thedrifter
12-02-08, 07:08 AM
No bullets, but service still
by: MANNY GAMALLO World Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
12/2/2008 3:10:34 AM
SAND SPRINGS — Service with a smile.
That's the key operational phrase for 25 Army reservists who are heading to Fort Benning, Ga., on Wednesday for a year-long tour of duty in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The troops, all attached to the 800th Adjutant General Replacement Company, will be far from the front lines, but their mission at Fort Benning will put them face-to-face with those who have been.
In essence, the 25 reservists, mostly from the Tulsa area, will be processing paperwork for thousands of returning military personnel who for months have been dodging bullets and bombs.
Many of those returning troops are expected to be impatient, if not downright testy, at the one, last bureaucratic process that needs to be completed before they can be reunited with their families and friends.
That's where service with a smile comes into play, said Capt. Mark Allen Kottka of Owasso during a farewell ceremony Monday at Tulsa Community College's West Campus for the troops, who were joined there by their families and friends.
Kottka, who will command the 25 at Fort Benning, said his troops have been trained in all aspects of "customer service."
"They all have good social skills," he said.
Kottka said the ideal situation is to have each returning veteran processed out in seven working days.
"If we don't do that," he said, "then we will have failed."
Kottka knows all too well the impatience of a returning soldier, antsy to see family members again.
He, like thousands of others, faced the same bureaucratic process after recently returning from Iraq, including the 1991 Operation Desert Storm.
It's certainly not a mission lost on Staff Sgt. Paul Roberts of Broken Bow in McCurtain County.
He also had been a "customer" upon returning home after a 1994 deployment to Somalia with the Marines, so he knows what to expect when he helps process the returning troops.
Despite having been away from home before, Roberts, who is the director of a Choctaw Nation youth outreach program, said he will miss his family — his parents, James and Kizzie Roberts of Cromwell, in Seminole County, and especially his girlfriend, Jessie Ply of Boswell in Choctaw County.
Some of the reservists have been away from home before, but for most, the yearlong tour at Fort Benning will be their longest stint away from family and friends.
They will have furloughs available, so they can come home for certain holidays and birthday celebrations, but they will miss Christmas at home this year.
Spc. LaCresha LaClaire Lacy of Tulsa took special note of that fact — that she will have to be away from her 4-year-old daughter and 16-month-old son for Christmas.
She said it's sad and overwhelming to leave her children at this time of the year, but she noted that her mission is important.
During her time away, her in-laws, Lester and Pebbles Williams of Tulsa, will care for her children.
Other troops have had to put aside important things to make way for this mission.
Pfc. Doug Hall of Broken Arrow has one more semester left of economics studies at Oklahoma State University at Stillwater.
"I was set to graduate in May," Hall said, but now he has to wait a year to finish his remaining semester.
Ellie
by: MANNY GAMALLO World Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
12/2/2008 3:10:34 AM
SAND SPRINGS — Service with a smile.
That's the key operational phrase for 25 Army reservists who are heading to Fort Benning, Ga., on Wednesday for a year-long tour of duty in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The troops, all attached to the 800th Adjutant General Replacement Company, will be far from the front lines, but their mission at Fort Benning will put them face-to-face with those who have been.
In essence, the 25 reservists, mostly from the Tulsa area, will be processing paperwork for thousands of returning military personnel who for months have been dodging bullets and bombs.
Many of those returning troops are expected to be impatient, if not downright testy, at the one, last bureaucratic process that needs to be completed before they can be reunited with their families and friends.
That's where service with a smile comes into play, said Capt. Mark Allen Kottka of Owasso during a farewell ceremony Monday at Tulsa Community College's West Campus for the troops, who were joined there by their families and friends.
Kottka, who will command the 25 at Fort Benning, said his troops have been trained in all aspects of "customer service."
"They all have good social skills," he said.
Kottka said the ideal situation is to have each returning veteran processed out in seven working days.
"If we don't do that," he said, "then we will have failed."
Kottka knows all too well the impatience of a returning soldier, antsy to see family members again.
He, like thousands of others, faced the same bureaucratic process after recently returning from Iraq, including the 1991 Operation Desert Storm.
It's certainly not a mission lost on Staff Sgt. Paul Roberts of Broken Bow in McCurtain County.
He also had been a "customer" upon returning home after a 1994 deployment to Somalia with the Marines, so he knows what to expect when he helps process the returning troops.
Despite having been away from home before, Roberts, who is the director of a Choctaw Nation youth outreach program, said he will miss his family — his parents, James and Kizzie Roberts of Cromwell, in Seminole County, and especially his girlfriend, Jessie Ply of Boswell in Choctaw County.
Some of the reservists have been away from home before, but for most, the yearlong tour at Fort Benning will be their longest stint away from family and friends.
They will have furloughs available, so they can come home for certain holidays and birthday celebrations, but they will miss Christmas at home this year.
Spc. LaCresha LaClaire Lacy of Tulsa took special note of that fact — that she will have to be away from her 4-year-old daughter and 16-month-old son for Christmas.
She said it's sad and overwhelming to leave her children at this time of the year, but she noted that her mission is important.
During her time away, her in-laws, Lester and Pebbles Williams of Tulsa, will care for her children.
Other troops have had to put aside important things to make way for this mission.
Pfc. Doug Hall of Broken Arrow has one more semester left of economics studies at Oklahoma State University at Stillwater.
"I was set to graduate in May," Hall said, but now he has to wait a year to finish his remaining semester.
Ellie