La. Guard engineers gain valuable training during community project

By Staff Sgt. Noshoba Davis, Louisiana National Guard Public Affairs Office

PINEVILLE, La. – The Louisiana National Guard’s 922nd Engineer Vertical Construction Company, 528th Engineer Battalion, 225th Engineer Brigade began demolishing the old American Legion Gautreau-Williams Post 81 building in Gonzales on March 1.

This project was an Innovative Readiness Training (IRT) project and was completed, on Mar. 30. IRT projects are used to build and strengthen partnerships between local communities and the Guard.

Maj. Jerry Rodriguez, the assistant operations officer for the 225th, explained that the requests from eligible organizations cannot compete with the private sector, and Soldiers must conduct training within their Military Occupational Specialty.

“Once the Office of the Secretary of Defense approves a project, our engineers conduct pre-construction meetings and begin planning for training periods,” said Rodriguez.

This particular IRT project provided Soldiers of the 922nd an opportunity to train on a variety of engineering equipment while simultaneously improving their unit’s readiness and capabilities posture.

“Demolition is not something you get to do, but if you do, it’s not often,” said Sgt. Lowden Hoover, a St. Amant resident, and the noncommissioned officer in charge of the job site. “Everything is a little different on a demolition site and a little less tedious because you can only break things so far.”

Hoover said he maximized the amount of time for his Soldiers to train on each piece of equipment until they were comfortable with those pieces before moving onto the next.

“If you’re not comfortable on that piece of equipment you’re never going to be a good operator because you have to be able to know what the equipment can and can’t do,” said Hoover.

For Soldiers like Spc. Elizabeth Kinnison, a heavy equipment operator for the 922nd, it’s about learning, being hands-on while training and expanding her passion for being an operator.

“Operating means a lot to me because I kind of fell into it, and I ended up falling in love with it. It’s something I want to do in the civilian world,” said Kinnision, a St. Amant native. “I love the excavator the most, and tearing down the building has got to be my favorite thing about this job.”

In addition to Soldiers being able to train and learn from each other on the job site, they can directly affect a community and see the impact each project makes for the community.

“It’s great…Projects like these make it feel like we are making an impact within the community that we are a part of,” said Spc. Austin Mcelveen, a Baton Rouge native, and carpenter with the 922nd.

After demolishing approximately 9,500 sq. feet, the Soldiers filled four metal dumpsters and approximately 40 dumpsters full of debris which the city hauled off-site.

Rodriguez says the town plans on using the site to complement future operations for the annual City of Gonzales Jambalaya Festival.