Photo By Master Sgt. Rhonda Lawson | Sgt. Matthew Garwood, the command sergeant major’s truck commander with the 3rd...... read more read more
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JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq— Most people in the 3rd Sustainment Brigade, 103rd Sustainment Command (Expeditionary), who know Sgt. Matthew Garwood, know him as a quiet professional. As the brigade command sergeant major’s truck commander, he goes about his job unassumingly, performing his duties quietly, occasionally laughing with his friends on the brigade’s Personnel Security Detachment.
Only when you sit down and talk with him, will you learn that the Jamaica native is on the downward slope of his fourth deployment to Iraq, and is the recipient of the Purple Heart, Bronze Star, Combat Action Badge, and the Army Commendation Medal with Valor, among others. Only through focused conversation will you learn that in his eight years in the Army, he has completed more than 330 combat missions, and is serving with his third PSD team, all before the age of 27.
Although Garwood is a logistics specialist by trade, he volunteered to be a part of the PSD for three straight deployments.
“Letting Sgt. Garwood join my PSD again was the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Clifton Johnson, Command Sgt. Maj. and senior enlisted adviser of the 3rd Sustainment Brigade, and a Lima, Ohio, native. “But he’s my gunner; he took care of me. And I knew what assets he brought to the team.”
The decision wasn’t an easy one because Johnson knew the dangers Garwood, who had only lived in the United States for two years before enlisting, had seen over the years.
Although Garwood’s first deployment to Camp Dogwood, Iraq during OIF I with Headquarters, Headquarters Company, 3rd Infantry Division Support Command was relatively short and quiet, his second during OIF III would prove to be one he’d never forget.
“That was a really tough deployment,” he said. “We lost half of our platoon. We got hit on the regular. Those were bad days.”
One of his buddies, Spc. Lito Santos, who was the first gunner on Garwood’s High Mobility Multiwheeled Vehicle, lost his leg after one particular blast. He didn’t return to the team, but everyone on the PSD remained in close touch with him. The losses actually managed to draw the team closer.
“Every time we rode together, we knew that we were riding for each other,” Garwood said.
“I could finish their sentences. I know everything about them. Family members, you name it. It made me a lot more mature.”
The team became so close that when the brigade, redesignated as the 3rd Sustainment Brigade, prepared to deploy to Q-West, Iraq in 2007, none of them hesitated to again volunteer for the PSD.
“The support was there. We already knew what made each individual happy, [and] what makes them sad,” Garwood explained. “The gelling of the team was already there.”
He added that he and his buddies helped mentally prepare the new PSD members.
“They were quick learners. Whatever they asked, whatever we thought they needed to know, we put it out there,” he said. “I let them know how serious it is. We gave them the reassurance that no matter what, we’re going to get you. No matter what happens, we’re here. The rest of it is training.”
That training paid off when the team was hit with an improvised explosive device while traveling to another forward operating base. The IED knocked Garwood, now assigned as first gunner, completely unconscious. When he came to and looked into his Mine Resistant Armor Protected Vehicle, all he could see was smoke, so he left the turret hatch, and looked for the radio.
“I thought it was on fire. I didn’t know what was going on,” he said. “I picked up the mic and I said to the whole convoy, ‘IED, IED! We just got hit!’”
He then found that his driver and TC were still alive. The driver managed to keep the MRAP on the road and stayed with the convoy until they got to safety.
“It could have been a lot worse. He caught on real fast,” said Garwood. “He saved our lives that night. Nobody panicked.”
It is this teamwork and discipline that keeps Garwood, who received the Purple Heart after that incident, coming back to the PSD. Although he said he performs his logistics job proudly in the United States, he loves the camaraderie of the PSD.
“When I’m in the States, I work in the warehouse,” he said. “You don’t get half the teamwork, the bonding, the brotherhood checking parts every day. You don’t get that from working in an office every day. [In the PSD], everybody’s together, working for the same goals.”
Today, Garwood is the only person from his original team on the 3rd Sus. Bde. PSD team. The rest of them either permanently changed stations, their time of service were over, or were medically retired. However, Garwood still maintains the same sense of teamwork with his new team. He ensures the team is trained and taken care of.
“Overall, the team has benefitted from his experience,” Johnson said.
Staff Sgt. Jonathan Denton, PSD operations noncomissioned officer with the 3rd Sus. Bde, and a Rolling Meadows, Ill., native, noted that he was one of the people who benefitted from Garwood’s experience.
“Because I came from recruiting, I have a lot of operational sense, and he has a lot of tactical sense. We actually worked together well,” he explained. “I would give him a lot of the bigger scope stuff, and he would teach me on some of the smaller scope things. We learned from each other.”
He added that those lessons learned came into play the day the team was hit with simultaneous IED blasts earlier in the deployment.
“He talked to a lot of the younger guys, especially me being 29 years old, and some of these guys being 21 years old and it being the first time some of us had been outside the wire,” Denton said. “He talked them through the situation so they could kind of adapt to what’s going on.”
The incident brought back some memories for Garwood.
“Even now that I’m back here travelling the same roads, it gets to me sometimes. Things are a lot quieter, but it’s the same roads, same routes, same everything. It brings back a lot of memories. You never forget stuff like that. You never forget where they happened or how they happened.”
He added that staying in touch with his former teammates from OIF III helps him to get through the tougher situations both at home and in the deployed environment.
“They’re the only ones who really understand,” he said.
In fact, he plans to visit Santos once he goes on leave this month. Aside from spending time with his old friend, he also plans to present him with a signed flag that’s been flying over JBB for the past two months.
There were some highpoints for Garwood during OIF III. He met his wife, whom he was deployed with at the time. They were married two years ago, and now have a daughter. Although she is no longer in the Army, he said she supports him staying in if he chooses to do so.
He admitted, however, that she and his parents, who still live in Orlando, Fla., do worry about him continually joining the PSD. Knowing this, he calls them regularly to let them know he’s okay.
“Communication is a lot better now than it was in the early days,” he said. “I don’t go into details, but I will let them know that I’m okay.”
He also admitted that although they worry, he can’t say he will stay away from the PSD if the opportunity is offered again.
“I’m good at it,” he said. “It’s what I do.”
| Date Taken: | 02.06.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 02.06.2011 18:48 |
| Story ID: | 64907 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE BALAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 290 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, PSD Soldier sets example, helps build team, by MSG Rhonda Lawson, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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