Bosses get up-close look at Iowa National Guard in action

LITTLE FALLS, Minn. — Jerry Liska and Zachary Pettit, boss and worker temporarily separated by 400 miles, caught up with each other in the middle of a military training exercise on a 53,000-acre grounds and shared stories over some Mike and Ike candy.

Liska, a grounds supervisor for the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, was participating in the Iowa National Guard’s guided tour of its annual training exercise at Camp Ripley in Northern Minnesota.

Pettit, one of Liska’s workers and a sergeant in the Iowa National Guard, was about halfway through the three-week training exercise, most of which he spent living on the grounds, away from amenities.

Liska, knowing he might get a chance to see one of his workers in action during the tour, had reached out to Pettit to ask if there was anything he could bring. Pettit’s request: some Mike and Ike candy.

“A little boost, you know what I mean?” Liska said. “It’s the small joys in life.”

Liska was one of 37 Iowa employers who participated July 23 in the Guard’s “boss lift.” The Guard transported the employers — via a three-hour ride in a Chinook helicopter — from Camp Dodge in Johnston to Camp Ripley, northwest of the Twin Cities.

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The employers in one group on the “boss lift” were mainly from Eastern Iowa. They included leaders from John Deere, the Eaton power management company in Davenport and the Davenport Police Department. Each boss had an employee in the Iowa National Guard.

The Guard says it hosts boss lifts so employers can see what their Guard-member workers are doing during the time they must take off work to fulfill Guard duties — especially when they need to miss three weeks of work to participate in a training exercise.

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Four out of every five Iowa National Guard members are part-time service members, meaning they have a separate full-time career or are a full-time student while serving, a Guard spokeswoman said.

More than 2,900 Iowa National Guard soldiers are participating in the training exercise, which will run through the end of the month and is known as XCTC, an acronym for exportable combat training capability. The Iowa soldiers are among the more than 4,700 from seven states participating in the exercise.

“It’s important to show you why we take your soldier for three weeks,” Lt. Col. Jared Gledhill, officer-in-charge for the Iowa National Guard, told the employers during a briefing ahead of the tour.

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A tour of the training

Camp Ripley sits on 53,000 acres, roughly 50,000 of which is training grounds, and spans 16 miles north to south. It has expansive trails, woods and open areas in which Guard members train in all aspects of combat. Camp Ripley’s size gives the Iowa National Guard training opportunities that simply cannot be executed at Camp Dodge in Iowa — Camp Ripley is roughly 12 times larger than Camp Dodge’s 4,400 acres.

XCTC is a national program, conducted every five years. It culminates with a national program next year at Fort Johnson in Louisiana, where upward of 12,000 soldiers will participate, Guard officials said.

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During XCTC, Guard members drill on all manner of combat situations. During the guided tour as part of the “boss lift,” Iowa employers got to visit with soldiers during moments between those drills. Among the training activities that employers learned about:

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“It requires time, energy and effort,” Gledhill said. “That’s why it takes 21 days.”

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Bears, mosquitoes and military pizza

In addition to the impressive sights of military equipment and soldiers in action, employers on the “boss lift” tour marveled at the conditions soldiers had to deal with. July 23 was an overcast and comfortable day at Camp Ripley; other days have been much hotter, Guard members said.

And then there are the bears and mosquitoes.

Bears are active at Camp Ripley. Multiple Guard members shared stories of close encounters. One shared cellphone video of a bear climbing a nearby tree. Another said a bear attacked a Guard Humvee, leaving claw marks on the vehicle.

As for those mosquitoes: “They’re bigger up here,” said Iowa National Guard Capt. Scott Simatovich, one of the tour guides.

Maj. Jacob Johnson said after a while, the mosquitoes aren’t as much of a problem for Guard members participating in the training. Once you have been in the woods for a few days without a shower, you start to stink, and that acts as a natural repellent, Johnson said.

As they chatted, the UI’s Liska asked Sgt. Pettit how he was doing and how the training was going. Liska asked Pettit about MREs — another military acronym, for meals ready to eat — including a new pizza meal. Liska was surprised to hear Pettit give the pizza MRE a positive review, albeit with a qualifier.

“It’s not Pagliai’s like back home,” Pettit told Liska about the well-known Iowa City restaurant. “But it’s nice getting a slice of pizza out here.”

At the end of the tour and a long day at Camp Ripley, and just before boarding the Chinook for the trip back to Camp Dodge, Liska said he was grateful for the experience, that he would do it again and that he encourages others to do the same if given the chance.

He said it was eye-opening to see firsthand the Guard duties that Pettit has described in the past.

“It’s good to experience that and see what (Pettit) is dealing with. That way you can kind of relate when he comes back to work and he’s a little bit tired. You kind of have a little bit more sympathetic reasoning,” Liska said. “You can talk about it all you want to until you see it firsthand, then it really means something.”

Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com

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