1. LONGRIFLEs WEEKLYA publication of the 2/138th FAR
UBIQUE. It’s Latin for “Everywhere”, and is
the motto of Great Britain’s Royal Regiment
of Artillery. Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem
with that title about the Royal Artillery in
the Boer War. The Royals’ experience in the
Boer War mirrors the FA experience in the
Global War On Terror; non-standard deployments, constant
changes in mission and focus, along with a steep learning
curve for leaders and subordinates alike.
A large portion of 2nd BN is wrapping up a third mobilization
in the last 10 years; Noble Eagle, Iraqi Freedom, Enduring
Freedom. We haven’t been allowed to bring our cannons yet.
If we aren’t firing rounds, why mobilize? I think that in the
last decade, the DOD has found that the National Guard
brings enormous capability to the table, because for every
Guard Artilleryman they mobilize, they are also mobilizing a
carpenter, or forklift driver, or accountant. What better force
to mobilize for a non-standard mission than one who has
capabilities far beyond their MOS pool?
BTRY 4 Fire for Effect? Done. Landowners in Afghanistan?
Done. Convoy and detainee security in Iraq? Done . Recover/
Stabilize after a tornado/flood/ice storm? Done. Train local
troops all over Africa? Done. Repair a local clinic? Done.
Guard a gate here and there? Done and Almost Done.
Maybe more so than any other force, I think we fit the Brits’
motto. We are everywhere. Blackbeard 6 out.~ Capt. Stafford
CPT’s Corner
Sexual assault is a reccurring issue that
is front page news in the military today.
I heard numerous gripes and complaints
about attending the SHARP training and
that is the wrong attitude. We as Soldiers
must be proactive in combating this.
Don’t be afraid to report it; don’t be afraid of a commander’s
potential reprimand or possible retaliation by reporting. If a
commander fails to act, then he is a liability to any mission
and isn’t worth the paper his/her commission was written on.
Too many senior leaders worry about the reaction from the
next man on the totem pole. If you are doing the right thing,
then don’t worry about the next guy. This is a problem and
we have to stop it. So the next time you whine and cry about
attending another SHARP training, think about if an assault
happened to your loved ones or a battle buddy. The training
is designed and implemented not to be burden to you, but to
educate you and inform you on a serious problem and ways
to prevent it. We are our brother’s/sister’s keeper and this
behavior cannot and will not be tolerated.
~ 1st Sgt. Sean Russell
1SG Thoughts
CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 > > >
OCS Insructor Leaves a
Major Mark on His Soldiers
Story and photo by Capt. Daniel Van Horn, 2-138th FAR PAO
May 25, 2013
Volume 1, Issue 31
CAMP LEMONNIER, Djibouti – If you’ve ever wondered
what a typical weekend is like for National Guard Soldiers
attending Officer Candidate School (OCS), simply watch an
episode of the History Channels’ “Surviving the Cut: Ranger
School” and multiply the amount of exercise in the episode by
a factor of 10.
OCS is one weekend a month for 18 months and a two-week
summer session that combine for one huge course of instruc-
tion. For the Kentucky Army National Guard, it’s conducted
every two years from March to August of the following year
at Wendell H. Ford Regional Training Center (WHFRTC), in
Central City, Ky.
After completing the course the candidates have earned the
title of 2nd Lieutenant and are commissioned as officers
during a pinning ceremony. The school is both mentally and
physically exhausting and is designed to stress candidates to
the maximum, so if they are ever in combat they will have
learned how to work through the stress and still be able to
lead.
The course is managed by the 238th Training Battalion which
provides Train, Assess, Counsel (TAC) Officers from around
the state to oversee each OCS class from start to finish.
Of all the Task Force Longrifles officers currently in the bat-
talion, 23 have completed OCS, and many of them can tell
you about one TAC officer in particular, Major Joseph Sallee.
A native of Lexington, Ky., Sallee has been in the National
Guard for 26 years and will tell you that the fondest memories
of his career were while he was a TAC officer for OCS.
“I loved being a TAC instructor because we were working
with the best and brightest the Kentucky National Guard had

2. Chaplain Reflections
“Slow down. Take a deep breath. What’s
the hurry? Why wear yourself out? Just
what are you after anyway?” Jeremiah
2:25(MSG)
Have you ever been in such a hurry you
missed the good in life, lost sight of what
is important? I am reminded of a story.
There once was a farmer who discovered that he had lost
his watch in a hay stack in his barn. It was no ordinary
watch because it had great sentimental value for him. After
searching high and low; he gave up and enlisted the help of
a group of children playing outside his barn. He promised
whoever found it would be rewarded.
Hearing this, the children hurried inside the barn, went
through and around the entire stack of hay but still could
not find the watch. Just when the farmer was about to give
up looking for his watch, a little boy went up to him and
asked to be given another chance.
The farmer looked at him and thought, “Why not?”
After a while the little boy came out with the watch in his
hand! The farmer was both happy and surprised and so he
asked the boy how he succeeded where the rest had failed.
The boy replied, “I did nothing but sit on the ground and
listen. In the silence, I heard the ticking of the watch and
just looked for it in that direction.”
A peaceful mind can think better than a worked up mind.
Allow a few minutes of silence to your mind every day, and
see how sharply it helps you to set your life the way you
expect it to be!
~ Chaplain Mark Slaughter
OCS INSTRUCTOR CONTINUED FROM P. 1 > > >
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to offer. Sure the hours were long, but nothing is more re-
warding than to see the Soldiers you have mentored for 18
months graduate and pin on their butter bar.” He continued,
“Soldiers to this day come up to me and tell me how proud
they were to have gone through the program and complete it,
how tough it was.”
In addition to his requirements with the National Guard, Sal-
lee is also a Lexington Police Department veteran with over
14 years of experience and attributes much of his success in
the military to his time with the department.
1st Lt. Oscar Ortiz, a native of Bowling Green, Ky., and gradu-
ate of the OCS 51-09 class recalls seeing Sallee as his TAC in-
structor for the first time while he was bear-crawling around
the Tree of Woe (ask any OCS candidate about this for more
information).
“Maj. Sallee stopped by and asked for volunteers to lead a se-
nior OCS group on a 2-mile run, since anything was better
than the current situation, I immediately volunteered.”
Ortiz remembers that out of all the TAC instructors he was by
far the strictest, “He never allowed you to take a shortcut and
that has stayed with me throughout my career.”
Photo of the Week!
CAMP LEMONNIER, Djibouti - Sgt. Cameron Barrientos and Sgt. Ryan Stull
were each presented a Horn of Africa Senior Enlisted Coin on May 24, 2013, for
their quick-thinking and selfess efforts during a real-life emergency in Ethiopia.
(Photo by Staff. Sgt. Steve Tressler)
Quotations to live by...
• “He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good
commander.” -Aristotle
• “Goals are the fuel in the furnace of achievement.”
- Brian Tracy
• “Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is
not enough; we must do.” -Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe
• “Success is to be measured not so much by the
position that one has reached in life as by the
obstacles which he has overcome while trying to
succeed.” - Booker T. Washington
CAMP LEMONNIER, Djibouti -12 Task Force Longrifles officers team up and
‘order’ their former Officer Candidate School Instructor, Maj. Joseph Sallee, to do
push-ups. The officers said Sallee was always making them ‘push’ in OCS. Push-
ups are famously known throughout all military branches as a form of punish-
ment for bad behavior. (Photo by Sgt. Alexa Becerra, 2-138th PAO)