Family Readiness Group1 129th FA Delta Btry |
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News From WashingtonDear Friends and Family, I figured it’s about time to let all know of the great things being done by your soldiers of Delta Company. It is my intent to send an update once a week. This, being the first edition, will be longer than most. First of all, we are currently manning the road commitment on three 8 hour shifts here on Ft. Lewis and two 12 hour shifts at Yakima Training Center which is a training site about 2-1/2 hours east of Ft. Lewis. The soldiers are doing an outstanding job providing Law Enforcement to both locations and have received awards and many praises from the Provost Marshall as well as the I Corps Commander, LTG Soriano. The soldiers of Delta Company have been involved in many incidents here including 911 call hang-ups, felony traffic stops involving DUI and illegal drugs. The alert attention to detail displayed by our soldiers has been critical in determining when a crime has been committed as well as identifying and locating drugs and paraphernalia during routine traffic stops. Two of our soldiers, SPC Jacob Gordon and SPC Travis Taylor, were recognized at our brigade quarterly training brief and awarded I Corps coins by the I Corps Commander for exemplary performance of duty involving a domestic disturbance case resulting in an authorized off post pursuit and apprehension. In another incident, SPC Jason Smail and SPC Derick Moudy were working access control at the main gate when a suspicious couple could not produce identification. Due to the professional manner in which our soldiers handled the situation, the stop resulted in the apprehension of both persons in the car for possession of crack cocaine, driving with a suspended license and DUI. These are just a few examples of the superb work being done by our MP soldiers. On the support side of the house, SSG Jose Valenzuela and SPC Brian White repaired a generator belonging to a deployed unit that no one else had been able to fix. I want to take this opportunity to address some concerns that have come to my attention lately concerning our deployment. First, let me say that I have received no word of any secondary missions for our company. There are no plans in the works now for us to train up for a combat support mission overseas. There are also no plans to extend our tour of duty beyond the 365 days as noted on our orders. Although I have not seen any firm date for our re-deployment back home, every indication I have at this time is that we will finish our mission in the time stated in our current orders. If I receive notice of any changes, I will surely notify your soldier immediately. I ask for your assistance in this matter in that if you hear anything contrary to what I have just said, realize that it may be a rumor and don’t spread it without first confirming the information. To confirm the accuracy of information concerning our unit and our mission, please contact Mrs. Jackie Butler our Family Readiness Group Lead Volunteer at (816) 436-6207. Please realize how quickly rumors can get started and spread and the damage they can cause. Understand that someone’s opinion of what may happen is just that, an opinion. It can become a drain on our soldiers and their family’s morale when rumors start to fly and, for everyone’s sake, I ask you to use good judgment when you receive and disseminate information. Thank you all for your help in this matter. When you think about the difficult nature of this mobilization and deployment and how well the soldiers of Delta Company have handled it, much credit has to be given to the families of our soldiers. We have in effect, created a company from scratch with soldiers from units all across the state of Missouri. We have asked all the soldiers to do jobs that they had no experience in and they have stepped up to the challenge. Without the support we receive from home, this mission would seem almost impossible to accomplish. With this in mind, I have established a leave policy that will allow us to grant leave time to every soldier as well as accomplish the mission we have been called to do. I need our families to support this policy for it to be successful. It would be great if we could all take extended periods of leave to spend with our families but our mission will not allow this to happen. In order to grant leave in an equitable and objective manner, we have started a lottery which will be for leave time approximately 6 weeks after the drawing. This is intended to give families enough lead time to make arrangements for plane tickets, motels etc. The reason for the lottery becomes obvious when you consider how many requests for leave we have for Memorial Day weekend, graduations and other high density vacation times. Our mission requires almost all of our personnel to be here most of the time. Again, I want to thank in advance all of our families for their support in this matter. There is much more to tell you all but then I wouldn’t have anything for next week! Thanks again for your continued support of our efforts here and I look forward to the day I can address you in person at our redeployment formation back home in the great state of Missouri. Sincerely, Lance A. McCoy Delta Company Commander |
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