Photo By Scott Sturkol | Participants in the Participants in the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve...... read more read more
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Organizers with the Wisconsin Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) held their 2025 Boss Lift event on June 4 at Fort McCoy that included Wisconsin National Guard UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters flying in employer representatives, static displays, a Commemorative Area visit, and more.
According to their website at https://www.esgr.mil/About-ESGR/Contact/Local-State-Pages/Wisconsin, the ESGR, a Department of Defense office, “is comprised of dedicated and trained volunteers and staff. (They) develop and promote employer support for Guard and Reserve service by advocating relevant initiatives, recognizing outstanding support, increasing awareness of applicable laws, and resolving conflict between employers and service members.”
The website states ESGR also “informs and educates service members and their civilian employers regarding their rights and responsibilities governed by the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA). ESGR does not have statutory authority to enforce, but serves as a neutral, free resource to employers and service members. ESGR’s trained ombudsmen provide mediation of issues relating to compliance with USERRA.”
On a Facebook post by Wisconsin ESGR, they also reviewed their Boss Lift event that took several hours on the installation.
“The Wisconsin National Guard provided six UH-60 Black Hawks to move 44 employers flying from Appleton, Eau Claire, Madison, Milwaukee and Wausau,” the post states. “These employers were brought to Fort McCoy and given briefings. … They saw a hands-on static display and then treated to MREs (Meals, Ready-to-Eat) for lunch.”
Wisconsin ESGR organizers also added a comment about visiting the Fort McCoy Commemorative Area at part of the event.
“Fort McCoy — thanks for the hospitality during our ESGR Boss Lift. The tour of the Fort McCoy Museum really enabled the employers to learn your history and understand Fort McCoy’s strategic role in our national defense.”
Boss Lift attendee Jenny Smith stated that she enjoyed participating in the event in a related post on the ESGR page.
“What an awesome opportunity,” Smith wrote. “Thank you for this.”
In addition to the National Guard Soldiers and flight crews with the Black Hawks, the Boss Lift participants also met with Wisconsin National Guard Soldiers from other units as well at the Wisconsin Military Academy, including academy staff.
At the Fort McCoy Commemorative Area, the Boss Lift participants were able to review Fort McCoy and Army history during June — Army Heritage Month. The area is managed by the Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office.
The Commemorative Area consists of the Fort McCoy History Center, Veterans Memorial Plaza, and the Equipment Park. The Commemorative Area also has five World War II-era buildings set aside to help tell Fort McCoy’s unique story, said current Fort McCoy Public Affairs Officer Tonya Townsell, who oversees the overall operations at the area. These facilities are representative of the types found in the cantonment area when it was constructed in 1942.
Three of the buildings — an administrative facility, a dining facility, and a barracks — are set up to depict Soldier life during the 1940s. Display items include a World War II chapel, bunk beds, footlockers, mannequins, and potbelly stoves. Another building highlights four different modern military training venues, and a separate facility shows various training aids.
The History Center is often the first stop for visitors in the Commemorative Area and was for Boss Lift visitors, Townsell said. The History Center features exhibits as well as displays of artifacts, photographs, and memorabilia that tell the story of Fort McCoy since its founding in 1909. The center first was opened in 1999 in building 902 when the Fort McCoy observed its 90th anniversary.
With Veterans Memorial Plaza, it was also a favorite stop for Boss Lift visitors for photos, and for reflection. Construction on Veterans Memorial Plaza began in 2006, as did the work to create the five Soldier statues on the memorial representative of each of the major conflicts that Fort McCoy had been involved with to that point in time: i.e., World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the war on terrorism, installation history shows.
Right across from Veterans Memorial Plaza is the Equipment Park as well, where Boss Lift visitors spent time looking over the exhibits there. The Equipment Park is an outdoor display of historic and present-day equipment representative of the types used on the installation, Townsell said. The design of the park allows for display of 70 pieces of equipment, ranging from helicopters and howitzers to trucks and trailers.
After seeing and visiting all the sites at McCoy, the Boss Lift participants loaded into the six Black Hawks and returned to their respective communities.
Learn more about the ESGR mission by visiting https://www.esgr.mil. See the Wisconsin ESGR Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/wi.esgr.
Fort McCoy’s motto is to be the “Total Force Training Center.”
Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin.
The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984.
Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/fortmccoywi, and on X (formerly Twitter) by searching “usagmccoy.”
Also try downloading the My Army Post app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base. Fort McCoy is also part of Army’s Installation Management Command where “We Are The Army’s Home.”
| Date Taken: | 06.22.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 06.23.2025 00:30 |
| Story ID: | 501198 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 38 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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