FORT DRUM, N.Y. (April 28, 2016) -- Each year, senior noncommissioned officers within the Army's field artillery community are nominated by their unit-level leadership to participate in the annual Edmund L. Gruber Award Competition.
The award recognizes an outstanding field artillery Soldier for superb individual thought, innovation and overall excellence that results in significant contributions to or the enhancement of the field artillery's warfighting capabilities.
This year, Brig. Gen. Paul Bontrager, 10th Mountain Division (LI) and Fort Drum acting senior commander, presented the Army's winning nominee, Sgt. 1st. Class Jorge Moraguzman, platoon sergeant, C Battery, 2nd Battalion, 15th Field Artillery Regiment "Allons," 2nd Brigade Combat Team, with the Gruber Award for his outstanding contributions to the field artillery community.
"We nominated Sgt. 1st Class Mora (Moraguzman), because for the last year he has absolutely proved to be the most professional and technically proficient NCO (noncommissioned officer) that I have ever worked with," said Capt. John Meier, C Battery commander.
Meier continued to say that Moraguzman's attitude toward training and building the team had made the decision to select him an easy one.
"It was really clear that he cared about not only the mission, but the Soldiers," Meier said. "He made sure the Soldiers were trained on all individual tasks and built those into the collective tasks."
Moraguzman, who modestly accepted the award, said he had no previous knowledge of his nomination, so winning the award came as quite a surprise. He added that the combined efforts of his Soldiers and the company were what made winning possible.
"The reason I won this award is because of my Soldiers and their hard work and dedication," Moraguzman said. "I don't feel like I won the award; I feel like my platoon and C Battery won this award."
He continued to explain that if one were to read the nomination letter, it would be easy to see that winning is really about teamwork.
Moraguzman's award reads as follows:
"This award recognizes an outstanding field artillery Soldier for superb individual thought, innovation and overall excellence that results in significant contributions to or the enhancement of the field artillery's warfighting capabilities. SFC Moraguzman's contributions as a firing battery platoon sergeant during 2015 were numerous, but here are some highlights of his accomplishments.
"This is an NCO who has a strong history of excellent leadership. Following redeployment from Afghanistan in 2014, he led 1st Platoon through a transition from 3rd Brigade Combat Team to 2nd Brigade Combat Team. In nine short months, he led his platoon through reset operations, transitioned to a new brigade, completed readiness training, and geared up for a second deployment to Afghanistan.
"Despite an extremely demanding operational tempo that included new equipment fielding / new equipment testing for their new M777A2s, a grueling subzero temperature brigade fire support coordination exercise, a rotation to the Joint Readiness Training Center, selection to provide support to the U.S. Army Operational Test Command to test the advanced precision guided munitions, and then ultimately deploying in support of Operation Freedom's Sentinel 15-16, SFC Moraguzman led his platoon to excellence.
"Within four months of deployment, SFC Moraguzman supervised his platoon as they fired over 150 fire missions in support of multinational operations within the (Train Advise Assist Command - South) area of operations and Kandahar Airfield Ground Defense Area."
Social Sharing