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Olympic 98 - Issue #3, 29 Aug 98
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Dusting Off In The Rain Forest
By SPC Jack Eden
Members of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3rd Battalion, 161st Infantry, shovel gravel onto the area in front of the dining facility. Dust. Miles and miles of rolling white dust plagues the Washington National Guard. It clogs air filters. It gets into food and penetrates sensitive electronics. It’s considered a health hazard when consumed. There is no telling what toxins it may contain. During Operation Olympic ’98, a great deal of effort is being expended to combat this dust. In a part of Washington known for record rainfall, dust - not rain - is what the National Guard has to deal with at the end of August.
"I think the dust is worse out here than in Yakima," said SPC Brian Burkett, a member of one of the shovel crews. "In Yakima, the ground is a lot harder and more compact. There’s less dust there. Here, it’s really rocky and the dirt is real loose. I think the dust is finer here than in Yakima."
First Sergeant Thomas Peterson, C Company, 898th Engineer Battalion, lent a grabbing a shovel and working alongside his soldiers, as they spread gravel along the paths in the 'tent city'. "If it rains, we’ll have a real mud path," he said. "So hopefully we’ll lay enough gravel down before more troops arrive. Laying down gravel helps keep the dust down. It makes conditions healthier."
Gravel was spread on improvised roads and the paths between tents. It went down near the dining tent and it went down at the medical clinic. Soldiers took up the task with good humor. "We traded in our M-16s for number two shovels," said SSG Sam "Joseph" Carlson. He and other members of the 3rd Battalion, 161st Infantry, joined the fight to spread gravel on the trail to the dining facility, to protect diners from the 'Great White Plague'.
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MWR Boosts Morale... Creature Comforts Make Field Cozy
By Staff Sgt. Carlos Acevedo
The expression, "hurry up and wait," seems to sum up a problem all military personnel face on deployment. When you don’t have anything to do during your down time, you get bored. Sitting around doing nothing can be a real drag.
"A bored soldier is an unhappy soldier," said SSG George Thiele. He’s in a good position to know. As the Morale Support NCO at Operation Olympic ’98, its his job to make sure soldiers here don’t get bored. "If you have a soldier who is happy, he’ll do his job more efficiently. We give them something to do other than sit around. We keep them busy," he said. SSG Thiele is located at the Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) Tent at the task force area. A host of items are available to deployed Guardsmen that, at least for the Washington National Guard, have not been offered in the past. The MWR Tent is open 24 hours daily.
The best morale booster seems to be the phones. At no cost, Operation Olympic ’98 personnel can call their families from phones located at the MWR tent. For PFC Tami Haynes of the 1161st Transportation Company, the phones are an opportunity to reassure Derek, the bright-eyed, eight-year old boy that she and her husband Mike took into foster care six months ago. Because Derek hasn’t had much stability in his life, "It’s hard on him for me to be away," said Haynes. "Calling to let him know when I’m coming home really helps." Because the phones have proven to be so popular, SSG Thiele asks users to restrict their calls to five minutes.
Also available are books, magazines and newspapers, which can all be taken and returned at the soldiers’ convenience. TVs, VCRs and videos can be checked out at the tent. At 1900 every night, selected videos are projected in front of the tent onto a silver screen. Sports equipment and games are available, and have already been put to use.
"We played Monopoly last night, and it helped to break the ice a little bit," said SPC Carol Duran, a truck driver with the 1161st Transportation Company, who just completed her training in July. This is her first real-world deployment with her unit.
Today, more services are available to deployed personnel than have been in the past 18 years of SSG Thiele’s military career, he said. As a forward-deployed soldier in the Gulf War, he rarely used MWR services because they never got past the rear-echelon personnel. "An MWR tent provides morale-boosting services for all the folks who have responded to Operation Olympic ’98", said SSG Thiele.
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