Email   Print   Share By 2nd Lt. Cassandra Sherrod, 502nd HR Co., 4th STB, 4th Sust. Bde.

Facebook Digg Delicious August 2, 2012 | News

Pvt. Antetshia McNear, 502nd HR Co., 4th STB, 4th Sust. Bde., 13th ESC provides security as the company conducts convoy operations training at Fort Hood. 2nd Lt. Cassandra Sherrod, 502nd HR Co., 4th STB, 4th Sust. Bde.

Capt. Benjamin Walker, commander of 502nd HR Co., 4th STB, 4th Sust. Bde., 13th ESC, smiles as medics from the 1st Med. Bde. give him an IV for instructional purposes during casualty and first aid training during the unit’s field training exercise. 2nd Lt. Cassandra Sherrod, 502nd HR Co., 4th STB, 4th Sust. Bde.

Soldiers with 502nd HR Co., 4th STB, 4th Sust. Bde., 13th ESC, practice getting on line and attacking an objective during individual movement technique training at Fort Hood, July 13. 2nd Lt. Cassandra Sherrod, 502nd HR Co., 4th STB, 4th Sust. Bde.

Sgt. Kelley Shearn, a squad leader with 502nd HR Co., 4th STB, 4th Sust. Bde., 13th ESC, prepares to throw a grenade in the prone position during the company’s grenade qualification course July 26. 2nd Lt. Cassandra Sherrod, 502nd HR Co., 4th STB, 4th Sust. Bde.

In preparation for the company’s upcoming deployments this fall, the 502nd Human Resources Company, 4th Special Troops Battalion, 4th Sustainment Brigade, 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) spent a meticulous amount of time in June and July preparing for a theater environment.

To kick off pre-deployment training, the company spent three days in the field focusing on their mission down range: postal operations, personnel accountability and casualty liaison operations. Soon thereafter, the company completed rollover training, a hand-grenade qualification course, and Modern Operations in Urban Terrain training before beginning their Soldier Readiness Processing.

Although the company will be separated by platoons and specialized teams throughout Kuwait and Afghanistan, training together as an entire company has allowed Soldiers to widen their horizons in all aspects of human resources operations and come together as one team to prepare for the deployment.

“Each platoon will have its own individual mission when it is down range, but the war we fight these days has no lines, and every Soldier must be able to defend and attack the enemy wherever he or she may be,” said 1st Lt. Jacob Black, the company’s operation officer.

Allowing Soldiers to experience a variety of deployment-based situations, such as convoy operations and hand-grenade training, has allowed the human resource Soldiers who normally spend time focused on administration and office-type duties to experience hands-on training in combat arms situations. Today’s ever-changing Army has allowed HR Soldiers to become part of a larger sustainment population, brought closer by prolonged wars in two separate theaters.

“We are asked every day to be better than what we were before. If today we are masters in administration, tomorrow we may asked to be a master of arms, and we must be every vigilant to answer the call of this nation,” Black said.

“I think it is great,” said Sgt. Lakisha McClendan, squad leader, 502nd HR Co. “It brings the Soldiers something to do on a day-to-day basis, because our current mission doesn’t allow us to do our full job until we are down range; these training events allows us to engage the Soldiers, especially because they cannot train on their jobs until they are at their jobs.”

The company’s final training event before deploying will be Silver Scimitar located at Fort Devens, Mass. Silver Scimitar is a two-week training event held annually to provide HR Soldiers the training and capability to provide services, such as payroll, awards, casualty reports, movement in and out of theater, and postal operations.

Combat units typically use the National Training Center and the Joint Readiness Training Center to validate combat arms and combat support units, while human resource units attend Silver Scimitar.