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Welcome home 1034th Contents The Iowa Militiaman Fall 2003 4 Iowa unit repairs anything The Adjutant General by Sgt. Greg Heath Maj. Gen. Ron Dardis A letter from Iraq Public Affairs Officer 5 Col. Robert King by 1st Sgt. Chris Fox Commanding Officer Maj. Michael Wunn 6 1034th Quartermasters return by 2nd Lt. Tim Mills Print Officer 2nd Lt. Melanie Meyer 8 Diversity goals updated Editor by Senior Master Sgt.Russ Schuck Sgt. 1st Class Duff E. McFadden 10 135th MPAD takes part in Staff Korea’s Ulchi Focus Lens 2nd Lt. Jamie Davis by Sgt. 1st Class Duff E. McFadden 2nd Lt. Tim Mills Master Sgt. Tim Saylor Sgt. 1st Class Paul Rieks 14 For love of the game Sgt. David Kyle by Sgt. 1st Class Paul Rieks Spc. Karla Rockwell Pfc. David Gomez Pfc. Alicia Dill 16 BCC-X established Pfc. Catie Beck by Lt. Col. Richard A. Breitbach Pvt. Heather Easton Photographer: Chuck Poch 17 Iowan earns AMC award The Iowa Militiaman is an By Col. Robert E. King unofficial publication authorized under the provisions of AR 360-81. It is published by the 135th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment, Camp In Memorial Dodge, Johnston, Iowa 50131, and is printed four times annually. Staff Sgt. Brian K. Betts The news and opinions expressed 1959-2003 in this publication are not necessarily those of the Adjutant General of 15 A long-time member of the 135th Mo- Iowa, or the Department of the Army. bile Public Affairs Detachment, Betts Address all submissions to: passed away Sept. 11 in Yarmouth, Iowa. The Iowa Militiaman 16 Betts served as pastor of Yarmouth’s 135th Public Affairs Detachment First Baptist Church and as chaplain for Camp Dodge the Des Moines County Hospice. 7700 NW Beaver Dr. He also served with the 82nd Air- Johnston, IA 50131-1902 borne Divison at Fort Bragg, NC. and in or E-mail: Germany. He deployed as part of Opera- [email protected] tions Desert Storm and Desert Shield. He is survived by this wife, Trudy, and daughters Amber and Ashlee, as well Deadline for the Winter issue as his parents, LeRoy and Vivian, and will be Dec. 1, 2003 brothers Alan and Roger. The Iowa Militiaman 2 Fall 2003 the Stay course Exactly two years have passed since terror- I ask everyone on the Iowa Team to help out ists attacked our homeland and initiated the in any way you can to ensure our families have Global War on Terror that has heavily involved the support they so richly deserve. Our soldiers the men and women of the Iowa National Guard. and airmen are performing their mission in an On Sept. 9, Lt. Gen. Roger Schultz, Director of outstanding manner, and are very proud of their the Army National Guard, was our distinguished accomplishments. We are also very proud of guest at an AUSA meeting. Schultz gave a very their accomplishments and give them our undi- energetic talk on the mobilization of the Army vided support and pray for their safe return. I will National Guard. His message was straightfor- soon be visiting our men and women in Iraq and ward – expect more Iowa men and women to be I will convey to them how proud we are of them called to serve this great nation in the Global War and how much we appreciate the sacrifices they on Terror. are making. Currently, we are pro- We held our Joint Ad- cessing soldiers of the 1- jutant General 113th Cavalry Squadron for Commander’s Conference their rotation to Bosnia and in August. The Command Kosovo. I wish them good group provided consider- TAG luck and God speed on this able information on (1) mission. Members of the 1- steps taken by the Iowa 194th Field Artillery have re- Guard to position the team Sends turned after a yearlong Op- for future success; (2) chal- Maj. Gen. eration Noble Eagle deploy- lenges and road ahead for Ron Dardis, ment. Congratulations to the the Iowa team; and (3) se- The Adjutant General soldiers and the leadership nior leadership perspective on a job well done. on key issues affecting the On Sept. 13 and Oct. 2, Reserve Component we welcomed home mem- forces. bers of the 1034th Quarter- I encourage the orga- master company from Af- nizational leadership to ghanistan. Also, since the share this information with last issue of The Militia- their soldiers and airmen. man, pilots from Detachment 34th OSACOM re- The Iowa Team is doing an outstanding job with turned home after a very successful deployment the transformation process to include re-roles, to Kuwait and Company B, 1-147th Aviation, from new missions, reorganization and the establish- their assignment with the 101st Airborne Divi- ment of the Joint Forces Headquarters-Iowa. We