NCOs present unique color guard for Women’s

The mission? Provide a 10-member, all-female color guard for the U.S. Army Garrison Kaiserslautern Women’s History Month 2009 Luncheon held March 17 at the Kaiserslautern Community Activity Center on Daenner Kaserne.

The time frame? Less than two weeks. Were there difficulties? Yes.
But Staff Sgt. John Wright, Landstuhl Regional Medical Center Color Guard NCO in charge, and Sgt. (P) Rachel Mayhill, LRMC Color Guard color sergeant, worked together with the 10-member team to make it happen.

“We were really fortunate that everybody who got involved really worked hard and grabbed a hold of the task very easily,” said Sergeant Mayhill, who has been with the LRMC Color Guard for more than three years.

More than half of the color guard members were new with varied degrees of experience, said Staff Sergeant Wright, who has been with the color guard for five months. 

“The color guard team was superb,” said Sgt. 1st Class James Ligons, the garrison’s equal opportunity adviser, who helped coordinate the event. “This was by far the most squared away all-female color guard team I’ve seen in my 12 years of service.”
Also requested was a quad-service – Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force – color guard, which means at least three members had to put aside what they learned in boot camp and relearn steps and movements to Army standard.

“I think (Staff Sergeant Wright and Sergeant (P) Mayhill) are exemplary NCOs for the color guard,” said Petty Officer 2nd Class Tracy Carpenter, with the Navy Expeditionary Medical Unit 2009 deployed to LRMC, who carried the Navy flag in the Women’s History Month event. “They stepped right up to the plate, made sure we were squared-away and looked sharp.”

After all color guard team members were found, the group practiced for two hours every night to prepare, Staff Sergeant Wright said.

“We covered – during the first couple of practices – marching to make sure their knees are all the way up, and toward the end, we worked on the smaller movements like the hand salute,” said Staff Sergeant Wright, who, as the color guard NCOIC, is the overall manager responsible for getting the equipment, scheduling and training. “It’s an honor to be able to take charge of these troops and see them actually perform in these ceremonies. That’s the best part – to see all the hard work they do pay off during the ceremony, how sharp they look and how together they move.”