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Short Rounds: Unity Day, Sound decision, new radios and lots (and lots) of guns


We are United

New Jersey National Guardsmen present a united front prior to the beginning of the funwalk/run at the 11th Annual Unity day Celebration on Sept. 17. This year's event also included a blood drive. Unity Day highlights the different ethnic and special emphasis groups represented in the NJNG to enhance cross-cultural awareness among the Garden State Citizen Soldiers and Airmen. Photo by Chief Warrant Officer 2 Patrick Daugherty, JFHQ-NJ/JAG.

50th IBCT gets newest comms
Chaplain's Assistant Xochi Risco, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 50th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, trains on the Harris PRC-117F Multiband Manpack Radio outside the National Guard Armory at Lawrenceville from July 13-17. The 50th troops are the first New Jersey Army National Guard Soldiers to be trained on the new system. Photo by Tech. Sgt. Mark Olsen, NJDMAVA/PA.

Soldier takes sound skills coast to coast
By Kryn P. Westhoven, NJDMAVA/PA; photo by Spc. Mark O'Rear, 444MPAD

As Sgt. Jared Morgan worked the controls of a large audio mixing board fine tuning the sound of the 63rd Army Band in the War Memorial in Trenton it was hard not to notice the smile on his face.

It was more than satisfaction of how well the band would sound for the hundreds of families gathering to send off the 1-150th Assault Helicopter Battalion on a deployment to Iraq, it was the news he received just a few days before.

Morgan was going on his own personal deployment, as he was selected to be part of what could be described as the all-star team for Army entertainers; this Jersey Guardsmen was going to part of the 2009 Soldiers Show tour.

The 90-minute theatrical concert production with the theme “Lights! Camera! Action!” showcases the talents of the uniformed performers and highlights the capabilities of the technical staff. Morgan will be at the audio controls during six and a half-month tour that will see the Soldiers perform nearly 100 times on 46 installations, including stops in Hawaii and Korea.

The cast and crew handle 18 tons of equipment for each show. “As a kid I was always into hooking things up,” added Morgan, a skill that will come in handy with four miles of cable in need of connecting to lights and speakers.

Morgan’s interest for the Soldier Show came from another member of the New Jersey Army Guard band Sgt. 1st Class Dexter Hendricks, who had gone to see the show and returned with a program, telling him it was “something he should check out.”

Following Hendricks’s advice, he did a little research on the Soldier Show, learning more about this touring group that goes by the motto “Entertainment for the Soldier, by the Soldier” as part of the Morale, Welfare and Recreation programs. Morgan started sending e-mails and resumes; weeks later he got the invite to join this year’s tour.

A combination of a four-year degree from Montclair State in Broadcasting and his work as an editor for the CBS network for five-years caught the Soldier Show’s staff attention according to Morgan. He joined the 63rd as a French horn player and migrated to the technical side of the music business over the nearly dozen years he has served in the Guard band.

This opportunity to be part of national touring company is an extension of what he does in the National Guard. “I see this as a bigger opportunity for me,” Morgan said as he plans to bring back many useful ideas to the Sea Girt-based band when he returns in this fall.

Also this year another 63rd Army Band member was selected to join an Army Entertainment touring group as Sgt. Steve Higgins is playing guitar with USA Express across the country.

One down, 2,999 to go
Weapons reset finishes 50th deployment

Spc. Diana Brand , left, and Cpl. Jesse Nieto team up to clean a .50-caliber machine gun that spent most of the past year in Iraq with the 50th Infantry Brigade Combat Team. Brand, of the 250th Brigade Support Battalion, and Nieto, of the 102nd RSTA, are among two dozen brigade Soldiers who worked with about 70 contractors to clean and reset more than 3,000 weapons, which included everything from 9 mm pistols and M4 carbines to crew-served weapons from the deployment. The month-long operation took up a full warehouse floor at the United States Property and Fiscal Office at Lawrenceville. State Command Chief Warrant Officer Robert J. Richardson, who spearheaded the operation, said "The Guard saved time and money and ensured quality assurance by performing the work in house." Photo by Sgt. Wayne Woolley, NJDMAVA/PA.

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Volume 34 Number 5 Staff / Information
     
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http://www.nj.gov/military