Maj. John Harder, the assistant chief of staff for personnel with Task Force Spartan. "We work closely with our downtrace elements which are from all three components ( active, reserves and national guard), to be able to care for our Soldiers' needs."
The G-1 section has worked hard to make sure Soldiers can make it home for emergency leave, which hasn't been an easy task with COVID-19.
"One of the most important things we do is process letters of releases which are emergency leave and with COVID these have to be signed by a one or two-star general," said Harder. "I am proud of my team as we have been able to process these requests within hours of receiving them."
Tracking Soldiers' movements in and out of the theater is also a significant part of what the G-1 section does.
"We have to send up a daily report making sure we know where all the Soldiers of Task Force Spartan are and we have to get that right," said Harder. "Reacting to all the changes that COVID brought has made somethings difficult, but we have made sure to stay focused and complete our tasks."
COVID has had many different effects on all personnel assigned to the CENTCOM area of operation.
"We have processed more awards than the last three rotations before us," said Sgt. 1st Class Andrew Guckian who works for Harder in the TFS G-1.
Task Force Spartan works with the Theater Gateway to ensure all Soldiers are accounted for coming in and out of the area.
" Building a good partnership with the gateway has helped us to accomplish our mission.," said Harder. " Throughout this deployment, my team has more than quadrupled the number of personnel actions that the previous G-1 did; a a lot of which was due to COVID and units rotation in and out."
The G-1 is also responsible for processing awards and decoration Soldiers have earned during their deployment.
"We have to process awards for all of Task Force Spartan," said Harder.
With all the units coming in and out of the theater, Harder said his team processed upward of 2,000 awards.
"As a team, we have been able to accomplish a lot with a team smaller than what we should have and Soldiers from our fields," he added.
Short-staffed, the G-1 has also had to cross-train nonpersonnel Soldiers on how to accomplish what many on his team have been doing for years.
"There should be another 3-5 Soldiers in the section, but with the 15 soldiers here, the mission has been a success," said Harder. "Training Soldiers from other military occupations went surprisingly well for us and they have been a big help to the section.”
"I am proud of everyone's performance here; it's been remarkable," said Harder. "It has been great to see how some of our junior Soldiers have developed over this tour."
| Date Taken: | 10.20.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 10.20.2020 09:01 |
| Story ID: | 381281 |
| Location: | KW |
| Web Views: | 151 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Task Force Spartan G1; Gate Keepers for Personnel, by SGT Andrew Winchell, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
Army National Guard
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