LINCOLN: Passengers aboard a CH 47 Chinook helicopter and a C-23 Sherpa small cargo plane next Monday are in for some excitement and a long but enlightening day.
 
The Nebraska Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) is sponsoring the one-day trip to Guernsey, Wyo., site of a year-round base custom designed to provide logistical support and training facilities for reserve components of the U.S. military.
 
ESGR, a Department of Defense agency, uses almost entirely volunteers to educate, support and, where necessary, mediate relations between civilian bosses and their employees who also serve this country in the National Guard or Reserve. A wide array of programs from employer awards, ombudsman service and military support of reserve components unit personnel are delivered by specially trained ESGR volunteers.
 
Activities such as the Aug. 10 ESGR Bosslift are a valuable way for civilian employers to learn about, and to truly understand, the obligations, dedication and demands military service in wartime places upon employees who live civilian/military dual lives.
 
Twenty eight passengers will board the dual-engine, twin-rotor Chinook, sometimes affectionately called the flying banana, at Kearney on Monday for a 2 hour, 20 minute flight to Camp Guernsey where training is emphasized in field artillery, but also provided for infantry, engineer, aviation, medical and maintenance units.
 
The same day a C-23 Sherpa, also filled with civilian employers and media, will fly from Lincoln to join the Kearney group at Camp Guernsey. During the Iraq War from 2003 to the present, the C-23 Sherpa small cargo airplane has served the Army by hauling materiel and personnel.
 
Lunch cuisine for the military¹s guests can be defined in three letters Š MRE.
Those letters, so familiar in the military world, stand for Meals, Ready-to-Eat. MRE is a self-contained, individual field ration in lightweight packaging for use in combat or other situations where food preparation is not possible.
 
The bosses will see the 50-caliber machine gun demonstrated, plus the 40-caliber MK 19 grenade machine gun. The MK 19, with a price tag at $13,758 apiece, is said to be capable of firing six different types of grenades at a rapid-fire rate of 60 grenades per minute of a sustained rate of 40 per minute.
 
That single demonstration, awesome though it is certain to be, comprises but a single half-hour of a day¹s schedule that doesn't end until the Kearney group lands there at 7:45 p.m. and the Sherpa touches down in Lincoln at about 8:10.
 
ESGR volunteers provide free education, consultation and if necessary mediation for employers of Guard and Reserve personnel. Please contact Executive Director William Nelson at 402-309-7105 or email william.nelson1@us.army.mil for more information on ESGR Employer Outreach Programs and volunteer opportunities.