1st Brigade Soldier finds new personalchallenges in different unit

By Sgt. Michael J. MacLeod
1st BCT, 82nd Abn. Div. PAO

November 10, 2011

Photo by Staff Sgt. Clay Lancaster/U.S. Air Force Paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division prepare to parachute during a simulated relief mission for an operational readiness evaluation, Joint Base Charleston, S.C., Oct. 26. Members of the 437th Airlift Wing, Joint Base Charleston, took part in the ORE, which was staged out of Gulfport, Miss. The ORE is intended to evaluate Joint Base Charleston’s ability to “take the fight to the enemy” and objectively measure mission effectiveness.

As satisfying as his work was with the 95th Civil Affairs Brigade, Sgt. 1st Class Calen Bullard knew that, for his development as a Soldier, he needed to spend time at a brigade combat team.

The Texas-born civil affairs team sergeant has deployed three times and managed complex healthcare, education and good governance projects in the Philippines as part of a tiny, four-man CA team (it’s no joke when there are only four guys, he says).

As a paratrooper, though, finding time for jumpmaster school and other career-development activities was difficult due to the intense deployment tempo in the CA world, where Soldiers are home only seven months for every year deployed.
Additionally, serving in the “S9” Brigade Civil Affairs
noncommissioned officer role would give him key-staff development time and a big-picture view of what he’d only experienced at the street level, he said.

Just after graduating from NCO Senior Leaders Course with honors this September, Bullard joined the 82nd Airborne Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team.

“One of the first things they asked me when I got here was, do I want to go to jumpmaster school, said Bullard.

He said he is excited to have time to complete his associates degree in the months ahead, another benefit of being off the CA deployment cycle.

The demand for Soldiers with Bullard’s expertise is high. There are only 700 Army-wide, and only 15 percent of CA slots at BCTs are filled.

“A CA Soldier’s job is to work himself out of a job,” Bullard said, and good Soldiers are jacks-of-all-trades.

“We’re more generalists than specialists,” he said, noting that deployed teams often have to perform light trade-work such as plumbing, mechanical and construction, while arranging meetings and the sundry of other CA tasks.

Bullard expects to return to the 95th CA after his tour with 1st BCT.

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