|
Indy Students Get Hands-On Guard Experience
Story and photos by Sgt. Maj. Jodie Newby,
Indiana National Guard
January 12, 2008
INDIANAPOLIS
– “Aahgg!” Yells Sgt. Cory Owensby of the 38th Infantry
Division as he ducks out of a room of high school kids, M16s and
human-sized targets.
 |
|
Nichole Dugger, a senior at Ben
Davis
High School,
shows off her newly learned skills with the M-16 rifle.
Dugger participated in the Army National
Guard’s Guard Experience program held in conjunction with
the Recruit Sustainment
Detachment 7 at the 38th Infantry Division Armory in
Indianapolis, January 12.
She is shown here shooting down a target with a
laser-equipped rifle during Close Quarters Battle training.
Photo by Sgt. Maj. Jodie Newby,
Indiana
Army National Guard.
|
The room is dimly lit and the air has just been
stirred by four high school kids clearing the room Army-style, with
rifles in hand. They ran into the room, maintaining formation as
they avoided obstacles, then up to their enemy targets. The leader
of the squad gave a battle cry and proceeded to swing his rifle at
the target knocking it down.
The students hear Owensby laughing hysterically
and join in, though very nervously, unsure of what is so funny. “No,
no, no,” Owensby says as he finally returns red faced and trying to
hold back a smile. “You don’t knock the guy over with your rifle,
you shoot him with it. You pull the trigger. You actually fire at
him.” He is doing the drill sergeant act as best he can under the
circumstances while running the students through a Close Quarters
Battle exercise.
The response is all blank stares until he takes a
rifle from Ben Davis Senior Nichole Dugger and shows her again how
to charge and fire it. He knocks over the target with the rifle’s
attached laser sensor and a light goes on in her face. Laughter
peels around the room again with the students laughing at themselves
this time. These are 4 of 48 students from Indianapolis area schools participating in a
Guard Experience day at the 38th Infantry Division
National Guard Armory.
Guard Experience is the name of a new nation-wide
recruiting program for the Army National Guard. But this weekend the
Indianapolis
area recruiters took it to a higher level by working with their
newest recruits during a drill weekend. The new recruits and
possible recruits worked side-by-side going through a multitude of
Army tasks and activities.
“I’m getting the feel of how everything goes,”
said Kyann Davis, a senior at Lawrence North High School,
“I was trying to go by what I heard to make a decision, and I’m not
really that type of person. I want to get into it myself and make up
my own mind.” She and her friend, Iyesha Williams a junior, went
head-to-head in a safer version of a jousting ring where they beat
each other with rubber tubes in an exercise of balance of combative
training.
Each of the students came out
to “spend the day with a Guard battle buddy,” according to the
training detachment coordinator Sgt. 1st Class Angie Roman, “and get
the full meal deal of the Army Guard with M16s, face paint,
everything.” In addition to the rifle training and jousting students
went through a video-game style battle simulator, camouflage class,
and convoy operation to identify IEDs as Soldiers would in
Iraq or
Afghanistan.
Most of the students in attendance were
considering the military as an option for their future, but some
just came to have fun and experience new things. Jacob O’Sullivan, a
17-year-old junior at
Speedway
High School, said he
wanted to be a doctor and was thinking about joining the military.
He got to experience one of the negative aspects of military service
along with the good. “There is a lot of standing around in formation
and waiting,” he said smiling with his face painted green and a
group of new friends surrounding him.
“So far, I’m cool with everything,” said
Davis
of the day’s events. She and Williams will return to their high
school on Monday like many of the others. They will have a new set
of stories to tell their friends, a new set of experiences to grow
with, and one more option to consider for their futures.
The Guard Experience program is done about once a
month in all major cities throughout the state and is coordinated by
the local Army National Guard recruiters. It is a no-pressure
information program designed to give young people the information
they need to make quality decisions for their future.
Caption for thumbnail photo on home page:
Nichole Dugger, a senior at Ben
Davis
High School, shows off her
newly learned skills with the M-16 rifle.
Dugger participated in the Army National Guard’s Guard
Experience program held in conjunction with the Recruit Sustainment
Detachment 7 at the 38th Infantry Division Armory in
Indianapolis, January 12. She is shown here
shooting down a target with a laser-equipped rifle during Close
Quarters Battle training. Photo by Sgt. Maj. Jodie Newby,
Indiana
Army National Guard.
| 
