Photo By Staff Sgt. Hector Tinoco | Indiana National Guard Staff Sgt. Cameron Bahl, a sniper with 1st Battalion, 151st...... read more read more
Subscribe
INDIANAPOLIS – For many National Guardsmen, their job in uniform becomes a passion and a hobby despite not directly correlating with their fulltime career.
Staff Sgt. Cameron Bahl is no exception.
While Bahl spends most of his days as an intensive-care unit nurse, on drill weekends he’s busy keeping his marksmen skills sharp as a sniper.
“I was always a good shot growing up. As a kid I was in shooting competitions, so I figured I’d give the Guard a shot,” said Bahl. “They had a sniper slot open, so I tried out and got it.”
Bahl began his military career as a tanker in the Marines. After a deployment to Afghanistan, Bahl was presented with a promotion which would move him to Louisiana. Rather than moving, Bahl decided to transition into the Indiana National Guard to hold on to his military and hometown roots. It was then that he heard about try outs for the Indiana National Guard’s sniper team.
Despite feeling fulfilled in an exciting new part-time career as a sniper with the 1st Battalion, 151st Infantry Regiment, Bahl still needed something that would fulfill him more during the week. At the time, Bahl was working in robotics, automation and industrial maintenance. Although it was financially lucrative, he wasn’t satisfied going into work every day.
Being a father and loving his children inspired Bahl to make a career change.
Taking advantage of his Department of Veterans Affairs educational benefits he attended the Galen College of Nursing in Louisville, Kentucky to become a nurse. Despite Bahl’s shamelessness which made him a perfect candidate in a field with little modesty, being exposed to child abuse cases turned him away from his original goal of working in pediatrics. Instead, he now works in the adult neurological intensive-care unit at Norton Brownsboro Hospital in Louisville.
Bahl realizes that his two passions seem contradictory yet, he argues that they have a lot more in common than one might think.
Both fields require a lot of critical and creative thinking because there is never a simple solution for the problems he faces and his intuition and ability to work through complex situations make him successful in and out of uniform.
As a nurse Bahl tackles whatever roles and responsibilities are necessary to care for a patient. This level of flexibility and ability to perform under pressure translates smoothly to a sniper.
“You can’t just be an infantryman. You have to be intel, you have to be comms, you have to be a medic. You have to be a lot of different things.”
By harnessing his skills and committing to fulfilling his passions, Bahl now spends his days saving lives in the ICU and serving his nation as a sniper.
That’s what it means to live here, work here and serve here.
| Date Taken: | 08.24.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 08.29.2022 11:49 |
| Story ID: | 427975 |
| Location: | INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, US |
| Hometown: | LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY, US |
| Web Views: | 250 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Indiana National Guard sniper spends days saving lives as nurse, by SSG Hannah Clifton, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
