LONGRIFLEs WEEKLYA publication of the 2/138th FAR

Whether you have noticed it or not, the end is nearing. Before you realize it, this deployment will be over. There are many tasks that each of us have to accomplish. Mailing personal items, conducting turn-ins, conducting inventories, and most of all

the Relief in Place. So start planning. With redeployment approaching, many full-time students must get their state tuition waiver applications filed by April 1. The next deadline everyone must meet is tax day, April 15. At least an extension should be filed. But much more important information will be briefed in these next few months. Post 911 GI Bill, unemployment benefits, and VA medical claims are just a few that will affect many of us. Be very attentive during briefings to information that is disseminated. Many have already experienced changes in the daily schedule and workplace. Embrace these changes and the days will fly by. Use your time wisely. Take college classes and do volunteer work if you can. Most importantly get rest. Everyone has noticed the slow increases in temperature. It will continue to rise even past our departure. Rest and water consumption become very serious issues for all of us. We have been blessed with very moderate weather as of late but it will not continue. Drink water. It’s easier to fix a habit now than later. ~Capt. James Riley

CPT’s Corner

With the end of deployment rapidly approaching, I’m hoping that every leader has at least started thinking about their subordinate’s end-of-tour NCOER and what needs to go on it. The NCOER is a huge part of an NCOs career development,

and as leaders, we need to ensure that our NCOs are being properly evaluated to help develop strong leadership. Now is a good time to utilize the DA 2166-8-1 during counseling sessions so that your NCOs can track all of their achievements while they are still fresh in their minds. This also gives those NCOs who have not had the opportunity to write an NCOER to know what is expected when rating another Soldier. With the changes to the Enlisted Promotion System, the NCOER is more important than ever in the career of the NCO. The NCOER will now be one of the defining factors used to determine where our NCOs fall in the order of merit. As first line supervisors, we need to ensure that we are rating all of our NCOs fairly in order to compete statewide for promotions. ~1st Sgt.Marty Cottrell

1SG Thoughts

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Building Relationships and Building Africa

Story by Staff Sgt. Steve Tressler, 2-138th PAO

March 8, 2013Volume 1, Issue 20

DJIBOUTI – If you were to meet Spc. Christopher Durham, a Jessamine County, Ky. native who now calls Shelbyville his home, he may come across as an “awe-shucks” kind of country boy, but don’t be fooled. I mean that in a good way.Durham dropped out of Eastern High School (Louisville) in 1997, but soon after received his GED.

While that usually isn’t one of the ingredients that makes for a good business, Durham has now owned his own successful construction company for 11 years.Soon after receiving his GED he met a very special lady named Melissa. After nearly 10 years of dating they married and are the proud parents of four children; Merranda, PJ, Dalton, and Chloe. Two of the children were not his but he immediately fell in love with them, and like any good construction project, Durham would build a strong foundation. It was a labor of love that has already paid dividends. “I really miss watching them play soccer, football or going four-wheeling,” said Durham.Generally people understand that Soldiers sacrifice a lot. They give up time with family, they miss birthdays, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Valentine’s, Mothers Day, Fathers Day, etc. Durham is also sacrificing money, and plenty of it. “When you can’t be on-site to ensure some of the jobs are being done right, you don’t know if the customers are happy and if the project is progressing the way it should” said Durham “and sadly I’ve lost a few contracts because I wasn’t there to uphold my name and reputation on the project.” Is it worth it then? Durham smiles at the question and says yes, because of the project he’s involved with at the Caritas Wound Clinic here in Africa, and the newfound appreciation he has for his wife’s role in his day-to-day business back home. “I’ve realized being here how much I relied on her there. Even now with paperwork and her help with schoolwork.” And not just the kids schoolwork either, but his as well.Besides 12-hour workdays here, volunteering on his days off, managing the day-to-day issues of having a business and family back home, he has somehow found time to take four

Longrifles WeeklyPage 2

Chaplain ReflectionsAs Pope Benedict XVI retires from public life, I think it is appropriate to recognize his contributions. He is a champion of religious freedom, and while in office, he proclaimed loudly his declaration of faith. He refused to accept the status quo, characterizing it as unacceptable, an

insult to God and to human dignity. Pope Benedict XVI spoke out against the promotion of religious indifference or practical atheism that has infested many countries. Pope Benedict XVI harbored no doubts that “the most cherished of American freedoms, the freedom of religion” is under attack, and he fought against efforts to deny religious persons “the right of conscientious objection” and the “worrying tendency to reduce religious freedom to mere freedom of worship without guarantees of respect for freedom of conscience.” He reminded us that the “Church has a critical role to play in countering cultural currents which, on the basis of an extreme individualism, seek to promote notions of freedom detached from moral truth.” Pope Benedict XVI clearly saw religious freedom as “an essential good” and he declared that “each person must be able to freely exercise the right to profess and manifest, individually or in community, his or her own religion or faith, in public and in private, in teaching, in practice, in publications, in worship and in ritual observances.” I think as believers we can be thankful for his service and example no matter our faith background. May God continue to bless us all. ~Chaplain Mark Slaughter

BUILDING RELATION- CONTINUED FROM P. 1 > > >

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Soldier to Soldier • April 1st is the deadline for Soldiers planning on

using their State Tuition Assistance for the fall term. To submit application, go to https://ky.ngb.army.mil/tuitionstudent/frmLogin.aspx

• The deadline to file taxes is April 15. If you need to file for an extension, the website to do so is CombatZone@irs.gov . You will need to state that you are a Soldier deployed to Djibouti and qualify for combat zone tax exclusion, and you are requesting an extension for filing and paying your 2012 federal income tax. You will also need to provide your full name, stateside address and zip code from the last tax return you filed with the IRS, DOB and date of deployment to combat zone area.

DJIBOUTI CITY, Djibouti - Spc. Christopher Durham (L) volunteered to help the Caritas Wound Clinic here in Djibouti with building a shower and awning. Durham also supplied his expertise and labor, and even trained any of the people from the community who wanted to learn construction at no charge. (Photo by Capt. Daniel Van Horn 2-138 FAR PAO)

Quotations to live by... • “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but rising

everytime we fall.” -Confucius• “Education is the mother of leadership.” - Wendell

Willkie• “Formula for success: under promise and over

deliver.” - Tom Peters• “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way,

and shows the way.” - John Maxwell• “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence,

therefore, is not an act, but a habit.” - Aristotle• “A good plan violently executed now is better than a

perfect plan executed next week.” - George Patton• “The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity.

The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” - Winston Churchill

• “No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it.” - Andrew Carnegie

online college classes.Durham has been volunteering at the Caritas Wound Clinic, which didn’t have money to pay workers to build a new shower and awning. Durham volunteered to do it for them and in the process has been mentoring 6 Djiboutian teenagers. He hopes they will use the skills he tought them to improve their community for years to come. The boys are so grateful for this that Durham’s nickname from them translates to ‘our brother’ in English. When you tell Durham what a great job he’s doing he just smiles, drops his head a little bit and you can almost hear him say “awe-shucks,” because to him he’s just trying to be a good man and a good Soldier.