Thank you Sergeant Nelson and the rest of your unit for your service and dedication to this country and its citizens.
You make us proud.
Please be careful and come home safe all of you.
Hooah!
New Braunfels’ National Guard being called
The country is again calling on National Guard soldiers stationed in New Braunfels.
The 4th Battalion 133rd Field Artillery Battery will deploy to Iraq by the end of the year. They leave for their final pre-mobilization exercise next week, and the soldiers are optimistic about the upcoming tour, which will last nearly a year.
“I’m looking forward to it,” said Sgt. 1st Class Jason W. Nelson. He joined the National Guard after serving with the Army in the Gulf War. Though eligible for retirement, Nelson has chosen to remain in the National Guard.
“I enjoy what I do,” Nelson said. “My job is to take care of these soldiers and train them for what they’re about to go through. I enjoy the camaraderie and cohesion that you are not going to find in (the civilian world).”
Though he has served a tour in Iraq, Nelson, because of his position in the battery as the assistant operations non-commissioned officer (NCO), has had to watch his soldiers deploy without him, a painful experience, he said. This time, however, he will accompany the 144 men and women of the 133rd as the operations NCO.
The 133rd has been told they will be performing detainee operations but could likely perform other duties, such as protecting convoys.
“I’ll do a lot of the gathering of intelligence on the battlefield,” Nelson said. “I will be tracking things that go on throughout the battlefield in Iraq and relaying that to the battery commander so that he knows which routes are safe and which are not.”
The average age of soldiers in the 133rd is 26, and most have served two tours already, said Nelson.
“It’s an honor to be able to go back,” Nelson said. “The men and women who wear this uniform – they wear it out of a sense of pride and out of the way they feel about their country.”
Nelson said fear was always present on the battlefield, but that it was necessary to keep a soldier’s wits sharp.
“Right now I fear for the guys who shoot at us,” he said.
Nelson has lived in Texas since 1989, moving to New Braunfels in 2006 with his wife, Christy, and son, Cody.
“I’m proud of everything he does,” said Christy, who works at the Scooter Store in New Braunfels. “He’s my best friend and he’s my life and him not being here will be very rough, but we’ll get by.”
Specialist Jacob Dean Yarbrough, 20, has been in the Texas National Guard since graduating from high school in 2006. This will be his second tour. He knew signing up that he would be serving in the wars overseas, but was stoic about his decision.
“Everyone has fears about not coming back, but since I’ve been over there before I kind of have a better perspective on what to expect,” he said. “Plus, things have gotten better over there. I’m proud to serve my country.”
