I was a member of the Oregon Army National Guard from 1983 to 1991. So when I contacted Captain Repp of A Company one evening prior to leaving Oregon, I was surprised to hear that his 1st Sergeant remembered me. It had been along time, but when Captain Repp told me his 1st Sergeant's name, I had to smile.

1st Sergeant Santoyo. He has been with the Oregon Army National Guard for twenty-two years; and all of those twenty-two years he has been a member of A Company, 1/186 based in Medford, Oregon. When I commented on his time and service and his current rank, he added with a bit of a laugh and his humble manner, "Yeah, it took that long."

Santoyo was promoted to 1st Sergeant two years ago. Having worked his way up through the ranks from Private E-1, to Team Leader, to Squad Leader, to Platoon Sergeant, to his current position, his long history with A Company offers him a unique perspective. "I kind of raised all of these guys. It feels good, I mean, they know me as 'Dad.' And what's funny is that I see myself as being the old guy when not too long ago I was the young guy. They've come along ways. I've seen a lot of them grow up quickly, and some grown up in a manner that they shouldn't have had to. But I'm proud of them."

1st Sgt. Santoyo has previously deployed to the Sinai for a year and to New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. "We were deployed to Katrina... though we don't consider Katrina a deployment; it was a rescue." Santoyo continued, "We were deployed for 30 days. It was a different mission. We were there for a reason, to keep stability. It was rewarding and frustrating; it went both ways." When asked about his impressions on the Katrina operation, Santoyo added, "After seeing all that we saw, the biggest question my soldiers and I had was how they would ever recover from this thing. It was a real eye opener... to see such devastation. How much can you say about it, it was horrible."

For the current mission, A Company will be providing security for elements of Joint Task Force Phoenix V. 1st Sgt. Santoyo added, "My personal goal is to ensure that my guys are well trained prior to leaving and that we all get back as a whole. And that's every commands' goal... to come back. We're there to do a specific job and I want them to do that job at 110% and get it done right."

A year long deployment poses challenges for any command. 1st Sgt. Santoyo commented on his Company's mission, "Security force duty is a strenuous job because you [can be sitting] in a tower for twelve hours a day. You can only imagine the boredom that will set in day after day and [the challenges that poses when] going into a combat mission if they are asked to, or on a convoy security mission. It is a job maintaining the men. My Platoon Sergeants have a job [cut] out for themselves; the young Platoon Leaders have a job managing that... making sure they're keeping their guys on a rise rather than a low."

1st Sgt. Santoyo continued, "We're relying a lot on young leadership, but fortunately enough most of my Platoon Sergeants have been with A Company for a long period of time... I've raised most of them. We've chewed a lot of dirt together so I trust them to train their Platoon Leaders. [Of the three Platoon Leaders], two Platoon Leaders we have with us are seasoned; one's been to combat, one's just out of Ranger school...the third is just starting. But I do have confidence in our junior leadership... they'll do right by us."

When asked if he felt if A Company was well prepared for their mission, 1st Sgt. Santoyo left no room for doubt... "Absolutely!"

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Copyright, Scott Kesterson- 2006

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