FORT SILL, Okla. (Jan. 16, 2015) -- Basic Combat Training Soldiers from the 434th Field Artillery Brigade who did not return home over the holiday block leave were treated to myriad special events to help brighten their season.
About 140 BCT Soldiers remained behind at Fort Sill during the leave. Many spent their first holidays away from family and participated in a variety of outings and events in and around Lawton-Fort Sill.
Soldiers were encouraged to participate in activities such as a spades/dominos tournament, bowling and outdoor sports games including a snowball fight with their command team and a special hike up Mount Scott at the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge.
They attended a basketball game at Cameron University and an Oklahoma City Barons hockey game. Special events included a visit with Blue Star mothers and Gov. Mary Fallin, and volunteering at the Veterans Center home in Lawton.
For Christmas, many Soldiers participated in the Adopt-A-Soldier program.
"This program takes Soldiers who aren't able to go home and pairs them up with Department of Army civilians, retirees and active duty military families in the Lawton area who sponsor them for the Christmas holiday," said Chaplain (Capt.) Bruce Crosswhite. "To be a sponsor means that you've decided to open your home to between two and six Soldiers and give them the opportunity to spend Christmas Day with a family."
Over half of the Soldiers who remained behind chose to participate in the program. Sponsors who applied were matched up with battle buddy teams of Soldiers and allowed to host up to six Soldiers per family.
"At 9 a.m. Soldier and sponsors came together at the battalion, they got to meet each other and then they went home," said Crosswhite. "They spent the day up until 7:30 p.m. So they got to eat a couple meals with them, hang out and enjoy their holiday away from post. A lot of families bought them gifts and celebrated Christmas with them."
Soldiers could take part in all family activities within basic training regulations, ranging from going to the movies, hiking at the refuge, sleeping, watching football games, and, of course, holiday fun and food.
Pvts. Jasmyn Marquez and Dawn Baker, along with Spcs. Marcel Philmore and Wayne Tanner joined a family.
"This was my first Christmas away from home," said Marquez. "It was a new experience for me, and I figured it would benefit me to go spend Christmas with another family and experience their traditions."
Marquez spent her Christmas day with an active-duty captain and his family who joined other hosting families for one big gathering.
"We ate a lot, which was a beautiful thing," she said. "They had games set up in the backyard to play. We got to use their computers to Skype our families back at home, there were a lot of iPads and computers set up so we got to at least talk with our families on Christmas, which was nice."
Marquez was with five other Soldiers, including Philmore who also enjoyed playing games with all the families and their children.
"It was different, definitely different," said Philmore. "Especially coming from basic training and you're going into an environment where you're just kind of relaxed, they gave us a lot of freedom and there was a lot to eat."
Since the Soldiers were able to spend an entire day with their adopted families, many of them got to enjoy breakfast, lunch and dinner. Marquez and Philmore were treated to a variety of cultural foods including chorizo with eggs, bread pudding, quiche and pozole.
Baker and Tanner also enjoyed experiencing the different holiday traditions with their adopted families.
"We had very good food, made from scratch," said Tanner. "The different part about it is we had country fried steak instead of the traditional turkey or ham Christmas dinner and it was actually from some of his (sponsor's) own herd of cows."
"It felt good to not hear 'you're done, get up', they just let you eat," said Marquez. "There was real orange juice. I was so excited, I drank pretty much a whole gallon."
Soldiers were also encouraged to relax and even nap if they wanted to, giving them a much needed break from the routine and structure of training. Many of the Soldiers also took time to relax outdoors.
"We went to the wildlife refuge," said Baker. "Took a lot of pictures and saw the wildlife. My sponsor had a lot of knowledge about the refuge, and I learned a couple new things, it was my favorite part of the day."
While the Adopt-A-Soldier program gave Soldiers in training a break from the stresses and demands of being a Basic Combat trainee, it also provided a valuable chance to gain knowledge, insight and wisdom from others in the military community.
"It was a networking opportunity," said Philmore. "You never know who you may meet and when you might come across them later on down the road, which was nice also because the captain gave us his card and let us know we can contact him if we needed anything in the sense of advice or support."
"We got a lot of military knowledge," said Tanner. "It really showed me what a military family was because he, his sons, even his sons' wives were all in the military. It was pretty exciting, they all had something that they taught us. Some of his advice was basically the same advice as our drill sergeants have given us, be in the right place, right time, right uniform; and, to ask questions if you don't understand."
Participation in the program was voluntary. Soldiers received a general briefing on what to expect, but each individual experience was different.
"We got a brief on what was going down and I still felt a little uncomfortable (with the idea)," said Marquez. "But I knew what I was going into. I was apprehensive, but then it was broken down to knowing we were there to relax and to just experience Christmas, but with someone else."
"We went from like 20 people wanting to go to about 80," said Crosswhite. "Just by us sitting down with all of them and saying, hey, it's not going to be that bad. These people just want to love on you for the holidays."
Baker said it was great getting the family feel she would have get back home.
"I miss my siblings, I have three others at home. This really brought me close to home," she said.
"Even if you don't want to go because you feel awkward going into another family's family, just go," said Tanner. "So you can have that experience, so you can ask questions and be ahead of the game."
For the basic trainees, through the Adopt-A-Soldier program they saw a different side of the military community that they might not have experienced before. For Marquez, Baker, Philmore and Tanner, each saw how Soldiers are on a day-to-day basis outside of work.
"It really helps you understand that on the other side of work that these captains and lieutenants, lieutenant colonels, colonels and drill sergeants have lives," said Marquez. "They have families too, traditions that they abide by, you can talk to them. There's a point in time where the uniform comes off and the feelings come out."
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