Written by Sgt. Scott Davis
Headquarters, 101st Airborne Division (AA) Public Affairs
Fort Campbell, KY – Secretary of the Army John McHugh visited Fort Campbell, August 11th-12th, toured parts of the installation and received insight from soldiers on their concerns about the Army.
McHugh started his visit to Fort Campbell by getting a detailed brief on the new UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter by Capt. Oliver Moore, Company A commander, 5th Battalion, 101st Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault).
“We talked about the advantages of the UH-60M versus the UH-60L models,” Moore said. “We talked about how those differences transfer over to the battlefield and what we can do now for the ground soldiers who are fighting the battle.”
“With the Army talking about trying to find places to cut spending, it made me think of uniforms,” said Bohdan, who is also the division’s Soldier of the Year. “The Army is constantly changing uniforms but we have the multi-cam uniform, which is field-tested, combat proven. Why are they still conducting a two-year study to find out which uniform we should go to?”
Bohdan was thinking of the soldiers currently deployed or deploying to Afghanistan but McHugh explained the Army was working toward a long-term solution for all terrains, not just Afghanistan.
“Basically, we are going to a couple different uniforms that will cover anywhere we may go in the world,” Bohdan said, explaining his understanding of McHugh’s answer. “It made a lot of sense when he said it.”
Soldiers found McHugh to be a very sensible person when serious topics were examined.
“He’s very easy to talk to,” said Sgt. 1st Class Paul Meacham, a soldier with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3rd Bn., 187th Inf. Reg., 3rd BCT. “He’s a very down-to-earth individual. He tries to be as detailed as he can be and, from this one encounter that I’ve had with him, it seems he’s a real professional and working really hard on our behalf.”
After visiting wounded warriors at the Warrior Transition Unit, McHugh attended a 4th Brigade Combat Team welcome home ceremony, visited with 1st Brigade Combat Team soldiers and paid respects at Bastogne’s memorial to their fallen heroes.
On August 12th, McHugh attended the division change-of-command ceremony where he watched Maj. Gen. John F. Campbell, outgoing 101st Airborne Division commander, relinquish command to Maj. Gen. James McConville, incoming commander.
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