GRAFENWOEHR, Germany -- Honor is one of the core values inherent to the American Soldier, so it's an important day when Soldiers are honored by their superiors. It shows that hard and honest work pays off. For select junior enlisted soldiers of the 2nd Battalion (Lethal), 12th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, they were honored with a congratulatory ceremony headed by Brig. Gen. Timothy Daugherty, the US Army Europe deputy chief of staff, chief of operations on May 20, 2017 at Grafenwoehr Training Area, Germany.
Spc. Caleb Schalau, a radio telephone operator with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd inf. Bn., 12th Inf. Regt., Pfc. Byron Deacon, a M249 gunner with Company B, 2nd inf. Bn., 12th Inf. Regt., Pfc. Brennen McKinney, a radio telephone operator with Company A,2nd inf. Bn., 12th Inf. Regt., and Pfc. Robert Rogers, a grenadier with Company C, 2nd inf. Bn., 12th Inf. Regt., were recognized by their superiors for notable performance in the line of duty. They were commended on this by Daugherty before he was briefed on what the Lethal Battalion was currently up to in Germany.
The entire battalion was chosen to be part of an emergency deployment readiness exercise, which put them in a race against the clock on a two week schedule to deploy from Fort Carson, Colorado to Grafenwoehr, Germany. While on this deployment the Soldiers will be working on various items, including situational training exercises, gunnery, maneuvers and other combat drills. Lt. Col. Bo Dennis, battalion commander of the 2nd inf. Bn., 12th Inf. Regt., emphasized the importance of infantrymen like those honored when it comes to operations like this.
"It's fitting that we're recognizing them at this point because a lot of work has gone into this exercise, but the best is yet to come. Over the course of the next ten days Soldiers are going to be training very hard and we will be successful as a battalion based on how our individual soldiers do," he said.
In the two short weeks before leaving Colorado, the Soldiers of the 2nd inf. Bn., 12th Inf. Regt., had to be medically screened, qualified on weapon systems, and certified in a variety of online courses. All the while they needed to pack equipment into containers and prepare a small quantity of High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (HMMWV) to ship overseas. Deacon described the anticipation shared with many of his comrades.
"It was scary and exciting all at once," he said.
During the visit Daugherty was briefed on the battalion's planned movements and training, but before that he took a moment to congratulate the efforts of every soldier in attendance.
"I wanted to take a moment to say what an impressive organization this has become across USAREUR," he said.
With those remarks he went on to congratulate the individuals for their ability to go above and beyond, and then sat down to be briefed by Dennis and others about the current state of the battalion. For the soldiers of the 2nd inf. Bn., 12th Inf. Regt., this is only the beginning of things as they set off to embark on their 10 day exercise, but it's nothing new for them. Schalau recalled what it took to get his fellow soldiers there.
"It was a long two weeks, long nights, but we worked hard and got it done," he said.
With that sort of tenacity, leadership of the 2nd inf. Bn., 12th Inf. Regt. can rest easy knowing their soldiers will be able to accomplish the mission ahead.
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