by James Foley
For the Pharos-Tribune
March 18, 2008 04:37 pm
—
FORT STEWART, Ga. — Alpha Company of the 1/293 infantry battalion is built on the backs of experienced squad leaders who guide and discipline their young soldiers.
Some of the sergeants seem more like teachers, others like tougher big brothers, all to the same end — unit cohesion in the face of an enemy firing real bullets.
Staff Sgt. Daryl Bollhoefer, 25, of Logansport trained new recruits for two and a half years as part of pre-basic training in the South Bend area. Bollhoefer said many young men join the Army for reasons as varied as to impress a girlfriend or to get money for college, but when they start training, many start to question whether the military is for them.
It’s obvious from his demeanor that Bollhoefer, who was deployed on a peacekeeping mission to Bosnia in ’04, believes in positive reinforcement.
“You could lose everything,” he’s told the soldiers in his squad, “your girl, your house, your family, but the military will always be here for you.”
Bollhoefer joined the National Guard at the age of 17.
“They need to rely on the stability of their brothers and sisters in arms,” he said. “Once they realize that, it’s a confidence booster.”
Bollhoefer said that in the 2 1/2 years he trained over 240 new soldiers at South Bend, he can think of maybe 12 who weren’t bettered by the experience.
Sgt. Kevin Zickefoose, 30, of Warsaw is another squad leader in Alpha Company. Zickefoose has 13 years in the National Guard. In ’03 he was with the invasion of Iraq, and he said he spent 50 days without a shower while guarding Tilhill Air Base outside of Baghdad.
Zickefoose said the soldiers on this deployment are much younger than his first deployment. The most important lesson he tries to teach them is attention to detail.
“I’m old school,” Zickefoose said. “When it comes to getting stuff done, I have no tolerance for horseplay.”
When Bollhoefer corrects his Humvee driver, he tends to praise what he did right as much as what he needs to change. When Zickefoose offers correction, it’s usually peppered with profanity, but with an edge of humor.
When his Humvee driver, a 21-year old private, fails to yell all clear, Zickefoose yells, “If you don’t communicate, people will die.”
After a recent training mission, Bollhoefer offered, “You guys are doing a stellar job. We did the right things, and that’s what happens.”
The good cop, bad cop approach. To be loved or feared. The right combination of each is difficult because young soldiers need to be supported but also to follow orders without question.
Bollhoefer said that his squad had come along way in its tactics while at Fort Stewart. “If you don’t trust them, you don’t improve. Now that you’re trusting them, we improve.”
Pfc. Ben Flohr, 19, of Logansport asked to be placed with a unit that was deploying to Iraq when he joined the Indiana Guard. He said he had matured a lot in the year since he joined.
“I’ve done stuff that I never thought was possible,” Flohr said. “It’s been hard, but you push yourself.”
Zickefoose summed up his relationship with his soldiers, “I know they love me. I know there are times I turn my back, and they call me an [expletive]. But I don’t yell for no reason.”
His soldiers seem to agree. “I’m getting used to it,” Pfc. Jason Buchanan, 28, said of Zickefoose’s leadership style. “His primary concern is the soldier.”
Flohr said of squad commander Bollhoefer, “He leads by example,” adding that if a soldier makes a mistake, Bollhoefer turns it into a learning experience.
Staff Sgt. Michael Felker, 31, of Logansport joined the National Guard at 17 right after his junior year of high school. He served an 8-year enlistment, and re-joined the Guard right after 9-11.
Felker said there would be a big difference between this deployment and his first one. “The naïve-ness is gone.”
Felker said the most recent training emphasized respect for Iraqi customs and culture.
Many of the younger soldiers in his squad will experience a “shock factor” when they are actually in Iraq, he said. He experienced the same shock when he first got off the plane with his troops in 2003 and they were driven in a bus with curtains over the windows and Arabic music playing.
The biggest challenge is getting the young soldiers to take everything seriously, Felker said, adding that unfortunately it might to take an incident to occur for the lessons to sink in.
But Felker said he was excited to return for this mission.
“Anyone who re-enlisted after 9-11 knew what they were getting into,” he said. “I believe in the mission down to my bones.”
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