Page 16 - Ft. Irwin High Desert Warrior 12-4-15

16 High Desert Warrior www.aerotechnews.com/ntcfortirwin
December 4, 2015

Your Community

Community celebrates Thanksgiving

Story and photos by
Gustavo Bahena

Public Affairs Office Spc. April Pelayo, a culinary specialist Soldiers enjoy a Thanksgiving meal at dining facility one here, Nov. 24.
Soldier at dining facility one here, sets
Soldiers, family members out candy apples. She is part of the night
and the Fort Irwin community baking team, which prepared the desserts
joined leadership of this instal- for a Thanksgiving meal, Nov. 24.
lation and from units for a feast
celebrating Thanksgiving here,
Nov. 24.

National Training Center and
Fort Irwin Commander Maj.
Gen. Joseph Martin and Com-
mand Sgt. Maj. Edison Rebuck
served patrons of dining facility
one, which set out a spread that
included turkey, caramelized
steamship, ham, and an assort-
ment of desserts. Following
Army tradition, leadership from
post units also participated in
the serving of meals.

Seven resident Veterans of the
Veterans Home of California in
Barstow attended the celebration.

Both dining facilities on the
installation provided a special
meal for the fall holiday.

Delegates discuss issues during Army

Family Action Plan conference

By Gustavo Bahena

Public Affairs Office

During two days of dialogue, Fort Irwin Soldiers, military family members and commu-

nity members discussed several issues of concern and decided on three for further review.

The talks took place during the 2015 Fort Irwin Army Family Action Plan conference,

Nov. 3-4, spearheaded by the AFAP department under Family and Morale, Welfare,

Recreation here.

The annual conference held at garrisons Army-wide provides opportunities to discuss

concerns pertaining to quality of life, programs, infrastructure, and other topics.

At the session here, three working groups discussed matters that included water

fountain maintenance, speed limit signs on Fort Irwin Road, operation hours for vari-

ous facilities, parking lots re-striping, family swim time, and lack of advanced placement

courses at Silver Valley High School.

Recommendations to improve the concerns were made by the groups and briefed to

Col. Matthew Moore, chief of staff of the National Training Center.

The top three concerns with recommendations that local commands, and even higher,

could further evaluate were: 1) Incentivizing Fort Irwin as a station of choice. 2) The lack

of lighting at playgrounds and parks on post. 3) The 2009 Military Spouse Residency

Relief Act.

A recommendation for issue 1 was to implement an incentive program for Soldiers

that allows them to select their next duty assignment or get 30 days of uncharged leave Photo by Jamel Edmund, FMWR

while here. Another recommendation was to expand the promotion profile and create A working group holds a discussion during the 2105 Fort Irwin Army Family Action Plan

promotion incentives or opportunities for Soldiers assigned. conference here, Nov. 3.

Ben Burnette, social services representative with Army Community Services, praised

the delegates and facilitators for their participation, diligence and realistic approach to matter expert’s opinion, which was the scope, then they developed recommendations that are

the problems. doable,” Burnette said. “They made recommendations knowing we’re at budget constraints,

“These three groups – they explained their issues, they researched and got the subject knowing that we’re remote, but still offering great alternatives to the issues.”

For more information go to www.irwin.army.mil