Coming up on the Buckeye Guard, Airmen of the 180th Fighter Wing Security Forces
Squadron take to the range for crew-served weapons training. Soldiers of
the 1192nd Engineer Company meet training and readiness
requirements, while supporting the city of Youngstown. And Soldiers of the 2nd
Squadron, 107th Calvary Regiment are hoisted more than 300 feet.
Engineers of the 1192nd Engineer Company aid the city of Youngstown by
providing demolition support for ten houses during the Southside Blight
Removal and Greening Project. The city of Youngstown has an overwhelming blight problem
with about 3,500 homes that need taken down. So the past several years the city of
Youngstown has submitted IRT applications to team up with a unit to
come into the city and remediate some of the blights. We chose a neighborhood on
the south side of town that is overwhelmed with blight and houses that
need to be demolished. It's really a heart touching feeling to come to Youngstown
because basically when I was in high school I would play football, and we'd been
through this town a lot; going to camps, doing different things. You know interact with the
school of Youngstown. It means a lot to me to be here because as a 19 year old kid,
I'd never thought I'd have the opportunity to help community the way I
am. You know what there's been quite a bit of improvement in the neighborhood because
I tell you, when you get the blight out of the area these homes and that, the kids don't
have a place to go and do their dope; the gangs don't have a place, but when
these homes came down out of here, look at the garden here. This was like four
houses here and it was all messed up; and the city came and knocked them down and
we just put a guard about five years ago. And the kids here at the church here
they grew it up from seeds. So far in this partnership the guard has been able to
to tear down eight houses here and the residents are so excited and
receptive. Working on this house right up the road here and
there's this big family and they have a bunch of kids; and you just see their face light up because
they just, you know, they feel safe you know having us around, and that's a good
feeling because that's what we want. Our hope is that we will continue this
partnership whether it be on weekend tours or two-week training. Our hope is
that we will continue this for years to come and make a bigger impact in the community.
Members of the 180th Fighter Wing Security Forces Squadron took to
the range for their annual weapons qualifications training. We got out here
yesterday and shot the M203 grenade launcher. we used practice paint
rounds. Today we got out here to shoot the 249 and 240 and get some rounds down
range. The five days schedule at Fort Custer Training Center in Battle Creek,
Michigan included partnering with that States Army National Guard to train on
several types of weapons.
It's important to keep our combat skills ready as they deploy. In our case,
security forces actually deploy more than the average individuals within the
wings. So those combat skills are crucial for them to support combatant commander.
The squadron has to be mission ready to secure the wings Toledo area
the installation, personnel and equipment- and to deploy for base defense and
airfield security anywhere in the world.
With Brave Warrior 2017, an exercise that falls within Sabre Guardian 2017,
Soldiers of the 10 Cavalry Regiment demonstrated their training alongside
the Ohio Army National Guard and soldiers from Hungary, Czech Republic,
Poland, Slovakia, the United Kingdom and other NATO allies and partners. The
demonstration was to highlight the combat power through future operations
and show the capability of the NATO alliance working together. We're proud
allies of Hungary and an exercise like this where we have eight members of the
Alliance together, training together, you want to take advantage of it because the
more we can train together, learn from each other, increase our interoperability
the more prepared we are and that is the best way to maintain peace here on the
continent of Europe. What a fantastic opportunity to partner with the
Hungarians, the Croatians and other nations that participated in Brave
Warrior 2017. It's just a great opportunity for us to plan, prepare and
execute operations throughout the entire spectrum; to build alliances and to share
partnerships and build relationships that will last hopefully over time. In the
2-107 Cav. they have two motorised reconnaissance troops and then they have
a dismount of constants troop. Charlie Troop is the dismounted reconnaissance
troop, so we're actually a light infantry unit. We rely, you know, specifically on
aircraft for mobility. This drill weekend we're up at Camp Grayling,
Michigan for 4 days worth of worth of drill. We're
working on insertion technique, so basically how we get to where our
mission is; so focused on helicopter insertion and a couple different methods.
One of those is called SPIES and that is Special Patrol Insertion Extraction
System. There's a rope that hangs down from the helicopter and we have Soldiers
that are rigged into that and they get inserted or extracted from certain
missions. So I think a lot of people join the military in order to do training
like this. When we do SPIES I'm sure Soldiers will walk by on the street and
watch us and wonder, "Who is that?" and "What are they doing?" We don't do it, we're not
doing it just to be cool. It's actually part of our doctrine, but it is it is fun
and it's a lot of times what Soldiers want to do. Charlie Troop has a very
high retention rate, and I believe it is due to the leadership in the Troop and
the training that we conduct. So we had a conversation with the aviation commander.
We talked about if this had ever been done, specifically the SPIES rope
operations; and in his 30 years that has not been done in the Ohio National Guard.
We talked, there was actually a civilian that came
today that was from 5th Special Forces Group, and he said he hadn't seen
this done since Vietnam. Ohio National Guard members from as far back as World
War II joined current members to celebrate the Ohio National Guard's
229th birthday. They also marked the centennial anniversary of the 37th
Infantry Brigade Combat Team also known as the Buckeye Brigade. Today was special
because this is an opportunity for us to recognize that century of service. In
order to do that we reached out to all of the alumni and veterans of the 37th,
and then an opportunity for them to come be recognized for their service or
contributions to that 100 years of history. The Buckeye Brigade has
mobilized 7 times, most recently returning from a mission in Kosovo in
support of Operation Joint Guardian. You know, for them to still have these strong
feelings about a unit they served in 70 years ago and could come back all this way
at their age, this just says a lot about how important the Buckeye Division, the
Buckeye Brigade is to Ohio history.
To see more about the Ohio National Guard go to ONG.Ohio.gov or follow
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