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News From Colorado
Greetings from Pueblo Chemical Depot! Life at PCD has not changed much since the last letter, although Fall is definitely here! Temperatures have dropped into the 20s on more than one occasion and the days of 80 and 90 degree heat are long gone with highs now in the 60s and low 70s. We have not seen any snow here in Pueblo yet, but we are told it will be here soon. The mountains have already seen their share as the peaks are all covered in snow. Training has not let up, though. We are continuously training here with most recent training including Water Survival training, Combat Life Saver training and certification, CTT, land navigation and more weapons qualification and familiarization. The week of 13 August was water survival training. Each soldier learned how to react to unexpected entry into the water wearing their full BDUs. The soldiers learned how to create personal floatation devices (PFDs) from their BDU shirts and trousers. Once they felt comfortable and confident they were not going to sink, they "floated" using their expedient PFDs for 5 minutes. To get soldiers accustomed to moving through water and swimming with their BDUs, the training was followed with games of water polo. Moving through the water with all that weight on really exercises the muscles! Next up was Land Navigation and CTT. 1SG Butler and SGT David Bernier, from the 142nd FA out of Arkansas, set up a land navigation course here on the depot. Each squad moved from one point to the next, starting with a mounted land navigation portion followed by a dismounted portion. During the mounted portion, they practiced vehicular movement, speed control, distance, and calling in checkpoints using proper radio protocol. Once that portion was complete, the soldiers dismounted and completed their first of a series of common task tests. The soldiers were given the grids to their next points, and instructed to move to the next point in different tactical formations for urban terrain. At each successive point, "testers" waited to grade the squad on different common tasks ranging from weapons maintenance, NBC-which involved reacting to a chemical attack and moving to another point and conducting decontamination and demasking procedures, field hygiene and buddy aid. All those nights spent going over CTT over and over and over again seemed to pay off as the "boys" did very well. The week of 21-26 September was dedicated to Combat Life Saver Training. Our cluster command offered us the instructors for a week, so we took advantage of it and certified all but two soldiers who were at schools and one soldier whose wife had just given birth. We all had a good time with it, even those soldiers who claimed they were deathly afraid of needles and could never see themselves giving an IV to another soldier. Everyone who started the class finished it. So, we will be sending 23 Combat Lifesavers to Arkansas and 13 back to Missouri. The New Mexico Soldiers were already certified along with a handful from both Missouri and Arkansas, so we went ahead and recertified them so they are good for another year. I have included some pictures below. The off duty activities have not slowed down yet, either. Since the last letter, we have been to Cripple Creek for a little gambling, a Colorado Rockies game, the Coors Brewery, and we are headed to the Air Force/BYU game this coming weekend. And since we are going up north again for the game, another trip to the brewery will probably be on the schedule. It should be a good time. This past weekend was by far the biggest event in the past couple of months. It was spent in a small town just south of the depot, Avondale, CO. They held a parade to honor the veterans of the community and asked if we could lend any support. In true Army National Guard fashion, we quickly stepped up and offered our service to the surrounding community. 1SG Butler and I joined the parade committee to offer our services to help organize the event and again to offer any help we could. The tasks given to us were to provide a Color Guard and to cook pancakes and eggs for the parade participants and patrons. 1SG Butler and I accepted the tasks. We borrowed an MKT, and 2 1/2T truck, and a GP Medium tent from a local National Guard Armory in Pueblo, C Battery 2/157th FA. The parade was sponsored by a local pub, who donated the food and drinks for us to prepare and serve. The weekend started at about 0800 Friday 15 October with SGT Bernier (Arkansas) picking up the MKT and the tent. The boys set up the tent and got the MKT ready for the next morning. Next came the eggs-1500 of them! No powdered eggs or concentrate here. We were cooking real eggs and they all had to be cracked, all 1500 of them. As they say, many hands make light work so that did not take as long as some thought. The day progressed with more set-up and getting the town ready for the parade. The evening was dedicated to a semi-formal "kickoff" ceremony for the parade, where yours truly and my outstanding group of soldiers were honored for our support along with the many veterans for whom the parade was organized. On a side note, I must voice to you how truly humbled I was to be in the presence of so many men and women who fought those years ago and made the life we enjoy now possible. There were veterans from WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Panama, and Desert Storm. I honestly lost track of the number of people who shook our hands and thanked us for what we are doing today. We, of course, returned the thanks acknowledging that had these extraordinary people not made the sacrifices they did in the past, we would not be living the life we do now. My message to you: Thank a veteran. Make an effort to shake his or her hand, look them in the eyes, and truly thank them. The next morning started at 0330 with SGT Bernier firing up the MKT and getting ready for the crowd of people that would start lining up by 0800. He and his "mess crew" were well under way within an hour cooking all those dozens and dozens of eggs and mixing batter for the hundreds of pancakes people would be