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Return to First Friday Briefing Airman Finds Similarities, Differences in G8 Mission Story by Sgt. Jeff Lowry
Guarding
an island and helping misguided youth are vastly different missions. Air
National Guard Staff Sgt. Brian Croft, however, did exactly that. In
uniform, Croft is a weapons instructor with He
and other members of his unit were on duty at Croft
said there were similarities as there were differences between the
security mission he and the squadron conducted and his work with
juvenile offenders. “What
was similar between the two is that it takes a special person, a
dedicated person, to work the kind of operations that we’d been
handed,” he explained, “just as it takes someone just as special,
just as dedicated to work with a youthful offender. “One
of the differences between the two,” Croft continued, “is that I
dealt mostly with adults instead of teenagers or younger-aged children,
though it’s sometimes hard to tell the difference between the two in
attitude.” For
the most part, though, the residents he and his fellow airmen came in
contact with were glad to have them on the island, protecting their
persons and property from possible harm, he said. While
his work during the G8 was intense, Croft admitted that it gave him a
welcomed break from his duties as a corrections officer. If
you think adults can be intense people, you need to work with the kind
of youth that I deal with,” he said. “Now there’s an intense
group.” While
there were times during the summit that emotions ran high and people
were at a high state of alert, there were times when the mood was
relaxed, even calming, Croft added. But that didn’t mean he and 165th
stood down and took it easy. Whenever the opportunity presented itself,
the 165th retrained on everything from rules of use of force to the use
of less-than-lethal weapons to deadly weapons. “We
did much more training for G8 than we’ve done for any other mission,
and believe me we train constantly,” said Croft. “No matter how
prepared you think you are to handle a situation, there’s always
something out there that you may not have considered. “The
more we train the more proficient we are at the mission we’re involved
in,” he said. “So, using those slow times during the summit was very
beneficial to everyone.” Being
part of the G8 security mission and participating in the training before
and during the mission was especially beneficial to him as an
instructor, Croft said. For
one thing, it gave him to chance to pickup some new teaching techniques
and learning tools that he can pass on to the airmen he works with, he
said. It also provided him the opportunity to “network” with people
from the other agencies and build new friendships and professional
relationships. “It’s
great. You get to talk to people, find out about more than what you knew
about the other agencies,” Croft said while recalling some of the
friends he had made during the summit. “I got to know a lot of those
folks quite well and found out I didn’t know as much about some
agencies as I thought I did.” With the G8 Summit over now, Croft has returned to his work as a corrections officer, but even in that position he has taken with him some of the lessons learned from those 10 days on Hutchinson Island, he said. Guarding an island and working with juvenile offenders do have their differences, Croft said. But then again, may be the two really aren’t so different. |
