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To help protect the state's citizens in the event of power outages, members of the Missouri National Guard's Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 35th Engineer Brigade, spent part of their recent drill training to operate generators.
In the last three years, the Guard has responded to three separate winter storms that have caused power outages.
"State emergency duty is always looming in the winter months and it's really important to get all the noncommissioned officers trained on generators so we can cover down on any mission where we are tasked for generator power," said Sgt 1st Class Kevan Phillips, the company training and readiness noncommissioned officer. "This also enables those noncommissioned officers to train their subordinates at the section level on that piece of equipment and get licensed on it. So we are empowering those noncommissioned officers to go train their own people."
About 25 Soldiers trained on 2-, 5-, 10- and 60-kilowatt generators with instruction from students in the Missouri Guard's Regional Training Site-Maintenance Power Generation Advanced Leader Course at Fort Leonard Wood.
The opportunity to train other Soldiers helped fulfill some of the course requirements for the students, said Sgt. 1st Class Todd Surma, one of the course instructors from the site.
"Advanced Leader Course incorporates teaching our students how to teach their own subordinates," said Surma, who lives in St. Robert. "That's why this was such a great opportunity for them to train 35th Engineer Brigade Soldiers on basic operation of the generators."
Master Sgt. Jeff Miller, intelligence noncommissioned officer in charge for Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 35th Engineer Brigade, said he found the training valuable and informative.
"It was new to me," said Miller, who lives at Fort Leonard Wood. "I've never really dealt with generators much in the past, so the general overview of the generator is something I learned. It was excellent, relevant and interesting training that kept everybody involved."
Although the Guardsmen had a lot of information presented to them quickly, Miller said it wasn't hard to absorb.
"It wasn't that difficult because I do have a little bit of an electrical background," Miller said. "A generator operator doesn't necessarily have to know every single thing about generators like a generator mechanic would. We just have to know the basics."
Spc. Kelly Arends, who lives in Paris, said he picked up on some of the specifics about power generation, like the number of power cords that can run from each type of generator and different settings based on what country the generator is in at the time.
"It was all pretty valuable information," he said. "It's a little challenging, but like anything else we train on, we'll go over it again so it will become more familiar."
Also during drill, Soldiers participated in driver's training on humvees while a handful of Guardsmen tried out a new system of communications equipment that works with the Army's Harris Radio.
"We were practicing - trying to establish communications with our headquarters and all subordinate elements in the brigade down the company level," said Phillips, who lives in Farmington.
The new system comes with a thick training manual and Phillips called working with it for the first time a learning experience.
"We've identified some training requirements we need for our Soldiers to get up to speed," he said. "The system is user friendly, but we're going to have to work on it. Once we get a little experience on it, we're going to take that thick manual and reduce it to a simple card, where anyone can follow the simple directions and get it on the air to talk to somebody."
To help protect the state's citizens in the event of power outages, members of the Missouri National Guard's Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 35th Engineer Brigade, spent part of their recent drill training to operate generators.
In the last three years, the Guard has responded to three separate winter storms that have caused power outages.
"State emergency duty is always looming in the winter months and it's really important to get all the noncommissioned officers trained on generators so we can cover down on any mission where we are tasked for generator power," said Sgt 1st Class Kevan Phillips, the company training and readiness noncommissioned officer. "This also enables those noncommissioned officers to train their subordinates at the section level on that piece of equipment and get licensed on it. So we are empowering those noncommissioned officers to go train their own people."
About 25 Soldiers trained on 2-, 5-, 10- and 60-kilowatt generators with instruction from students in the Missouri Guard's Regional Training Site-Maintenance Power Generation Advanced Leader Course at Fort Leonard Wood.
The opportunity to train other Soldiers helped fulfill some of the course requirements for the students, said Sgt. 1st Class Todd Surma, one of the course instructors from the site.
"Advanced Leader Course incorporates teaching our students how to teach their own subordinates," said Surma, who lives in St. Robert. "That's why this was such a great opportunity for them to train 35th Engineer Brigade Soldiers on basic operation of the generators."
Master Sgt. Jeff Miller, intelligence noncommissioned officer in charge for Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 35th Engineer Brigade, said he found the training valuable and informative.
"It was new to me," said Miller, who lives at Fort Leonard Wood. "I've never really dealt with generators much in the past, so the general overview of the generator is something I learned. It was excellent, relevant and interesting training that kept everybody involved."
Although the Guardsmen had a lot of information presented to them quickly, Miller said it wasn't hard to absorb.
"It wasn't that difficult because I do have a little bit of an electrical background," Miller said. "A generator operator doesn't necessarily have to know every single thing about generators like a generator mechanic would. We just have to know the basics."
Spc. Kelly Arends, who lives in Paris, said he picked up on some of the specifics about power generation, like the number of power cords that can run from each type of generator and different settings based on what country the generator is in at the time.
"It was all pretty valuable information," he said. "It's a little challenging, but like anything else we train on, we'll go over it again so it will become more familiar."
Also during drill, Soldiers participated in driver's training on humvees while a handful of Guardsmen tried out a new system of communications equipment that works with the Army's Harris Radio.
"We were practicing - trying to establish communications with our headquarters and all subordinate elements in the brigade down the company level," said Phillips, who lives in Farmington.
The new system comes with a thick training manual and Phillips called working with it for the first time a learning experience.
"We've identified some training requirements we need for our Soldiers to get up to speed," he said. "The system is user friendly, but we're going to have to work on it. Once we get a little experience on it, we're going to take that thick manual and reduce it to a simple card, where anyone can follow the simple directions and get it on the air to talk to somebody."
