Highlander Family, Sincerely, Ruddie Ibanez Captain, Field Artillery Company Commander

2ND BRIGADE SPECIAL

TROOPS BATTALION,

2ND BRIGADE

COMBAT TEAM,

10TH MTN DIV

(LIGHT INFANTRY) 29 MAY 2012 BATTALION NEWS

Helpful Phone

Numbers: HHC Company Commander

CPT McCall

HHC Company 1SG 1SG Ward

772-4509

A. Company Commander

CPT Boyles

Alpha Company 1SG 1SG Volz

772-7410

B. Company Commander

CPT Keay

Bravo Company 1SG

1SG Pasol 772-7412

C. Company Commander

CPT Tapia

Charlie Company 1SG

SFC Gruby 772-7429

HHC BDE Company

Commander

CPT Freeburg

HHC BDE Company 1SG

1SG Maciag 772-2492

Battalion Staff Duty:

772-5100

Brigade Staff Duty:

774-2199

FRSA:

Decima Chiasson 772-9166

Who’s Who

In the FRG

Advisors

Amy Cox

HHC FRG Leaders

Lori Bogutskie

Alpha FRG Leaders

Kim Boyles

Bravo FRG Leaders

Jennifer Limerick

Charlie FRG Leader

Teri Remillard HHC 2BCT FRG

Leader

Sarah Freeburg

You can make a difference in your

FRG! Call your FRG Leader

to volunteer or for

more information.

Please let the FRG know if you have

moved or changed phone numbers so we

can keep our records up to date!

Thank You!

Headquarters, 2nd Brigade Special Troops Battalion 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry)

10120 North Riva Ridge Loop Fort Drum NY 13602

29 May 2012

Letter to the 2

nd Brigade Special Troops Battalion Family and Friends:

This is my last note as your Battalion Commander. It has been an honor and privilege to serve with the Soldiers and Families of this great Battalion. The past 20 months have been the most re-warding time in my career. I cannot thank you all enough for your efforts to support our Soldiers and Families. Our Soldiers were extremely busy this month supporting red cycle tasks. I am proud of their pro-fessionalism carrying out these duties and the way they positively represented the Battalion, Bri-gade, and Division at funerals, graduation ceremonies, various parades in the local area, the Syra-cuse Chiefs baseball game, the Armed Forces Day Luncheon, the Joint Service Open House at Joint Base Andrews, and the state’s inaugural 10

th Mountain Division Declaration Day to name a

few. Additionally, the spring maintenance tasks such as range clean up and post clean up were executed to the Gladiator Standard. We look forward to being able to get back at training and pre-paring for future field exercises and eventual deployment to Afghanistan. June is going to be a busy month as we bid farewell to three company commanders and transition both the Battalion Executive Officer and Battalion Operations Officer. MAJ Jaimie Leonard heads up to Brigade Headquarters to assume duties as the Brigade S2 and MAJ Silas Bowman will take the Battalion Executive Officer position at the Warrior Transition Unit. CPT Eric McCall (HHC/2BSTB Commander) heads off to William and Mary to pursue a Masters Degree, CPT Bar-clay Keay (B/2BSTB Commander) will be assigned to Molesworth, England and CPT Matt Free-burg heads out to Fort Sill, OK. The Battalion owes them all a debt of gratitude for their hard work taking care of Soldiers and the normal day to day running of an Army Battalion. We will end the month with River Fest, Commando Fest, Mountain Fest and Block Leave. I encourage everyone to join the festivities and to take a much deserved block leave. Please join me in welcoming the incoming Battalion Commander, LTC Jason Bridges, his wife Christine and daughters Casey and Hallie. I request that you embrace him and his family with the same professionalism and warmth that you showed Amy and I when we arrived in November 2010. As always thank you to all the Family members for your steadfast support of our Soldiers, your dedication is appreciated! Strength and Honor! RHETT R. COX LTC, MI Commanding

