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KALISPEL INDIAN RESERVATION, Wash. – After conducting training
over the last week in preparation to help suppress wildfires
affecting Northeastern Washington, Soldiers of Task Force First
Round, out of Joint Base Lewis-McChord, are out on the line, and for
one team, they know their relationship is just as important as the
mission in front of them.
Chris Scott, a military crew
adviser tasked to provide oversight of Soldiers assigned to Task
Force First Round and 2nd Lt. Julian Crockett, crew team six leader,
have only worked together for a few days but are already learning
about each other and increasing the overall potential for success on
the finelines.
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Second Lt. Julian Crockett, left, crew six leader, strike team two,
Task Force First Round out of Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash.,
and Chris Scott, a military crew adviser tasked to provide oversight
of Soldiers of Task Force First Round, brief their Soldiers on
procedures they will use when putting in a fireline to help suppress
the fire burning through Colville National Forest, Wash., Aug. 24,
2015. Crockett and Scott have taken the last week to learn about
each other to increase the success of their mission. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Andrew Porch)
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“My counterpart, Chris Scott, we have been working
together,” said Crockett, a native of Tampa, Florida. “He is
the subject matter expert and he advises me and my
(sergeants) in making sure that whatever we are doing, we
are doing it safely and we are not putting our Soldiers in
danger.”
For Scott, a native of Kernville,
California, it is all about taking it one day at a time and
continually building a relationship that could possibly take
years to forge with other firefighters.
“We started off the first couple
days working with the (Soldiers), and doing the training,”
said Scott. “To help ensure things were going well, at the
end of the day we would come back together and talk about
‘how are things working out between me and you.'”
Scott, with a smile on his face said exactly how lucky he
thought Crockett was to have him on his team, “He couldn't
ask for better.”
As for Crockett, he looks for the
similarities between him and Scott to build on the
relationship.
“We get along pretty well,” said
Crockett. “I would say we are both kind of quiet and kind of
reserved, but when we get around our guys; we get out there
and we are able to lead and communicate effectively.
Scott echoed Crockett's outlook but built upon it.
“We are both reserved but we both know how it use our chain
of commands,” said Scott. “Our own personalities may be
reserved but with that, we can use the sergeants as needed
to relay information and use the chain of command better
that way rather than being a micromanager.”
Finding
similarities between each other is not the only way to
continue bring successful.
“A main way that we have
been able to be productive is finding commonalities between
the two organizations,” said Crockett. “There is a lot of
overlap between their organization, their reports, their
(procedures), so we try to find those commonalities and use
them to our to our advantage.”
For them to be
considered successful, they are required to go out daily and
support the effort to suppress the fires burning in Colville
National Forest and specifically, provide basic support to
the firefighters who have been going at the fires for
months.
“They're spread out pretty thin even with us
out here,” said Crockett. “To free them up for the more
expert level stuff, it really helps them out and they are
able to be more direct and more aggressive with the fire. We
are able be out here and do stuff that takes up more time
but it is necessary.”
While Crockett thinks it is
important to make sure the firefighters are free to go
directly up against the flames, Scott knows all too well
what the Soldiers are doing is just as important, if not
more.
“There are different types of work to do to
suppress a fire,” said Scott. “All the way back to the
support we have back at the fire camp to the mop up crews up
here. Really, mop up is 90 percent of what goes on here to
secure the fireline and keeps (fire) from picking back up,
spouting across and continuing to be a problem. We are just
doing one of the jobs required to be done out here. Its not
that we are doing a remedial job so it frees up someone to
do something more important. This is equally as important as
anything else going on out here.”
As the two continue
to work together, Crockett knows exactly what he wants to
stay with him after working with Scott.
“Three things
I want to take away from him are his presence, he has a very
strong sort of presence, hopefully to learn a little bit
about how he built up his leadership and just a knowledge
base,” said Crockett.
To add to that, there is one
thing that Crockett knows will make him successful in life.
“He has got a great mustache, he said. “If I could
figure out his tips to growing a mustache like that, I think
I would benefit from the experience.”
By U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Andrew Porch
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2015
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