NCNGA Weekly Guardsman for August 30, 2018

August 30, 2018

 

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“I want to prove myself:” N.C. National Guard welcomes 1st female officers in infantry, armor branches Greensboro N&R 

Second Lt. Ashley Hurd is no stranger to the armor world.

For the past eight years, she’s served as part of the 30th Armored Brigade Combat Team, based in Clinton, as a track mechanic.

But now, Hurd has a new role within the brigade. She is the unit’s first female armor officer. And the first female armor officer in the North Carolina National.

Hurd, of Hope Mills, and another brand-new second lieutenant who became the state’s first female infantry officer, broke barriers when they were commissioned at Fort Bragg on Saturday.

State leaders welcomed the pair as part of an Officer Candidate School graduation at Kennedy Hall that was hosted by the North Carolina Military Academy.

The two women were commissioned following an accelerated OCS class, they said. They were among 19 new officers welcomed into the North Carolina National Guard.

The soldiers said becoming officers have helped them reach important milestones in their careers, but neither said they necessarily wanted the attention that comes with being barrier breakers.

“It’s actually a bit terrifying,” Hurd said. “I’m not doing this to be a first in anything.”

The new rank, she said, comes with a huge responsibility, not just as a leader of soldiers, but as an example for other female soldiers to follow.

“I want to do well,” Hurd said. “I want to prove myself.”

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Army pilot dies from Hanson crash during flight to spread father’s ashes Patriot Ledger 

Two brothers went to an airport in Hanson on Friday afternoon to take to the skies in order to spread their father’s ashes following his recent death.

Then, something went tragically wrong, when their yellow, single propeller plane crashed, sustaining significant front-end damage, ending up about 50 feet off from the Cranland Airport runway at the edge of Chandler Millpond.

The older brother, who was the pilot, later died on Saturday as a result of his injuries from the plane crash, after he was transported by a medical helicopter to Massachusetts General Hospital. He was identified by law enforcement and public safety officials as an Army National Guard soldier named Scott Landis. The Hanson man was 34 years old.

Scott Landis was on leave from Army National Guard service in Kosovo, following his father’s death on Aug. 7. Landis leaves behind a wife, Staci, and 1-year-old son, Jack.

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XCTC Prepares Soldiers for a National Training Center Rotation DVIDS 

Over 3,800 Guardsmen from North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia and Minnesota are participating in the 30th Armored Brigade Combat Team’s (ABCT) eXportable Combat Training Capability (XCTC) program in Fort Bliss, Texas from August 6-28, 2018.
The XCTC program, coordinated and managed by First Army and The National Guard Bureau, is a combat brigade size field training exercise designed to certify platoon proficiency.

First Army assigns Observer Coach Trainers down to the lowest unit levels. There they observe the 30th’s Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures and Standard Operating Procedures and determine if they meet the Commander’s training objectives and how well the unit performs during multiple scenario training lanes and live fire exercises.

“Since this is a National Guard unit going through the XCTC, First Army likes to augment the unit with Guard Soldiers because we have that communality with the training unit,” said Capt. Ashley Callahan, Observer Coach Trainer and Logistics Officer from the District Of Columbia National Guard. “We provide a different perspective and understand first had what these Guardsmen had to do to get here and train in this harsh environment”.

The goal of XCTC is to ready the 30th ABCT for its National Training Center (NTC) rotation in Fort Irwin, California. After the NTC rotation the 30th will be validated for potential overseas deployment.

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NC offered $10.4M for Army Futures Command Center and was willing to do more, documents show News & Observer 

U.S. Army leaders gave Austin “a slight edge” over Raleigh in both the size of its tech sector and the growth of its tech labor force when they sat down in July to decide where to put their new weapons-development headquarters, North Carolina’s lead recruiter for the project says.

Austin won out in the competition to host Army Futures Command, but “it was clear from the analysis that this was a very close call,” said Stuart Ruffin, executive director of the N.C. Military Foundation.

Ruffin was summarizing the results of a “debrief with the Army” that included participation from U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis and Gov. Roy Cooper. He did not know “with certainty” whether U.S. Sen. Richard Burr also joined the meeting, but said “all three offices participated.”

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Entry now open for the 11th Annual Len Adams Memorial Scholarship Golf Tournament NCNGA 

 

Have your golf team enter an 18-Hole Tournament. All proceeds going to the NCNGA Educational Foundation! The first $1000 will be given to the NCNGA Educational Foundation to award the Len Adams Scholarship in 2019. Click on the link to learn more about prizes, entry, and more!

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Become a Certified Medical Assistant (before Thanksgiving)! NCNGA 

Have a great new career by the holidays and keep the laptop!

Wait…What? Career Pathways Institute has opened its Raleigh Campus, located with the North Carolina National Guard Association! We have spent years successfully providing education to employment training that gets our students into career-oriented jobs with high demand, high wage positions! Now, its available here in the RDU region conveniently at the NCNGA offices!

So… What are we talking about here? For a complete list of what we are offering this fall, check out website at https://www.cpi.institute. Programs are in classroom and online and include certifications business, healthcare, IT and our newest addition, the Roofing Academy!

PLUS, we can accept NC TAP Funds for tuition as well as help you find other funding sources!

Check out the information below for specific information on one of the Healthcare offerings, becoming a certified Medical Assistant!

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August 30th — Today in Guard History National Guard 

1968 Chicago, Illinois – In what a later official government report would call a “police riot” the four-day Democratic National Convention and all of it’s accompanying violence and mayhem comes to close as 668 people are arrested and 111 are injured mostly by police overreaction. It’s 1968 and the war in Vietnam is going so badly that President Lyndon Johnson announced in March he would not run again for office. His Vice President, Hubert Humphrey, seen by many as supporting Johnson’s policies, is the Democratic nominee for the general election. To attempt to block the process and give their antiwar candidate, Senator Eugene McCarthy a chance to get the nomination, a varied group of protesters from students to black radicals to widows and parents of men already killed in the war gather to march on the convention center. Expecting trouble William Daily, the no-nonsense mayor of Chicago, calls out the Illinois National Guard as a back up to his police forces. Nearly 6,000 Guardsmen are placed on state active duty, but few are actually deployed to the streets to face protesters. Most are used to guard important government buildings from possible damage from “rampaging mobs” as one police official phrased it. The resulting investigation found little ‘mob’ action. Most people wanted to make their voices known in the convention center but were forcibly blocked by the police, leading to violence mostly by the police. The only incident where about 500 Guardsmen were involved with the crowds occurred this evening as they helped move the protesters, numbering in the thousands, back toward Lincoln Park to disperse them. The resulting report cleared the Illinois Guard of blame for the violence and in fact, stated in several instances Guardsmen intervened to block confrontation between the two warring sides. It’s perhaps a sobering reminder that during the week these events were unfolding in Chicago in Vietnam 308 American soldiers lost their lives, including five New Hampshire Guardsmen of the 3rd Battalion, 197th Artillery, killed by a landmine on August 26th.

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3rd NCNG Educational Foundation Cruise for Charity NCNGEF 

The North Carolina National Guard Education Foundation is holding it’s 3rd Cruise for Charity! Royal Carribean will set sail on their Adventure Of the Seas cruise on January 19, from Ft. Lauderdale. Cabins start at $709, with a $250/person deposit. Some of the proceeds from each cabin will go to the NCNG Education Foundation.

Click below to register, or email rbliley@cruiseplanners.com for questions.

Prices are per person, double occupancy, based on availability and subject to change without notice.

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