Story by: Sgt. Elizabeth Pena

Posted: August 12, 2016

SAN ANTONIO – Every day holds the possibility for a miracle, but Arthur Corenblith, 56, husband and father of two, was quickly losing hope and questioned how many days he had left to live.

Corenblith, an elementary school teacher was suffering from a genetic illness and needed a kidney transplant fast. He had been on the waiting list for what seemed like a lifetime.

 At 93 percent kidney failure, Corenblith was put on dialysis.

“At that time I had been on the list for four years and I was getting nowhere. I had gotten pneumonia, I had been in the hospital for over a month; I would connect to the dialysis machine every night for a year and a half, for nine hours and I was still teaching school as well; I would literally have to hold on to my podium while teaching.”

One of the hardest parts for Corenblith was missing out on his youngest son’s soccer season due to being on the dialysis machine every day.

“I really didn’t have a night anymore. My 13-year-old had to be driven to and from soccer practice by his coach,” he said.

 Friends and family tried donating to Corenblith but were disqualified due to medical history.

 His sister went as far as writing a sign on her car. “She put on her car, with shoe polish, my brother needs a kidney,” he said.

 Under a new policy made by the United Network for Organ Sharing in 2012, the fittest organs would be given to those likely to live the longest with the donated organ. The top 20 percent of kidneys would be offered to the top 20 percent of patients and the other 80 percent would work the same way....READ MORE

Story by: Staff Sgt. Jennifer Atkinson  
Joint Task Force 136th (Maneuver Enhancement Brigade) 

Posted on: Aug 16, 2016

The adage “an army marches on its stomach” carries more than a kernel of truth. Not only are field rations critical in maintaining combat readiness by supplying the nutrition needed by Soldiers to perform well in the field, chow is often closely tied to troop morale. 

Field kitchens have evolved, from cramped tents to crowded truck beds, and most recently, the compact containerized kitchen, but the cooks of the 136th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade are getting a chance to test an entirely new concept kitchen.

More closely resembling a “bounce house” than the squared-up design of the modern containerized kitchen, this prototype field kitchen is ahead of the standard in terms of safety, speed and efficiency.

“With this set up, we can knock out the food, move on, and find ourselves ahead of schedule, ” said Sgt. 1st Class Mark Shaw, Headquarters and Headquarter Co., 136th Military Police Battalion. “We would not have made mission today without it.”

This particular configuration of field kitchen is a totally new concept, said Ramiro Andrade, the engineering project manager with Babington Technology. The 636th BSB has been working with Babington and its partner company AAR Mobilizations Systems, over the past few years to develop a better field kitchen design, and will get the chance to demonstrate the improvements to the National Guard Bureau during an upcoming field visit.

Babington makes the heating elements used in the new kitchen, and they're a massive step up from the old burners. The burner units are modular, making maintenance and replacement less expensive, both in terms of money and time spent learning to repair or maintain six different types of burner.

“We cooked 600 of the 800 portions for breakfast in the new kitchen and 200 in the other kitchen,” said Shaw, “and the new one won, hands down.” Read More...

Story By: 1st Lt. Jolene Hinojosa

Posted on: July 22, 2016

AUSTIN, Texas – Spc. Rachel Mayhew, 26, native of Fort Worth, became the first female in the Texas Army National Guard awarded the 12B combat engineer military occupational specialty (MOS). 

“It was an absolute honor to serve with the Engineers,” said Mayhew. “The guidance and mentoring I received helped prepare me for a change. 
I wanted a career path with progression, promotion and growth. That is exactly what I found in becoming a combat engineer.” 

Mayhew graduated on June 17, 2016, from Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, during a rigorous two-week MOS transition course that included the High Physical Demands Tests (HPDT) and include a series of tasks geared toward combat engineers to ensure force capability and readiness. 

Prior to attending the reclassification course Mayhew served in the Texas National Guard for seven years as a 74D chemical biological radiological nuclear specialist. In 2011, she deployed to Afghanistan with the 236th Engineer Company.

Since the push to integrate the military into a gender neutral standard, the military has used HPDTs to collect data on newly-proposed MOS-specific standards.

“I've never been treated any differently for being a female in uniform or encountered a lower standard,” said Mayhew. The instructors worked very hard to keep things fair across the board. Every soldier was treated the same and we all knew what we had to do to accomplish the mission.” 

Mayhew successfully completed a 12-mile tactical foot march, prepared a fighting position, employed hand grenades and transported a casualty to immediate safety. All four tasks, plus eight others, are designed to paint a picture of the real-life conditions that could be encountered on the battlefield. 

“The timed road march is the most challenging task I've endured in my career. However, I've never been more proud of myself than when I reached that finish line,” said Mayhew.

Among the 25 students that attended the course, four fellow Texas Guardsmen attended the course alongside Mayhew.  Read More...

Story by: Laura Lopez

Posted: June 21, 2016

AUSTIN, Texas– The 2016 Army Community of Excellence winners were recently announced by the Department of the Army, with the Texas Army National Guard earning third place in the Bronze division. 

An awards ceremony was held at the Army National Guard Readiness Center in Arlington, Virginia, May 23, 2016.

“This is a tremendous honor for the Texas Army National Guard and is truly representative of the 18,000 citizen-soldiers who serve state of Texas and the U.S.,” said Brig. Gen. Tracy Norris, Assistant Deputy Adjutant General-Army. “This is definitely an award that encompasses a group effort and, as such, enables us to better serve our fellow Texans.”

The ACOE Award honors the top Army, National Guard and Army Reserve installations which have achieved the highest levels of excellence in building a quality environment, outstanding facilities and superior services.

“The Texas Army National Guard departments have learned that ACOE is more than just a competition; it is about providing a common vocabulary that facilitates an environment of excellence and a continuous process for improvement,” said Sgt. 1st Class Brenda Lopez, G5-Organizational Excellence noncommissioned officer in charge, Texas Army National Guard. “We have also learned the importance of integrating our customers, partners, and workforce into organizational change processes that will have lasting impacts to our organization.”

The ACOE program is an Army Chief of Staff program that uses the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Program Criteria for Performance Excellence – an internationally recognized integrated management system – to evaluate installations. The criteria ensures the leadership considers all stakeholders, tailors the post’s processes and resources accordingly, and employs visionary thinking through the application of proven business principles in six distinct, but integrated categories. Those categories include leadership, strategy, customer focus, measurement, analysis and knowledge management, workforce focus and operations focus. 

The TXARNG has competed in the annual ACOE competition since 1996. Since 2006, the TXARNG has placed in the rankings and been named a gold winner, nationally, six times.