{"id":5330,"date":"2021-02-19T17:31:23","date_gmt":"2021-02-19T17:31:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/?p=5330"},"modified":"2021-03-17T11:55:58","modified_gmt":"2021-03-17T11:55:58","slug":"u-s-kfor-soldier-leads-unique-military-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/2021\/02\/19\/u-s-kfor-soldier-leads-unique-military-career\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. KFOR Soldier leads unique military career"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Article by U.S. Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Tawny Schmit, KFOR Regional Command East<\/sup><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

CAMP BONDSTEEL, Kosovo — Since Sgt. 1st Class Michael Raines joined the U.S. Army under the Active First program in 2009, he hasn\u2019t visited his hometown in Maryland for more than two weeks at a time. The program allows Soldiers to serve on active duty before transitioning to the National Guard.

As his initial three-year contract was coming to an end, Raines was deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, so he decided to enlist for another four years of active duty service. He would find out later that his new path would connect him to his family in ways he didn\u2019t expect, even as he spent a majority of those seven years away from home.

\u201cThere\u2019s an odd number of connections between my grandfather and I in our careers,\u201d said Raines. \u201cI knew he served in World War II when I joined, but I didn\u2019t know the details. That information started coming to me as I progressed through my career.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

His grandfather, Lawrence H. Raines, now passed away, was a military police Soldier stationed at Camp Mackall, North Carolina, which is now a sub-installation of Fort Bragg \u2013 and where he met Raines\u2019 grandmother. He mobilized to France during World War II. Later on, he would work as a civilian at the Pentagon doing construction jobs.<\/p>\n

Coincidentally, Raines also joined as military police, and after his deployment, he was stationed at Fort Bragg as a desk sergeant. It was this assignment, he said, where he learned the most about law-and-order operations.

Not long after, he was selected for a special assignment at the Pentagon, where he provided security for the Joint Staff.

\u201cIt was a unique opportunity that was very rewarding,\u201d said Raines. \u201cI got to work with some of the best [noncommissioned officers] in the MP Corps.\u201d

As he and his father looked back and connected the dots between their careers, Raines often thinks about the stories that could have been swapped if he were able to sit down with his grandfather to talk.

Some of his best memories come from time spent with senior leaders during his Joint Staff assignment. Raines recalled brief but meaningful conversations with former Command Sergeant Major of the Army Daniel Dailey and former Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley.<\/p>\n

It was during these encounters that Raines said he came to fully understand the \u201cthis is my squad\u201d concept, which emphasizes taking care of Soldiers and empowering leaders.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI really enjoyed working with Gen. Milley,\u201d said Raines. \u201cHe was very personable and aware of his team that supported him. It\u2019s an amazing experience when you have someone like him not just acknowledge you, but actually ask you questions about who you are. Talked to us as another Soldier, as humans.\u201d

The five minutes those leaders took out of their busy schedules to connect with their team humbled Raines and continues to influence how he interacts with his Soldiers as a senior NCO.

Cpl. Jon-Michael Cress is one of those Soldiers. He serves with Raines on his current deployment to Kosovo in support of Regional Command-East, Kosovo Force. But Cress isn\u2019t just another troop in the 29th Military Police Company; they were both raised in Middletown, Maryland, and attended the same high school.

Even though Cress joined the Maryland National Guard a year after Raines enlisted as active duty, fate brought them to the same unit just as the 2020 pandemic started. The 29th MPs spent the months leading up to their deployment supporting their state\u2019s COVID-19 response efforts.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

As the provost sergeant for RC-E, Raines has the rare opportunity to lead MP Soldiers in a law enforcement and force protection mission at Camp Bondsteel, rather than combat support, which is a more common mission assigned to National Guard MP units. He\u2019s in charge of a platoon made up of traffic enforcers, K9 handlers and investigators.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Throughout their COVID-19 response and during the first leg of their deployment to Kosovo, Cress has watched Raines remain calm and keep people focused whenever something serious happens.

\u201cHe\u2019s been there, done that, so when something serious happens, he\u2019s not sweating,\u201d said Cress. \u201cHe\u2019s got veins of ice-cold water. Somebody with less experience might be freaking out, heart racing, trying to figure out what they have to do. Not Raines.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Raines was only 20 when he was promoted to the rank of sergeant during his combat deployment to Afghanistan. As he replaced a team leader who was well connected with their Soldiers, Raines knew he would have to earn his squad\u2019s respect and trust.

He leaned on his team and allowed himself to be mentored. To this day, he said some of his best friends are Soldiers he operated with in that squad. His experience there is part of what keeps him grounded during those tough moments, and taught him the value of connecting with the people you work with.

\u201cWhen I have a mad moment, or I\u2019m struggling, I think back to that deployment and how everything worked out,\u201d said Raines. \u201cConnections don\u2019t happen overnight. It\u2019s an enduring thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Those same lessons have followed Raines into his civilian career after he left active duty. He joined the City of Alexandria Police Department in Virginia in December 2017. When he reported to drill in March 2020, his unit was activated for COVID-19 orders and he never had the chance to return to work.

Despite his absence, his coworkers on the midnight patrol haven\u2019t forgotten about him.

\u201cI love the crew I work with,\u201d said Raines. \u201cThey\u2019ve taken care of me and reached out. It\u2019s nice to feel I\u2019m still being thought about over here because I certainly still think about them.\u201d

Between active duty service and gearing up for a National Guard deployment during a global pandemic, Raines hasn\u2019t spent much time with his family. Even after all that time away, Raines said his parents and sister continue to offer their unconditional support \u2013 and he\u2019s found a new family along the way.

\u201cBeing away from home, being away from your normal life, stepping away from your civilian job?\u201d said Raines. \u201cIt\u2019s not always easy, and there are going to be times when you don\u2019t feel important or you\u2019re stressed out or just miss your life back home, but we have to work together to get through it. Everyone is feeling it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Article by U.S. Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Tawny Schmit, KFOR Regional Command East CAMP BONDSTEEL, Kosovo — Since Sgt. 1st Class Michael Raines joined the U.S. Army under the Active First program in 2009, he hasn\u2019t visited his hometown in Maryland for more than two weeks at a time. The program allows Soldiers to  Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":5334,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/160"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5330"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5342,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5330\/revisions\/5342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/ng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}