First Sergeant Perspective

Online chat with First Sergeant Steve Harmon

First Sergeant Steve Harmon of the Kansas Army National Guard visited The Gazette for an online chat. Here is the transcript.

Q Would you like to introduce yourself and tell us what your role is in the guard?

A Thanks for inviting me to “speak” today. I’ll try and be brief and to the point which can be difficult for a First Sergeant. I am the Headquarters, Charlie and Delta Company first sergeant for the 2nd Combined Arms Battalion (Armor/Infantry) 137th Regiment, Kansas Army National Guard. My job as the senior NCO in the unit is to ensure the safety, accountability of our personnel, equipment and paperwork while supervising and participating in soldier training and mission execution during peace or war-time. For the state mission I focus on taking care of and putting our assigned resources in the right place at the right time for emergencies and disasters.

Q How long have you been in the service? Have you been in the guard the whole time?

A I am currently in my 24th year of service with the U.S. Military. I spent my first couple of years on active duty for the Army. When I completed my tour I joined the Kansas Army National Guard in Emporia in 1990, and attended Emporia State University. I have spent my whole career in the field of Army and Infantry and most of my Guard time serving in the local Emporia National Guard Unit.

Q Can you tell us about your tour in Kosovo and what your mission was?

A I have been deployed overseas for two very different missions. In 2004, our unit here in Emporia deployed to Kosovo for a peace enforcement mission. Our role was to enforce the Dayton Peace Accords. We used a community policing and mentoring plan. My role was to lead the quick reaction force and to provide training and leadership for crowd and riot control for our Task Force.

This mission was my first chance to work and do missions with soldiers and marines from NATO countries as well as witness the challenges of rebuilding a country dominated by ethnic strife and criminal syndicates. Kosovo is a beautiful country that is stable but still struggles and needs outside support and advising to stay intact.

Q What about your deployment to Afghanistan, what was that experience like?

A Afghanistan was a true combat mission. I deployed as part of a 16-person Kansas Army National Guard team out of Fort Riley with the 1st Infantry Division as “embedded expeditionary trainers” or what we commonly call combat advisors. Our whole team was built of senior non-commissioned and senior commissioned officers.

GENERALLYSPEAKING.CURRYFORAMERICA.COM: Keeping Perspective

One hot Vietnam day I flew a borrowed UH-1 Bell Helicopter (Huey) from Qui Nhon south to Saigon. A refueling stop was scheduled at a helipad south of Tuy Hoa because somewhere west of there I hoped to find my brother, David, a paramedic with the 101st Airborne Division. It had been many months since we’d seen each other and I hoped to visit with him for a while before continuing on to Saigon.

In those days, it was Army practice for siblings not to be assigned to the same war zone at the same time. The Army didn’t want to lose several children out of the same family at one time, as happened during WWII. However, it was possible to sign waivers and get around the regulation which is what David and I had done. So we both ended up fighting in the Vietnam War at the same time, but in different units.

Why his unit had selected this particular site to be a helipad was more than a mystery. For as each helicopter landed, the downwash from the main rotor blades stirred up so much powdered red dust and sand that the pilot could momentarily almost lose visual contact with the ground.

The only safe way to land was, toward the end of a deliberately slow approach, to gently flare the helicopter slowing it down even more and then just as the whirling dervish dust dance started quickly push the skids deep into the dust until they gripped the hard surface underneath. At least that was the theory. If the pilot did everything perfectly, the skids would grip the ground before he became disoriented by the blowing dust and crashed.

On short final approach, I noticed a soldier sitting on the stump of a palm tree close to where the helicopter was to touch down. He wore a bulletproof flak jacket, his M-16 rifle leaned against his left leg, and he was eating from a can of C Rations with a white plastic spoon.

A steel helmet was jammed on the back of his head. Judging from the thick layer of dust that coated his clothes, face and arms, he had been sitting on that stump for an awfully long time. Perspiration had carved muddy lines down his dirt-caked face and it would be a miracle if he was ever able to scrub it all off.

Breaking off the landing approach, I flew low over the area warning him to move out of the way. Then I climbed back up to traffic pattern altitude, herded the “Slick,” (which is what the troops called UH-1s) around in a lazy circle and re-initiated the approach. All this time, to my irritation, the soldier didn’t move. Irritated and tired of waiting I quit circling and committed to make a landing.

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