New Mexico employers learned first hand about military training May 1, when they took part in a special Boss Lift tour of White Sands Missile Range training facilities.
Sponsored by the Employer Support of Guard and Reserve Program, the tour took employers of New Mexico Guardsmen and brought them to WSMR during one of the guard's monthly training events.
As an on-call reserve and domestic response force, National Guards Soldiers are required to conduct regular training to ensure they are prepared to conduct any mission they may be called for. The National Guard mission can be anything from fighting wildfires, to flood relief, or even deployment to other countries in support of larger Army operations.
"Our mission is to support the community, we're always ready, always there, where the first ones on the ground in a flood, or fire so it's real important the employers get a grasp on what our soldiers do," said Cmd. Sgt. Maj. Elizabeth Bryant
To prepare for this, guardsmen are required to conduct regular monthly training, and several weeks of training every summer. This can be hard on some employers as the business has to keep running even when their Soldier is away conducting training, or deployed on an Army or Guard mission.
To keep these Soldiers supported by the employers, ESGR arranged for the employers to be flown down on army UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters to the training areas on WSMR's northern range areas and see first hand what their employees are doing when not at work.
"We can't do what we do without the support of not only our families, but our employers," said Col. Mark Miera, New Mexico National Guard brigade commander. "We often ask our Soldiers to come out and do additional time outside of the two weeks out of the year and one weekend a month, they also have to do planning and in order to do that we also need the support of the employers."
The employers were shown what an Army forward operating base looks like and the important function it performs for the deployed Soldier. As the Soldiers were going through weapon qualifications at the time, the employers also got the see their soldiers in action, shooting at popup targets, and training on both rifles and handguns. Wrapping up the trip was lunch with the soldiers and members of the battalion's command staff.
This social lunch gave the employers a chance to really talk with the guard leadership about not only what the Soldiers were doing that day, but also how their experiences as a member of the Army national Guard would translate into their civilian jobs at home.
The duty and expectations from a Soldier tend to be different then that of a typical private company. Soldiers are often given increased responsibility, leadership roles, or autonomy compared to what you'll find at a typical business. In some cases Soldiers skills can even directly relate to job skills. In Southern New Mexico it's not uncommon to find a number of law enforcement professional who are also members of the guard or reserve. In this case their training as Soldiers in leadership, to field experience, and even weapons qualifications can translate back to their jobs as Police officers, Sheriff Deputies and other law enforcement jobs.
"Particular employees are sheriff's officers and deputies and they are always in demand, they are always needed. But the service they provide to our country as well as their own training and the service they bring back to Socorro County is a tremendous benefit to our community," said Delilah Walsh, Socorro County manager for Socorro County
White Sands Missile Range, as a test center sees relatively little training of Soldiers compared to other location s where large numbers of Soldiers are stationed, so the guards' training mission is a bit of a departure from the norm. The guard maintains are small training area near Mine Site up near Stallion Range camp on the north end of the Range.
"Some of the best ranges in the world are here on white sands, so we have a huge training area within the White Sands area. We've got pop up targets here; instead of going to a local range where it'd be paper targets," said Miera "So we get a better feel for what a live event would be like."
While remote compared to the test headquarters located near Las Cruces and Alamogordo, the guard facilities provide a fairly central location for the Guardsmen coming from all over the region, allowing them to get to their training facilities in a reasonable amount of time. In the shadow of systems being tested, the Soldiers can conduct their required regular training using the existing base facilities, rifle, pistol and grenade ranges, or make arraignments with WSMR when additional facilities or locations are required.
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