sion. clearly face challenges with the road ahead, Welcome home everyone! Outstanding per- ensuring our units remain ready, reliable and formances by all. relevant in the future – a challenge the Iowa Team Recently, the Vice Chief for the Army an- is ready for. nounced that all units mobilized in support of Lastly, on Aug. 21, Private 1st Class David Operation Iraqi Freedom would remain in country Kirchoff was laid to rest in Cedar Rapids. The for one year unless the combatant commander night before, I presented his family with the determines that unit is no longer needed. Bronze Star he earned while serving in Iraq. My This means our soldiers, husbands, wives, deepest sympathy to the Kirchoff family – their sons and daughters will be deployed longer than son is a hero to us all. expected. I encourage the families of deployed May we all pray that no more Iowans will members to continue to work closely with our have to give the ultimate sacrifice as we fight this Family Readiness team. war on terrorism. The Iowa Militiaman 3 Fall 2003 Iowa unit repairs anything mechanical, electrical by Sgt. Greg Heath 3654th 1st Sgt. Larry Kientz. 4th Public Affairs Detachment Many of the soldiers in the unit are full-time BAGRAM, Afghanistan — For soldiers at technicians who work for the Iowa National Bagram Air Field, if anything mechanical or elec- Guard maintaining military equipment back at trical breaks down there is only one place to their home stations. take them. “It’s pretty easy for us to keep on top of The challenges of keeping everything up and things,” said full-time technician Staff Sgt. Scott running falls into the laps of a small army of McKenzie, radio repair and electrical supervi- mechanics, electricians and metal workers from sor. the 3654th Maintenance Company, Iowa Army Often the only thing holding them back is National Guard. lack of parts to do the job. The 64 citizen-soldiers work on jobs ranging “It’s hard for us to get all the parts we need from repairing night vision goggles and Mark- here because Iraq has higher priority right now,” 19 Grenade Launchers, to overhauling humvee Stone said. engines and bringing broken air conditioners “Some days we’re busy, but some days we’re back to life. just waiting for parts and we can’t do anything,” “We’re all inclusive; we have all the shops said Spc. Rowland Valderrama. you would have in a peacetime environment in Even with the lack of parts, the unit has com- one company,” said 3654th Company com- pleted over 300 job orders in a little more than a mander Capt. Chad Stone. month in-country. The company encompasses a multitude of “Back home you had the luxury of having different maintenance functions, to include light every tool and every part and everything you and heavy wheel maintenance, an allied trade needed to get the job done,” said heavy wheel shop (metal work), communication equipment mechanic Staff Sgt. Noel Isaac. “Here you have repair, generator repair and armament repair to improvise just to keep things up and running. shops. “A lot of people will just put stuff on hold The company was mobilized in Iowa in while they wait for a certain part to get in, but Heavy-wheeled March and after two months at Fort Reilly, Kan., our guys will take the initiative and come up mechanics Sgt. being validated for active duty, they arrived at with a plan to make a needed part, fabricate it Gary Fuller and Bagram Airbase in late June. from scratch or plan another way to make it work. Spc. Marc Thurman Along with 11 planeloads of equipment, the It just shows how dedicated these guys are to remove the engine Iowa National Guard soldiers also brought a lot their job.” from a forklift while of experience with them to Afghanistan. As National Guard soldiers, they know some- completing repairs “As a National Guard unit, we’re unique in times people will have preconceived notions (US Army photo by that the jobs a lot of our people do here are the about what they are capable of accomplishing. Sgt. Greg Heath) jobs they do back home in everyday life,” said “I don’t think we’ve had to prove anything,” Stone said. “I think that there were some people initially that had some misconceptions about what a National Guard unit could do compared to an active duty unit, but once our soldiers got in the shops all those stereotypes were thrown to the wayside.” “If we weren’t a good unit we wouldn’t be over here,” added Sgt. Richard Ford, heavy- wheeled mechanic. “I know every morning at our formations they tell us that other units are talking about us already and saying we’re doing a good job, and that makes us feel pretty good.