Subject: The Sergeants Club | December 2023


Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!


As we close out 2023 and look ahead to 2024, I have been thinking about all the changes and transitions that the ALERT staff has recently gone through, and also will go through next year. This past year we had a major transition with Basic Training: Captain Hawley took over as Commanding Officer from Colonel Boulden, and Lieutenant O’Neal transitioned out of the Executive Officer role. We also relaunched the Construction 3rd Phase, and brought Lieutenant Dean on as the instructor for that course. Lieutenant Whitaker joined the ALERT staff to take over the coordination of 2nd Phase, and Lieutenants Nafziger and O’Neal took over the primary instructor role for Missions and Technical Rescue respectively.


We also had personal changes and transitions last year, and more to come this next year. Lieutenant Moody got married in November, Lieutenant Dean just got engaged and is planning a wedding for next year, and both the Hawleys and Whitakers are looking forward to the arrival of their second child in 2024. Colonel Behr continues his transition into retirement, and Colonel Boulden is stuck trying to run the ship of ALERT as all his staff dash about changing jobs, getting married, retiring, and having babies.

As we head into 2024, please pray for the staff as we navigate all these transitions:

  • Pray for all the new marriages on staff—we had three in 2022 (myself included), one in 2023, and one coming in 2024. Working at ALERT is hard, and can be hard on a marriage. Pray that the fruits of the Spirit would be present in abundance in each officer couple and family, and that their marriages would be stronger as a result of their time at ALERT.

  • Pray for all the officers filling new roles.

  • Pray for the positions that we are currently trying to fill, as well as for the positions that we expect will be coming open next year. The Sergeant Major position is scheduled to become vacant over the summer when SMaj. Whitaker finishes his commitment.

  • Pray for wisdom for each member of the ALERT staff as they look ahead to 2024, evaluate their role at ALERT, and consider if they should make any changes or if they should move on from ALERT. 

Two other unrelated prayer requests to mention. One, please pray for the upcoming 30 year reunion. We are really hoping and praying that it will be a good event that reconnects us with the alumni, rebuilds relationships, and hopefully also repairs damaged relationships. Pray also that it would be well attended, have good weather, and be safe. And secondly, please pray for continued donations into the scholarship fund. We have already awarded over $30,000 of scholarships for the winter quarter, which is more than we awarded in either 2021 or 2022 for the entire year. Our goal is to be able to give out $100,000 in scholarships in 2024. Please pray that we would continue to be able to give financial aid to those guys who can’t afford training, as a large number of guys in our upcoming 2nd Phase would not be able to attend without a scholarship.


Thank you all for your prayers and support in 2023, and hopefully we’ll see you all in February!

 

Posteritatis commodis servientes,

1st Lieutenant Samuel Winkler | Unit 42

ALERT Public and Alumni Relations

International ALERT Academy, 1 Academy Blvd, Big Sandy, TX 75755, United States

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