Warrant Officer 1 Jennifer Long of Conyers watches while her grandfather Vernon Reynolds, an Army veteran of World War II’s European Theater, places her new rank on her uniform. With them (right) is Brig. Gen. Mike McGuinn, Georgia State Defense Force Commander.
SDF graduates its newest officers, warrants

By SFC Roy Henry
Georgia National Guard
Public Affairs Office

FORSYTH – Standing tall and proud of what they had accomplished, 15 members of the Georgia State Defense Force, including the wife of a Georgia Army Guardsman, set aside their status as enlisted Soldiers to become the SDF’s newest crop of officers and warrant officers.

Families, friends and fellow SDF volunteers filled the auditorium of the Georgia State Patrol Training Center in Forsyth on June 15 to applaud and praise the graduates, and to pin them with the hard-earned, well-deserved rank of warrant officer 1.

"We can do nothing but show our pride in these individuals for the choice they made and challenges they put themselves through to achieve this goal," said Brig. Gen. Mike McGuinn, commander Georgia State Defense Force. "As experts in their chosen fields, they have shown they have ‘the right stuff’ to wear the rank and carry on the honored tradition of the officer and warrant officer corps.

"Through them, our Soldiers and the SDF gain pride in themselves and the expertise and leadership skills that’s so necessary in our service to the state and to the Georgia National Guard community," he added.

For newly pinned Warrant Officer 1 Jennifer Long, one of seven to achieve the rank, her graduation from the six-week training course is an especially proud one. The former SDF corporal joins her husband, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Barry Long in carrying the tradition that McGuinn talked about.  

Warrant Officer Long, an SDF medic and a physical therapist with Rockdale County School System, is transferring from Atlanta’s 1st Brigade Medical Detachment to Dahlonega's 4th Battalion so she can become more involved in search and rescue operations. Chief Long, a 21 veteran with the Georgia Army National Guard, is assistant deputy chief of the Officer Personnel Branch at Joint Forces Headquarters in Ellenwood.

While she could have gone to the Officer Corps, Long said, she believes it and the warrant ranks operate on different levels.

Officers operate on a "general level," whereby warrant officers are more specialized in their given skill sets, the Conyers resident explained. Also, an officer plays more of a role as a planner and manager.

"As a warrant officer, I still work directly with the troops," said the newly promoted Long. "I like that, and I love the interaction it allows me on missions and during training."

Still, the training of a warrant officer is no easier than that of a regular officer, she recounted. From beginning to end, the course and its instructors hammered into her and her fellow students…"to be a good leader, you must learn to follow," Long said.

Training was, and is hard, and it’s that way for a purpose, but, "There were times, especially after our first weekend, that I went home and asked myself – and my husband – ‘Tell me, again, why I’m doing this, because I’m not getting paid do this."

Chief Long said he reminded his wife of what she’d told him many times while he was attending warrant officer school at Fort Rucker, Ala.

"You’ve got to keep the faith, believe in yourself, what you’re doing and why you’re doing it," he said he told her. "Keep sight of the goal you’ve set for yourself and never, ever give up."

Now that she’s graduated, it’s a great moment for the SDF, and for the Guard, because she stood up to every challenge and overcame them, Chief Long said.

Warrant Officer Long endured the course and earned the rank not just for herself, but for something much bigger, said Cheif Long. She did it for the organization, he added, and for those whom she’ll now set the example.

And what greater example is there of the true Citizen-Soldier than those who fill the ranks of the volunteer militia, Chief Long said proudly.

As proud as her husband is of her, and as proud as she is of herself for achieving her goal, it is overshadowed, Warrant Office Long said, by the pride and praise shown her by her grandfather Vernon Reynolds.

The 82-year-old, former Army private first class was a combat medic when allied forces stormed the beaches at Normandy in June 1944, she said. He survived the Omaha Beach landing to go on and serve in Belgium and France, and then come home when the war ended.

A man who talks little of his experiences, said no more than a couple of sentences after placing that hard earned warrant officer bar on her uniform, Long said. He simply smiled, looked up from his wheel chair and asked, "Have I made you happy today?"

"All I could said was, ‘you have…yes you have," Long said in a humbled voice.

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