By REBECCA RICHARDSON
ESGR
RUSSELL–Staff Sgt. Loren Schroeder will be leaving Kansas soon for another deployment. He is attached to the 451st Expeditionary Sustainment Command of the U.S. Army Reserves based in Wichita.
Recently Schroeder nominated Manny Soliz for the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve Patriot Award. Soliz is the plant manager of Purina Animal Nutrition in Russell.
The Patriot Award is a Department of Defense award. Mick Allen, Kansas U.S. Army Ambassador and former state chairman for Kansas Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve presented the Patriot Award to Manny Soliz Feb. 16. Also present at the ceremony were Shannon Schroeder and Colleen Allen, ESGR volunteers.
In his nomination Schroeder stated “I am leaving for deployment soon. Because of this, I have had to miss a lot of work to get the correct training to make the mission a successful one. Whenever I have told my employer I needed this time off he never once complained or acted like it would be a burden; to go along with that, none of my fellow employees have ever acted indifferent to me because of my being gone. Everyone at my job has always been supportive and actually threw me a going away party. This really made me feel good about carrying out my mission without the extra stress of worrying about my civilian job. I enjoy working at Purina and feel they should be recognized for their great support for not only myself but of all our troops.
The Patriot Award reflects the efforts made to support Citizen Warriors through a wide-range of measure including flexible schedules, time off prior to and after deployment, caring for families and granting leaves of absence of needed.
In order to be considered for the award, one must be in a supervisor position and be nominated by an employee who is a Reservist or Guardsmen in the armed forces. The employees may nominate any number of supervisors and each will receive a Patriot Award certificate and a lapel pin. Spouses of service members are also eligible to nominate their supportive supervisor and/or service member’s civilian supervisor.
If a service member or their spouse would like to nominate a supervisor (s), see the ESGR website at esgr.mil.
Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve is a Department of Defense office. It was established in 1972 to promote cooperation and understanding between Reserve Component Service members and their civilian employers and to assist in the resolution of conflicts arising from an employee’s military commitment. ESGR is supported by a network of more than 4,600 volunteers in 54 committees located in 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam-CNMI (Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands), Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Volunteers, hailing from small business and industry, government, education, and prior military service, bring a vast wealth of experience to assist in serving employers, service members, and their families. Together with headquarter ESGR staff and a small cadre of support staff for each State Committee, volunteers work to promote and enhance employer support for military service in the Guard and Reserve.