24 May 2012 This was the Chaplain message at the battalion remembrance ceremony for Memorial Day: As we meet together, let us recognize that there is a certain sting to death. Even now; somehow, even for those who never knew these men; feelings remain of loss, grief, pain, sorrow, confusion, and anger. These feelings penetrate because of and through the common bond of humanity, spirit, community, military, and patriotism. However, these feelings are especially poignant for those of you who knew them, worked with them, laughed with them, and suffered with them, because your hearts have been knit together. These feelings need not be denied or unexpressed. These men, that we recognize today, were not only volunteer Soldiers willing to sacrifice and fight for American freedoms and liberty, but they were also children of the Almighty. And as such, they qualify to be remembered not only for their courage, loyalty, and sacrifices to their country, but also as members of our spiritual family. As tribute to those Service members that have fallen I will share some words from two former Presidents. President George W. Bush said this, “In this place where valor sleeps, we acknowledge our responsibility as Americans to preserve the memory of the fallen.” He continued, “Our nation is free because of brave Americans like these, who volunteer to confront our adversaries abroad so we do not have to face them here at home. Our nation mourns the loss of our men and women in uniform.” President Clinton gave these remarks, “The United States will always honor and never forsake its fallen heroes. We will not abandon their families. . . . I give thanks to all those who have stood their ground to defend freedom and democracy and human dignity.” As tribute to their immortal spirits I will share some words from ancient scripture: And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

Death is swallowed up in victory. Brothers and Sisters, Soldiers, let us turn our hearts from death to victory. In the name of Him who conquered death, I leave you these words; let us pray: Our Eternal Father, we thank thee for inspiring the minds of leadership to set aside time for us to reflect, ponder, remember, and honor the heroes of this battalion and this nation established under God. We pray that we may always remember, in the name of our Lord and Creator, Amen. Godspeed,

Chaplain James Willis

Page 2

A Word from the Chaplain

22 May 2012 To the Badger’s and their Families, It has been a busy, but still great last few weeks at Bravo Company. Majority of the Soldiers have been heavily involved in the ongoing property accountability valued just over $24 million. As most of you are aware we are conducting a change of command in the month of June. CPT Paul Kubik will be taking over on 15JUN12 and continues our training glide for the future deployment to Afghanistan. He was previously the 2-14 Battalion S2. In 2011 we had the opportunity to work at Kandahar Airfield together in Afghanistan for a few months and I am pleased and fortunate to have him as a replacement as he will make a proper assessment and continue the Company’s forward progress to be as absolutely ready as can possibly be when all Soldiers are expected to perform their jobs, and even throughout these meticulous inventories Soldiers have stilled continued training. SIGINT has 5x Soldiers (SSG Lyse, SPC Devera, SSG Carpenter, SPC Teague and SPC Montillo) attending language school throughout the month. SSG Lyse and SPC Devera will take their DLPT (language test) on 24MAY and we wish them luck in renewing their language qualifications. LT Edward Pecoraro, the SIGINT Platoon Leader, will be transitioning his duties and responsibilities to 2LT Hunter Hutcheson sometime next month. 2LT Hutcheson is already down here training and he’ll be attending the SGA 101 (intro to SIGINIT capabilities) classes for a couple weeks. Our ISR Platoon has been extremely busy as well. They have been preparing for the Trojan vehicle software upgrades and training on the most recent DCGS computer software they will be utilizing down range. ISR has also received a new Platoon Leader, 2LT Jessica Bashaar has joined our ranks and is now the fully functioning ISR Platoon Leader. UAS has been supporting our Cavalry Battalion (1-89) while they execute their Platoon STX training at Range 37. In early June they will receive their upgraded Unmanned Aerial Systems, which will offer better capabilities, but comes a very busy time within our Company. On top of all the recent leader transitions there has been an additional requirement for our Company to meet from our Army Forces Command of a FET (Female Engagement Team). So as of 14MAY we have added a Platoon comprised of currently 19 females from across the Brigade formation to meet the needs of the FET mission. They will be similar to the HUMINT Platoon in the fact that they will train together and be dispersed across the Brigade operating environment when this unit deploys. Integrating the FET Platoon has been a great experience so far and allowed leaders to innovate new ways of enabling this Platoon. Additionally, this past month was red cycle responsibilities on FT Drum for our Battalion. This entailed our Soldiers contributing to all types of unique (and some not so great) tasks to include funerals, parades and color guard details. Though not always the duties of choice they are duties that are a part of our Army and important for Soldiers to do from time to time in order to appreciate the other things. That summarizes most of the events and I apologize if this is already too long, but I would like to say a final thank you to all the Family members that made our FRG what it currently is (you know who you are). I wish you all well in the future. Take care Badgers and continue to move forward, CPT Keay, Barclay Commanding B Co/2 BSTB 29 May 2012

