Three Fort Leonard Wood Soldiers recognized for exceptional service with a ceremony Thursday

Major General James Bonner, Maneuver Support Center of Excellence and Fort Leonard Wood commanding general, and MSCoE and Fort Leonard Wood Command Sergeant Major Randolph Delapena thanked three Fort Leonard Wood Soldiers for exceptional service during a brief ceremony Thursday in the commanding general’s conference room on post. They recognized Staff Sergeant Hugo Rodriguez, Company A, 31st Engineer Battalion, and Sergeant Nicholas Gordon, Company C, 795th Military Police Battalion, who kept the Fort Leonard Wood community notified on updates when the Emergency Operations Center Watch Office received notification on December 10th of the potential for a tornado or funnel cloud within six miles of the installation. Rodriguez and Gordon began sending the giant voice notifications, emails, Alert! system messages and they updated the SNAIR message. They performed these tasks within 10 minutes, which is the Department of Defense standard in a situation like this. In total, Rodriguez and Gordon sent seven notification updates over the next four hours until the all-clear was given.
Major General Bonner and Command Sergeant Major Delapena also presented an Army Commendation Medal to the MSCoE Soldier of the Quarter: Corporal Sidney Patterson, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 3rd Chemical Brigade. Patterson won the MSCoE first quarter Best Warrior Competition.