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Return to First Friday Briefing Guard Truckers Honored
Soldiers of Thomasville’s 1148th Transportation Company stood tall and beamed with pride as Georgia’s Adjutant General and the commanders 78th Troop Command and 110th Corps
Support Battalion pinned Army Commendation and Global War on Terrorism (Expeditionary) medals on the breast pockets of their desert camouflage uniforms. The hour-long ceremony took place in the bay area of the Thomasville armory with family members and friends looking on and applauding as each Soldier was recognized. Other,
more personal awards were presented to unit members and to members of the unit’s family readiness group. Maj. Gen. David B. Poythress, Brig. Gen. Larry H. Ross and Lt. Col. Bill Williams walked the ranks pinning medals, shaking hands and thanking each Citizen-Soldier individually
as the ceremony progressed. All three, in their remarks before the pinning took place, Capt. Alice Hampton, the 1148th’s commander, and her troops know how proud they are at having the unit
back and all in one piece. “You went with dedication…took on adverse conditions and accepted what came to you…you accomplished the mission and came home with the same number of people that you left
with,” all Poythress, Ross and Williams said in their respective speeches. In her own remarks, Hamilton told her Soldiers how she was especially proud of the way they handled being told two days before they were to return home that their deployment
had been extended. That extension put the unit at 15 months in Iraq instead of the 12 that it was supposed to serve. “You faced that adversity, overcame the bad news and carried on with mission like the professionals you are,” she said before more than 50 family members and fellow Soldiers. “For all that you did and all that you have done, I can only say ‘thank you and I am so very proud of you.’”
Shortly after the ceremony ended, Sgt. Kavon Moton stood looking at the medals pinned to his left pocket, gazing at them with what seemed a casual stair. It was nice to receive
them he said, but it’s not “what I went there for.” “From the time we left to the time we came home, the only thing on my mind was the mission,” he said. “I knew there was no avoiding what had to be done, and by getting it
done and doing it right I would get home that much faster.” One of those who received special honors during the ceremony was Spc. Monica Lashley, the unit’s postal clerk. The certificate she received outlined the fact that when handing out or going through the 1148th’s mail she would pay attention to who didn’t get a letter. She would make
note of the Soldier’s name and at some point in her day, sit down and write that person and put in an envelope. “I realize I didn’t have to do it, that I could have just gone on and done my job and nothing more,” she said while holding up her certificate. “But I wanted to make
sure everyone knew someone out there cared about how they were doing and what they were doing.” First Sgt. Carlton Powell, the unit’s senior noncommissioned officer said he was quite surprised and pleased when he found out what Lashley was doing. Every Soldier has it in him to go beyond what expected, he said. “But Lashley went way beyond what was expected of her as a postal clerk and as a Soldier and showed us all, I think, the real meaning by the Army value of Selfless service.” |
