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'Faithful
and Brave' Arrive in Guantanamo Bay
Photo and story by Sgt. Jolene Staker, Joint Task Force Public Affairs, Guantanamo Bay
Its
a great opportunity for the battalion, said Lt. Col. Patrick Dacey,
Battalion Commander. Its a challenge but the battalion is
ready for it. Its a chance for us to not only give something back but to take the years of training and experience that weve had and put them to use, said Maj. Arthur DiBenedetto, battalion executive officer. Soldiers have been training diligently to validate basic infantry skills and individual tasks at Fort Dix. Collective task training there ended in a five-day mobilization training exercise which was a live scenario based specifically on the JTF mission. Theyve been training very hard, training for a long time and they are ready to get this mission on, said 1st Sgt. George Floyd, first sergeant of C Company. The next step in their training is the left-seat/right-seat training with members of the 1st Battalion, 181st Infantry Regiment. They
are going to train you to standard, said Col. Nelson Cannon, Commander,
Joint Detention Operations Group. I know you will take it to the
next level and you will leave here better than you came. Were looking forward to getting our on-the-ground training and being set in the direction that we need to go to complete our mission, said Command Sgt. Maj. Joseph Tatem. The Battalion has members with deploy-ment experience and one soldier, Cpl. Daniel Torres of D Company, served in Guantanamo Bay as a translator during the refugee mission in 1994 for four months. He shared with his men what challenges he knew Guantanamo would hold for them. Its hot and it will take them a while to get climatized, said Cpl. Torres. I tell them to drink a lot of water. |