29 May 2012 Dear Havoc Families- This is my last month in command, and your Soldiers continue to impress me with their hard work and dedication. The company has been extremely busy conducting change of command inventories. We will continue to do these until June 20th, when I officially switch out with Captain Byler. After my Change of Command, we will be headed to some much needed block leave. Enjoy your rest, because as soon as we come back we’re headed to the field for Mountain Peak. After Mountain Peak, the Brigade is off to California for a month to train at NTC. I know the Havoc Soldiers will excel at any task given to them. I am going to miss my time in Command of HHC 2BCT. It has been an honor to command this company. I know HAVOC Company will continue to do great things in the future. HAVOC 6 Out MATTHEW W. FREEBURG CPT, AD Commanding

Page 3 BRAVO COMPANY

HHC BRIGADE COMPANY

Page 4

CHARLIE COMPANY

29 May 2012 Hello to Avenger Family and Friends! This month has been extremely busy! This month has involved testing for the Expert Infantryman's Badge, the begin-ning of testing for the Expert Field Medical Badge, and Division Safety Day. In addition, the Avengers have been inventorying equipment for our upcoming change of command in June. This has meant a lot of long hours, as the incoming commander has to inventory every piece of equipment and component--it doesn't sound like much until you realize our inventory is 45 pages long and contains hundreds of different items. This inventory is in preparation for the change of command in June, when I will hand the guidon to Captain Braden Amigo. Captain Amigo was the commander for Bravo Company, 4-31 IN, before moving to 2BSTB. He's an infantry officer originally from Ohio. I have no doubt that he'll be an excellent commander and he looks forward to meeting all of you after the transition. Have a wonderful summer! Very Respectfully, CPT McCall Commanding HHC 2BSTB

23 May 2012 Hello Families and Friends, May was a bitter sweet month when the Cobras said goodbye to an exceptional leader, outgoing commander CPT Frank Remillard and his wonderful family and welcomed a new leader CPT Andres Tapia and his family. I would like to thank the Cobra family for the warm welcome, my family feels right at home. Additionally, I want to thank the Cobra company for your outstanding effort throughout the change of command inventories. It is truly a great start and I look forward to being your commander so we can learn, build, grow and take care of each other every day On June, 29th 2012 we look forward to seeing everyone for an FRG meeting in the Company Conference Room. For the summer we are planning a Company White Water Rafting adventure on the Black River here in Watertown NY. We hope to see everyone there, and again, thank you for all that you do! Sincerely, Andres Tapia CPT, SC Commanding

HHC 2BSTB COMPANY

29 May 2012 Dear Sapper Families and Friends, Another busy month is in the books and again, Alpha Company Sappers continued to perform at a high level. Over the last month Alpha Company Soldiers have supported the Division during various training and community service events, often resulting in long work days and weekend requirements. Despite it all, the Soldiers maintained their positive outlook and motivation. With the tasking cycle now complete, the company will transition to engineer specific training in preparation for the upcoming deployments to NTC and Afghanistan. Additionally, the Light Equipment Section began repair work early this month on the Fort Drum Heavy Demolition Range, utilizing heavy engineer equipment not organic to the company. This is the first time BCT Engineers have utilized this type of equipment and it will pay dividends during our upcoming deployment. The hard work and expertise of our operators is already showing, as Range 50 is looking much improved. Below are some pictures from the first days on the jobsite. Keep an eye out for the finished product in future newsletters. Next month we will conduct a series of major training events and evaluations in order to certify our Sapper Platoons and Squads to conduct mobility and counter mobility operations. The training will begin with individual events such as the Sapper Fitness Challenge and conclude with the Squad Stakes Competition, where each squad will complete a rigorous 12-mile course consisting of 12 different engineer tasks in continuous 24-hour operations. Finally, Alpha Company will have four stellar NCOs attend the Sapper Leader Course next week, the Army’s premier engineer school. We expect great things from each of them and wish them the best. They will experience some of the toughest training the Army has to offer over the next 31 days so please keep SGTs Fry, Nicholson, Standish, and Walker in your thoughts.

As always, thank you for the support and until next

time, Mountain Sappers

CHESTER D. BOYLES CPT, EN Commanding

Page 5

ALPHA COMPANY

WHAT IS HAPPENING: