The Times from Shreveport, Louisiana • Page 9

Local News THE TIMES shreveporttimes.com SUNDAY, JULY 22, 2007 9A losses, politicos eye soldiers' efforts at Camp ftlinden Culver, who coordinated the attack on the terrorist camp in the exercise the civilians observed, said Archer and AmerCable do more than pay lip service to soldiers. "This is the second time he's been here on a boss lift," Culver said. To learn more Weather permitting, soldiers with the 2108th Cavalry Squadron of the Louisiana Army National Guard will have a family day at Camp Minden in Webster Parish today. Go to this story online for links to the Louisiana National Guard and the Employer Support for the Guard and Reserves. Culver Archer High Mimd Jobs ev Computer Aided Drafting am) constouction technology "It's not hard for an employer to support an employee In service when they are a leader in all they do." Chad Archer, an employer watching local soldiers in training at Camp Minden 4 visit with a briefing after a lunch of MREs at the railhead-warehouse local troops are using as their forward operating base.

"There's a lot of balance that has to go on between troops and employers," Hill told the group of soldiers and their civilian bosses or partners. Support from civilian employers is key to maintaining morale in a time when more than half the military is made up of Guard or Reserve personnel, he said. ESGR recognizes employers who go beyond what's expected, and honored AmerCable of El Dorado, with its "Above and Beyond Award" for its support of Major Wayne Culver, an employee who is with the 2 108th. Hill noted that the company had supplied 10 expensive "Cooper Slings," which provide extra comfort and safety to exposed top gunners in Humvees, and that the company also was paying for spurs that will be awarded soldiers in a "spur ride" the unit will undergo this week before its annual training ends Saturday. "Everybody in our company loves and supports our troops," said AmerCable's Chad Archer, who accepted the award.

"And it's not hard for an employer to support an employee in service when they are a leader in all they do." By John Andrew Prime jprimegannett.com Louisiana soldiers garbed in digital-pattern uniforms charge through green clouds of smoke, killing terrorists as they storm a bunker to free their top sergeant, kidnapped and tortured in south Webster Parish. And inside a government van, Webster Paiish police jurors C.C. "Cat" Cox and Herbert Byars, watch as the soldiers use their van for coyer, firing at the enemy, finally rescuing their comrade. Byars and Cox, former police chief of Cotton Valley, are both a bit above the top age for enlistment and hadn't been fully briefed that the action would unfold around them, but they were far from fazed. "I wish I'd a brought my gun!" Cox said wistfully later, after he and other civilians watching the Louisiana Army National Guard's 2108th Cavalry Squadron train at Camp Minden took a turn at a combat simulator.

Cox tagged a respectable 10 of 16 terrorists. "I'd have helped 'em out." The two were part of a group of around a dozen area employers and dependants who watched their employees or partners train, part of a "boss lift" sponsored by the Employers Support for the Guard and Reserve, or ESGR. Members of the Louisiana Army National Guard train one weekend a month and two weeks a year as a BPCC has two programs that meet this need: Certificate of Technical Studies in Computer Aided Drafting Learn 3D Computer Drafting Use customizing AutoCAD Salary range: $20,000 $25,000 Certificate of Technical Studies in Construction Technology JE nroll in one year program Learn new or upgrade job skills Salary range: $25,000 $30,000 Contact: FRANK VIVIAN0, Division Chair of Mathematics and Technical Education wivianobpcc.edu EDWARD CHOPIN, Director, Computer Aided Drafting echopinbpcc.edu TJi minimum, and in recent years have deployed overseas in the War on Terror. Employers by law are required to hold jobs for military personnel and treat their deployed employees just as they would had they remained. ESGR was created around 35 years ago to serve as a conduit between troops and employers to make sure both parties know their rights and responsibilities.

Most of the people who work for ESGR are volunteers, such as Shreveport attorney W. James Hill, a retired Army Reserve colonel. Saturday, he closed the employers' A i' Bossier Parish Community College www.bpcc.edu (318) 678-6043 rvA VJ4- v-i, I ft 1 A John Andrew Prime 1 he Tunes Louisiana Army National Guard Maj. Wayne Culver, radio microphone in hand, coordinates an attack on a camp where terrorists are holding a kidnapped soldier, while explaining the training exercise to a group of visiting bosses at Camp Minden on Saturday. Culver's unit, the 2 108th Cavalry Squadron, was about halfway through annual training at the Webster Parish site.

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