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AFGHANISTAN (11/10/2012) - With two uncles that served in
Vietnam and one that served in World War II, you could say
that Command Sgt. Maj. Samuel Coston, the senior enlisted
soldier for the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, was
destined to serve in the military. While it wasn't right
after he graduated high school, shortly thereafter Coston
joined the U.S. Army and began a career that's approaching
30 years built on taking care of the Army and its soldiers.
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November 1, 2012 - U.S. Army Command Sgt. Maj. Samuel Coston, a native of Teachey,
N.C., is the 51-year-old senior enlisted advisor for the 173rd
Airborne Brigade Combat Team, and serving with the 173rd's
Headquarters and Headquarters Company in eastern Afghanistan. Photo
by U.S. Army Sgt. Michael Sword
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“After doing one year of college and not doing very well
I said, ‘let me join the army,'“ said Coston. “I'm getting
to do what my family wants me to do, be a member of the
armed forces and I'm going to get free college when I come
out.”
So, in January 1984, Coston joined the Army.
Having grown up in Teachey, N.C., there was only one place
he wanted to go: Fort Bragg, N.C.
“Being from North
Carolina, the 82nd Airborne Division was the greatest place
to serve,” he said. “Who would not want to be a paratrooper,
so I immediately came in and went to jump school.”
Unfortunately, that wasn't in the Army's plan for Coston.
After graduating as an infantryman from infantry one station unit
training
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and the U.S. Army Airborne School, he was assigned to Fort
Campbell, Ken. But he wouldn't stay there for long, as he quickly
graduated from Air Assault School and volunteered for the 75th
Ranger Regiment.
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“I
figured if I can't go to Fort Bragg, I can take the next
unit down,” Coston said, recalling the logic of his decision
with a laugh. “But I didn't know it was the next unit up.”
So, in May of 1985 he joined the 1st Ranger
Battalion. By December, they had sent him to Ranger School.
During Ranger School, he was promoted to specialist, and
when he returned to his unit he was promoted to team leader.
Years later, he found himself a squad leader and deciding on
his future, with or without the Army.
“I had passed
the state patrol test in North Carolina, but you have to be
5'8”,” he said. “Even though the Army says I'm 5'8”, I'm
actually 5'7.8 or .9, so I could only work administration.”
“I want to be with the troops. I want to be where
the danger is and they said ‘No, you can be an administrator
in the North Carolina State Patrol,' so I stayed in the
Army,” he said.
That decision to stay in the Army
would be the last time he ever questioned his desire to
remain a soldier. As his career continued and he became a
non-commissioned officer, he found himself growing into the
role of an NCO and concerning himself with the welfare of
his soldiers. A lesson he learned growing up on his father's
farm in North Carolina.
“I wish I could say I picked
it up in the Army, but I didn't,” he said. “My father has a
200 acre farm and you have to take care of the people, you
have to make sure they have water, you have to make sure
they have some lunch.”
“So, going into the Army, when
I became a sergeant, instead of a plow or a mule, it was a
M4 and a vehicle that we had to pull maintenance on to
ensure we could accomplish the mission,” he said. “I learned
that early as a child living on the farm and the Army just
fine tuned it.”
With a career that has taken him to
some of the most storied units in the U.S. Army, there was
one that has eluded him his whole career until recently.
“While I was in the Ranger Regiment as a staff sergeant
and the 82nd Airborne Division, they kept talking about this
unit in Italy,” he said. “I just heard so much about it and
the Italian people and their alpine soldiers, I had to see
it.”
“Every time I put in for Vicenza, which was
seven times, I was seven times denied, no slots available,”
he continued. “The Department of the Army called me during
my last deployment, in Kandahar city, April of 2011 and they
said ‘We have three available assignments for you.'”
“The answer is the 173rd, I've been wanting that unit since
I was a staff sergeant in 1989,” he answered.
After
taking the position as the 173rd's senior enlisted advisor
in January 2012, he quickly got to work preparing his
soldiers and himself for their deployment to Afghanistan. As
he approaches his 29th year in the Army, taking care of his
troops is a responsibility that Coston takes seriously and
it's a responsibility that has kept him going, despite his
ability to retire after 20 years.
“What kept me
going past 20 was soldiers,” he said. “Sometimes I call them
Joe and when I say Joe, Joe can be a second lieutenant to a
lieutenant colonel or a private to another sergeant major.”
“Just mentoring and talking to young soldiers, about the
way the world really is and the way the Army really is,” he
continued.
“Convincing some that your best bet is to
not to serve in this organization and convincing some It is
best for you and your family because you have the right
attributes, leadership and attitude to be a good soldier and
as a sergeant major with 20-plus years in, I'm able to do
that.”
If taking care of troops has kept him in the
Army, it is his loyalty to them that helped him return to
Afghanistan after an injury earlier this year. During a
patrol in August of this year, the unit Coston was with was
attacked and he was hit by shrapnel from an enemy 203 round
that hit his left foot and cut one of his toes in half.
He was taken to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in
Germany, where he was told that they wanted to put pins in
his right leg.
“Can you wait until we return from
deployment?” he asked. The doctors, shocked at his request,
simply replied and reminded him that they could relocate him
to another duty station where he could heal and continue his
career.
“I said no,” he said. “I joined ‘The Herd,'
the 173rd, the sky soldiers, to finish a combat tour.”
“Three operations later and 65 days later I'm back in
Afghanistan,” he added. “There's a little bleeding in my
foot still, but it's OK, I can walk so I'm back with the
team.”
While the possibility to not return to a war
zone would be tempting to some, Coston never wanted to be
anywhere else but back with his men.
“I was offered a
couple of jobs while I was recovering,” he said. “But,
you've got to remember your loyalty to your unit, whether
your unit is the 173rd, the 82nd Airborne Division, the 1st
Ranger Battalion; your loyalty to the unit is loyalty to the
soldiers.”
“If you don't want to set the example, you
don't have the leadership attributes and attitude to be a
good leader in the Army,” he said.
“The thing about
the legacy of the NCO's in the 173rd is that they have never
quit and even while wounded they continued the mission. So
as sergeant major, your legacy is ‘how did you perform in
combat?”
By Army Sgt. Michael Sword
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2012
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