En Guard! with Operation Bosslift

Brian Seals

Thursday, Sept. 3, 1998 | 10:10 a.m.

They're spending more than a week in the sun and sand of California.

But the surf's not up and this is not a vacation.

Members of the Nevada Army National Guard's First Squadron, 221st Calvary wanted to drive that point home recently as 30 employers from across the state visited guardsmen during war drills in the California desert.

Known as a "Bosslift," the goal of the day's event was to educate employers about what citizen-soldiers do when they get time off from work to fulfill guard duty requirements.

After landing on a barren desert airstrip -- the only things growing were the runway lights sprouting from the baked desert floor -- the employers hopped on CH-47 transport helicopters. They rattled and hummed through nooks and crannies in the mountainous terrain to a makeshift battlefield that, if one didn't know they were in California, may best be described as the absolute middle of nowhere.

"I loved the helicopter ride. The helicopter ride really gave me an idea of what they do," Bill Madan, owner of Henderson Electric Motors, said. "We went forever."

Living easy wouldn't be the first observation that comes to mind when overlooking the parched tent city that is the temporary home of 264 guardsmen. Solders live in the blazing Mojave Desert heat. Without showers.

When the troops aren't eating wind-blown sand, they eat MREs, short for "meals ready to eat," but known to soldiers affectionately and derisively as "meals rejected by Ethiopians." It's a combination of school, airplane and hospital food all rolled into one, though most people who tried it claimed it wasn't that tasty.

Guardsmen spent the day fine-tuning their equipment and outlining battle plans for a mock battle to be held the following day against Army regulars from Fort Hood, Tex.

It was the same desert in which Gen. George Patton trained troops during World War II, and the same terrain where soldiers trained for Desert Storm in the early 1990s. And the guard troops take their mission just as seriously.

But battling the elements is as much of the challenge as battling the opposing forces. When setting up camp, gusty desert winds picked up one tent and blew it across the sandy floor before soldiers retrieved it.

With temporary sleeping quarters and other necessities in place, soldiers devoted attention to their weaponry and implements of destruction.

Staff Sgt. Jim Cummings stood atop one of three tanks he oversees as crew members checked the guns for range. The guns that can split the skinny side of a two-by-four piece of wood at 2,000 feet.

His crew's goal is to make sure the tank rolls and shoots properly. In an apparent game of one-upsmanship, crews banter back and forth to each other about what needs to be adjusted on each other's tank.

Cummings said the job has both similarities and contrasts to his regular job as a carpenter.

"There's a little more camaraderie here," Cummings said. "Everybody is working toward one goal, so it does parallel quite a bit. Of course, we get to play with guns here."

In his daily life, Cummings oversees a carpentry crew on the Paris hotel-casino project. He has to coordinate with other tradesmen, and safety is of the utmost concern, just as with his guard duties.

"It's the same job, different people," he said.

His former boss, Madan, said he didn't realize the extent of activity guardsmen undertake.

"It isn't just a couple of guys in a tank doing some target shooting," he said.

Capt. Rene Moreno, who works in the air quality department at the Clark County Health District, agreed that guard duty was an asset in the workaday world, where hs job is issuing permits and making sure businesses are complying. In the Guard, he is responsible for making sure soldiers can get re-supplied during the heat of battle.

"It helps you out because you have to deal with a lot of different people," Moreno said. "It helps me organize my work load. I don't really need supervision."

Moreno's co-worker at the health district, Ed Michalewicz, who came with the Bosslift, said a person in the Guard is likely to make a good employee.

"If he's dedicated there, he's definitely dedicated at work," Michalewicz said.

Yet for most attending, the analogies of Guard duty to civilian employment took a back seat to the gee-whiz weaponry and equipment on display. Amid the tent city and the swirling dust was a mobile hospital, mess hall and command center, as well as tanks, guns and, what today is a yuppie's cherished dream -- Humvee four-wheel drives.

The equipment is modified to make it look like Soviet-era equipment. And the visitors of the day got to take rides and fire the guns, which don't use real ammunition but have an authentic, deafening boom to them.

What red-blooded American male wouldn't get a charge out of that? That may be the closest the average civilian gets to the heart-pounding sensation of battle. And it is that sensation that is part of the lure for many Guardsmen.

Most of them say it's not the money -- after a few years of service they say they pretty much lose money serving. They do it because they enjoy it.

"Your adrenaline is really pumping," Moreno said. "It's something different from your everyday job."