The Commander of the 34th Division Sustainment Brigade credited the success in his military career to giants who offered him life lessons.<\/p>\n
Newly-promoted Col. Bradley Roach of Bloomington, the Commander of the 34th Division Sustainment Brigade, was honored in a ceremony March 20 at the Illinois Military Academy, Camp Lincoln in Springfield, becoming the 19th colonel in the Illinois Army National Guard.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor 32 plus years, I\u2019ve been surrounded by giants,\u201d Roach said. \u201cSmall giants, big giants, tough-love giants, and kindhearted giants. Each one left a mark on my soul. I appreciate every single one of you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brig. Gen. Lenny Williams, Assistant Adjutant General \u2013 Army and Commander of the Illinois Army National Guard said getting promoted to colonel is very difficult to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrad, I\u2019ve known you a long time,\u201d said Brig. Gen. Lenny Williams, Assistant Adjutant General – Army and Commander of the Illinois Army National Guard. \u201cWe\u2019ve had many conversations. I told you that you were doing all the right things, and your time is going to come. Your time is today and right now. I know you\u2019re ready for it. I know you\u2019re ready for command. Our future is in your hands.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roach enlisted in the Illinois Army National Guard in 1993 as an ammunition handler assigned to Service Battery, 2nd Battalion, 123rd Field Artillery Regiment. He rose through the ranks to sergeant before being commissioned as a second lieutenant in the field artillery branch in 2003, later branching into the transportation branch.
He has deployed three times for overseas missions. During Operation Iraqi Freedom from 2004-2006, Roach served as a platoon leader, conducting convoy security, reconnaissance, and personnel security missions. During Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan in 2011, Roach served as the U.S. Battle Captain for a combined U.S. and Polish brigade-size task force of 4,000 Soldiers, coordinating assets for full-spectrum combat operations in the Ghanzi Province. He also served as the Executive Officer of the 34th DSB during its deployment in support of Operation Spartan Shield and Operation Inherent Resolve.<\/p>\n
Williams thanked Roach\u2019s family, including wife Rachal, and 7-year-old daughter, Rosalyn, for their support of Roach\u2019s career.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe can\u2019t do these jobs without the support of the family,\u201d Williams said. \u201cA lot of responsibility comes with this rank. He\u2019s a fantastic officer but he can\u2019t do it without the support structure your family offers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roach talked about some of the great giants who left a positive mark on his soul.<\/p>\n
\u201cCorporal Mark Kellogg, a Cavalry Scout who joined the Illinois National Guard after his Reserve unit disbanded, taught me to embrace the suck,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I was complaining about being cold, wet, and miserable during a field exercise, he told me I had two choices. I could either get out or learn to love it. If you get out, you\u2019ll regret your decision down the road. If you learn to love it, you\u2019ll never regret it. I learned to love it. My body regrets it, but my heart doesn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roach described his late father as a tough-love giant.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was the greatest giant I have ever known,\u201d Roach said. \u201cHe may be gone, but his life lessons are etched into who I am. He taught me about hard work, resilience, and teamwork. In the Army, when one of us loses, we all lose, but when one of us succeeds we all win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roach described his wife, Rachal, through a message he read when deployed to Kuwait. The message described the trouble God experienced in designing the perfect military wife.<\/p>\n
Roach said his littlest giant, his 7-year-old daughter Rosalyn, recharges his soul.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe told me after my last deployment she doesn\u2019t like me taking long trips,\u201d he said. \u201cBut she likes the Army because of its ceremonies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roach said each of the moments he described are just a few which shaped him as a Soldier, person, and father.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese lessons are as true today as they were then,\u201d he said. \u201cFind a positive giant in your life. Learn from them and then strive to become one for someone else someday.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Commander of the 34th Division Sustainment Brigade credited the success in his military career to giants who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-549722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}