lining up for. And line up they did! After all, who could pass up a free meal? Feeding all these people was no small feat, especially out of ONE MKT. Additionally, the parade participants were fed from a church down the street. That meant that we had to transport food to the church and serve from two different locations. SSG Jason Ratliff and SGT William Stewart took the lead on serving the participants with SPC Jared Sage right at their side. 1SG Butler supervised the operation at the MKT and serving tent for the patrons and helped run food and empty containers back and forth to between the MKT and the serving tent. Everyone was busy. Yours truly made and ran juice back and forth between the pub and the serving tent and maintained coordination with the parade coordinator. All said and done, we brewed and served 30 gallons of good ole' Army coffee, 22.5 gallons of juice, 1500 eggs and roughly 1500 pancakes to between 1250 and 1500 people. The only thing that was not done through the MKT was the juice. Outstanding job by all 22 soldiers who participated. Arkansas, New Mexico and Missouri were all well represented. The parade kicked off without a "hitch" at 1100 with a low altitude fly-by of a C-130. Then came our Color Guard, who did very well and looked very good. The parade route was half of a mile, and the boys stayed in step and on line the entire route. SPC Brian Hoberg and SPC David Fry from the 129th FA participated in the Color Guard along with SGT Cecil Nichols from Arkansas and SPC Jeremy Vargas from New Mexico. Again, the states were very well represented by their soldiers. I have also included a few pictures from this event below. As stated in my previous newsletters, life here on the depot itself has been uneventful, but that's how we like it with the chemical munitions. No news is good news! The soldiers are starting to make plans to go home for the holidays. We have adjusted our rotation so that one platoon will get Thanksgiving off and the other will get Christmas off, with priority going to the lower ranking soldiers first. Everyone will get an opportunity to go home, they may just have to celebrate the holiday a week early or late. That's all I have for now. Until next time, take care and enjoy the pictures below! Sincerely, James Knickerbocker Commander, Task Force Pueblo Greetings from Pueblo Chemical Depot! For those of you who are not familiar with our Task Force, we are comprised of soldiers from units across three different states as represented by the unit patches above. In order from left to right is the 129th FA from Missouri, the 142nd FA from Arkansas, and 4-200 ADA from New Mexico. Although we are all Artillery in one sense, we are all different types of Artillerymen. We have cannon cockers (gun bunnies, breech creatures), rocket jockeys, and duck hunters all mixed in together. Some of us are still trying to figure out what that thing in the middle of 4-200's crossed cannons is supposed to be…. The guys have all integrated well, are working very well together, and have adapted to the 24 hour schedules. Things remain relatively calm out here, but that is the way we like it with chemical munitions! One noteworthy event is the poachers our guys discovered and helped to apprehend. One of our roving patrols saw what he determined to be headlights near the perimeter of the depot late one night. He called for assistance, and with the help of another patrol, ended up helping direct the local authorities to the vehicle. Upon reaching the vehicle, five individuals were discovered with rifles and arrested for poaching. The DA folks out here at the depot do not like cameras, so we cannot take too many pictures of what we actually do out here-it's all about OPSEC! So, the pictures we send will mostly be wildlife, mountains, and the occasional soldier posing for a harmless snapshot. Otherwise, life out here is pretty good. The soldiers are all off of their lockdown as of a couple weeks ago and are enjoying their new-found freedom with frequent trips into Fort Carson, Pueblo, the local lake, and even a recent trip to the Royal Gorge in Canon City. 1SG Butler and I spent most of the weekend trout fishing. The trout up here are nice and big, and very tasty I might add. We are hoping to save up enough trout to have a unit cookout. If the next couple of weekends are anything like this last one, it won't take us long! Not much else going on, but I have included some pictures for you below. Take care and keep us posted on the happenings of our fellow soldiers! Sincerely, CPT James Knickerbocker Commander, TF Pueblo 18 May, 2004 CPT Kickerbocker, 1SG Butler, SSG Ratliff, SGT Stewart, SPC Bennett, SPC Hoberg, SPC Fry, SPC Hartman, SPC Banks, SPC Hosey, SPC Knouse, PFC Scott and PFC Sage from the 129th FA BN assigned. Just an update on how things are going in Pueblo. It's almost the end of June and the weather still is eratic. During the last month the work on depot has become relatively second nature. Events during the month included a trip to Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD for soldier/nco of the year boards for the Research Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM) by the 1SG and two soldiers from Arkansas, organized trips to NORAD in the Cheyenne Mt. Air Force Station, organized trips to Canyon City for white water rafting and several small group trips to areas around the Pueblo area. Everyone has been home on pass at least once and that was a major morale booster. All soldiers are doing well but, naturally they miss home and the other D Btry. soldiers, but we are all making the best of being away. The second week of June, we were surprised to receive a package from the FRG - THANKS & WAY TO GO FRG!!! Be safe and keep up all the excellent work. 1SG Butler Situated about 35 miles from Pikes Peak, b-e-a-utiful scenery. All types of wildlife seen from the barracks, deer,antelope,rabbits and coyotes. Snow seems to come and go, just as quickly as it came. (sounds like Missouri) still on lock down, so the occassional trip to Walmart in the government vehicle is quite the excitement. |
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