PERSONAL EXPERIENCE PAPER

Personal Experience Paper

United States Sergeants Major Academy

Class 36

MSG Shirley J. Ward

July 23, 2010

Table of content

STARTING YEARS 1980 TO 19903

1998 TO 20024

2003 TO CURRENT YEAR6

APPENDIX9

Starting years 1980 to 1990

In September 1980 I linked up the Army in the Army Delayed Entry program as an Administrative Specialist. I attended Basic training and Advance Initial training was at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina. “Fort Jackson is the largest and most active Initial Entry Training Center in the U.S. Army, training 50 percent of all Soldiers and 70 percent of the women entering the Army each year. Providing the Army with trained, disciplined, motivated and physically fit warriors who espouse the Army's core values and are focused on teamwork is the post's primary mission. Accomplishing that mission denotes training in excess of 50,000 basic training as well as advanced individual training Soldiers every year." I completed my training in 1981 as an Administrative Specialist.

In 1981, I also got married and moved to Ft. Carson, Colorado, where my husband was based and went into the Inactive Ready Reserve, (IRR), until 1984 when I joined the National Guard, Detachment 1, 3650th Maintenance Company located on Ft. Carson, Colorado. The unit did not have an Administrative Specialist position so; I had to performed On The Job Training (OJT) as an Wheel Vehicle Repairer, 63B and later to Small Arms Repairer, 45B and were awarded those Military Occupation Specialist positions. I attended Primary Leadership Development School, (PLDC), “which is the first leadership course Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs) attend”, in 1987 after being promoted to Specialist at the Colorado/Kansas Military in Salina, Kansas. Were the course curriculum included instruction in Leadership Skills, Training Skills and Warfighting Skills. To graduate, students had to pass, Land Navigation, Physical Fitness Training Evaluation, Individual Training Evaluation, Garrison Leadership Evaluation, and Field Leadership Evaluation which I did graduate.

1998 to 2002

I remained with the Detachment 1 until, 1998 when my husband was transferred to Korea and I relocated to Austin, Texas on an Interstate transfer to the Texas Army National Guard, Company D, and 249th Support Battalion on Camp Mabry, Texas. "Camp Mabry is a military installation in Austin, Texas that houses the headquarters of the Texas Military Forces. Its original ninety acre site, three miles northwest of downtown west of Mopac Expressway, was deeded from the city to the state in 1892. It was named for Brigadier General Woodford H. Mabry the Adjutant General of Texas from January 23, 1891 to May 4, 1898." Upon moving to Texas, I got hired as a Military Technician and reclassified as a Supply Specialist 76C. I was the unit vehicle dispatcher and Inventory specialist. In January, 1991, The Persian Gulf War in Saudi Arabia broke out and my unit was on alert for possible deployment to Saudi Arabia. "The Persian Gulf War (commonly referred to as the Gulf War) (August 2, 1990 - February 28, 1991), was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from thirty-four nations led by the United States, against Iraq." I was interviewed ...