Story and photos by Sgt. Sara Wood/American Forces Press Service
FORT KNOX, Ky. (TRADOC News Service, Nov. 18, 2005) – After a three-day tour of Fort Knox and its training operations, a group of employers who have employees in the National Guard or Reserves showed their support for the troops by signing statements of support for the Employer Support for the Guard and Reserve program here Nov. 17.
The employers visited the Armor Center as part of the Bosslift program. Bosslift transports employers who have National Guard and Reserve employees to military installations to observe training and gain a better understanding of what their employees do.
“This gives them an opportunity to see firsthand what the servicemember does when they’re gone away from their full-time job,” said Angie Moore, executive director of the Washington, D.C., ESGR committee. “This is a wonderful program.”
The D.C. committee does one Bosslift each fiscal year to a military installation. On this trip, after the employers were given several briefings about the mission of Fort Knox and the training that is conducted here, they were able to experience state-of-the-art training simulators, and they interacted with the Soldiers going through training and those permanently stationed here.
There were about 16 employers on this Bosslift from all walks of life, including accountants, business owners, service industry workers and chief executive officers.
Moore said that they all seemed to gain a better understanding and appreciation for what National Guard and Reserve personnel go through in their training. Nearly all the employers signed a statement of support and made a commitment to do more to help their National Guard and Reserve employees.
The first in line to sign was Julie Patterson of the Prince George’s County (Md.) Police Department. Patterson said that seeing the training firsthand made her realize the enormity of the sacrifice the men and women in the National Guard and Reserve are making.
“I mean, you see everything on television, but you never get to see the inside – the training they go through,” she said. “They volunteer; this is an all-volunteer military these days, so these men and women volunteered for this job – to serve us, to protect us.”
Soldiers in the National Guard and Reserve have proved vital to the success of the U.S. military around the world, said Brig. Gen. Albert Bryant, the Armor Center and Fort Knox’s deputy commander. Soldiers make a huge difference wherever they go, be it on American soil in disaster-relief efforts or in a foreign land providing democracy to formerly oppressed people, he said, but the only way they can be there is through the support of their employers.
“They cannot be there unless you, who represent the employers, who represent the leaders of those communities, allow them to do that,” he said to the Bosslift group. “Secure for them employment; provide for their families in ways that you’re not required to do; support them emotionally; support them financially.”
Bryant said that while not everyone can serve in the military, everyone who supports the troops serves the country in their own way, and he asked the employers to continue their support of the military.
“What you do for us represents the ability of this nation to sustain its armed forces,” he said. “What you do for us represents the ability of those armed forces to accomplish the task they’ve been assigned.”