| Buckeye’s engineering best train the rest |
RAVENNA, Ohio - Freezing temperatures and nearly two feet of snow did not stop Guardmembers from across the country from reporting to the Ravenna Training and Logistics Site in March to learn technical skills taught by instructors from the Ohio Army National Guard. The heavy equipment operator course is a two-week program of instruction offered by the 147th Regional Training Institute that teaches students to operate and maintain various types of machinery including crawler and wheeled tractors with dozer attachments, scoop loaders, motorized graders and towed or self-propelled scrapers. The class structure provides a setting where students learn at a rigorous pace, but in a more intimate setting. Most the instruction is hands-on with few traditional classroom hours. “Time goes quickly and students are constantly busy, but we have a very low instructor-to-student ratio,” said Austintown resident 1st Sgt. James Koval, 147th engineering branch chief instructor. “Students are provided detailed training in a controlled environment with only about two hours of traditional classroom time.” Course instructors are constantly striving to improve. “Our motto is, ‘Don’t let your good enough, be good enough.’ Our instructors never settle,” Koval said. All instructors have numerous years of engineering experience. “We have quality instructors that gave up great civilian jobs to come here and train Soldiers because they believe in what’s going on here,” said Youngstown resident Sgt.1st Class Wayne K. Craig, heavy equipment operator course manager with the 147th. “Half of our instructors have deployed to Iraq to assist in the Global War on Terrorism and there is an average of 18 years of engineering experience among them.” Some instructors go far beyond the call of duty to do something they are passionate about “I drive 88 miles door-to-door,” said Polk resident Staff Sgt. Brian Hildebrant, senior course instructor. “I gave up a union shipping dock job for this. I love it.” The instructors work long hours and love to see students improve, Koval said. The course curriculum is based on applicable skills shaped and practiced by some of the instructors during recent deployments. “While in Iraq, we were some of the busiest guys over there,” Craig said. “We built berms to protect forward operating bases from small-arms fires and HESCO baskets (earth-filled protective barriers) to protect checkpoints from possible vehicle-born improvised explosive devises,” Craig said. The instructors train Guardmembers from across the country, offering instructors the opportunity to showcase the Ohio National Guard and its benefits, Craig said. “ONG has the best instructors, the best facilities and most equipment,” Craig said. Instructors are continually impressed by the students’ motivation levels. “The Soldiers we get want to be here. Motivation is always high,” Hildebrant said. “Students are eager to learn and want to be engineers. They are constantly absorbing as much information as possible.” Students were equally impressed with their instructors and the structure of the class. Spc. Paul Becker, an engineer with the 229th Horizontal Engineer Co., Praire DuChien, Wis., said he appreciated the instructors’ patience as well as the hands-on and detailed nature of instruction. Other students seemed to feed off of the instructors’ motivation throughout. “The course is great and I’m loving it,” said Spc. Stephanie Ferguson, an engineer with the 229th Horizontal Engineer Co., Praire DuChien, Wis. “Anytime you get to learn from such motivated instructors it makes you perform better.” Although the rural landscape was covered with several inches of snow, the conditions did not stop the training and actually provided ideal conditions. “The snow is easier to work in,” Craig said. “The colder the better; it’s when the snow turns to mud we start having problems.” The snowy conditions provided an opportunity for more extensive hands-on training than normal and students immediately applied their training. “With a snow fall of this nature, before they do anything, students have to clear snow from the training sight in order to continue learning,” Craig said. Courses at the institute’s Ravenna branch started in October 2006. Since that time, the infrastructure has quickly built up. “We started from scratch,” Koval said. “During our first class we were out in tents getting blown over by the wind. The (Ohio National Guard) has been outstanding in supporting us. The amount of support we have far outshines the other states.” -30- |
