FORT SILL, Okla. (July 16, 2022) – On the calm, Saturday morning of July 16, 2022, the soldiers of Bravo Battery, 1st Battalion, 158th Field Artillery Regiment of the Oklahoma Army National Guard stood upon the Fort Sill Polo Field to receive the 20th annual Hamilton Award.
Presented by the United States Army Field Artillery School Commandant, Brig. Gen. Andrew Preston, the Hamilton Award is given to the “best” Field Artillery Battery across the Army National Guard. Preston, who, on the previous Friday, was honored with a retreat ceremony for his retirement, took to the podium to greet not only B Battery and guests, but also his wife.
“I'd like to extend a special welcome to my wife Gina, who attended a ceremony just last Friday up the street at the Old Post Quadrangle to watch me retire,” Preston said. “She's probably wondering what I'm doing here, in uniform on a Saturday, having already signed out on transition leave. This is the last one, honey, I promise.”
Established in 2002, the Hamilton Award is named after founding father Alexander Hamilton. As Hamilton proved himself a skillful Continental Army artilleryman and aide to Gen. George Washington in the Revolutionary War, units selected for the Hamilton Award are measured by mission accomplishment and overall excellence.
“[This is] too important to let go without properly recognizing these soldiers,” Preston said. He went on to note how the B Battery “Buzzards” exceeded standards to achieve their status as the 2021 Hamilton Award winners.
“[2021] was an exceptional year for Bravo Battery,” Preston said. “During the year, Buzzard Battery deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Freedom's Sentinel, executing a HIMARS Rapid Air Insertion mission… The battery was the last National Guard battery to fire rocket artillery in Afghanistan.”
Yet for B Battery, 2021 was not limited to missions abroad, as the Buzzards trained with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol for National Guard reaction force missions, along with executing Operation Valentine Snow, and orchestrating numerous community outreach programs – all to support Oklahomans.
The ceremony closed with the presentation of a plaque to Capt. Zebadiah Wilson, B Battery commander, and the attachment of a streamer to B Battery’s guidon to commemorate the honor. When asked about the significance of the Hamilton Award to their Battery, Wilson emphasized how efforts ultimately “come full circle.”
“We did a lot of hard work, preparing for the deployment…we did a lot of spear operations in Afghanistan. It's just awesome to have it come full circle and be able to recognize B Battery for the hard work and effort they put in,” said Wilson. Staff Sgt. Mykle Bull, B Battery’s unit administrator, echoed those sentiments.
“You don’t win an award for being the best National Guard field artillery unit without working, without training hard, training to standard, and training the way National Guard Soldiers are expected to train,” Bull said.
Check out the livestream on Fort Sill's official Facebook page.
See more photos from the event on Flickr.
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