{"id":283201,"date":"2018-08-28T06:00:55","date_gmt":"2018-08-27T20:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=283201"},"modified":"2018-08-28T06:00:55","modified_gmt":"2018-08-27T20:00:55","slug":"woman-makes-history-with-guam-guard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/woman-makes-history-with-guam-guard\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman makes history with Guam Guard"},"content":{"rendered":"
Second Lt. Estella Blas Aguon, from the Guam Army National Guard\u2019s 1st-294th Infantry Regiment\u2019s Delta Company, completes Infantry Officer Basic Leaders Course and earns her Blue Cord at Fort Benning, Georgia, earlier this month. (Guam National Guard)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A soldier from the Guam Army National Guard\u2019s 1st-294th Infantry Regiment\u2019s Delta Company completed the U.S. Army\u2019s infantry basic officer leaders course and then became the Guam Guard\u2019s first female to complete the ranger training assessment course at the U.S. Army\u2019s Warrior Training Center at Fort Benning, Georgia.<\/p>\n

Second Lt. Estella Blas Aguon joined the Guam Guard in 2015 as a combat medic, or 68W, assigned to the medical detachment. She attended officer candidate school, was commissioned as a second lieutenant and assigned as an infantry officer and platoon leader in 2017.<\/p>\n

The RTAC is 16 days in duration and divided into two phases: the Assessment Phase trains and evaluates students on multiple tasks and techniques that include the ranger physical fitness test, combat water survival assessment, land navigation, ruck march, obstacle course, ranger task, two-mile equipment run and other various physical fitness events. They are also trained in troop leading procedures, tactics, patrolling techniquest and small unit operations.\u00a0Students must pass this phase in order to continue into the second phase.<\/p>\n

The second phase of RTAC is the Patrolling Phase, during which students are rotated into leadership positions and evaluated on their abilities to successfully accomplish small unit combat operations from planning through execution.\u00a0Students are also evaluated on their ability to lead squad-sized patrols.\u00a0Upon completion, they will be recommended for attendance at the ranger course.<\/p>\n

According to Aguon, she learned a lot during the short course.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter if you are male or female, it\u2019s a great course\u2026a true testament of\u00a0will and desire. You test your mind and body-thinking under stress, making a decision that will affect you and others, and learning to operate with little to no sleep.\u00a0The great thing is that we all endured the same pain together. This allowed us to come together and work as a team\u2014it was\u00a0the only way to accomplish the mission,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Aguon believes that completing RTAC\u00a0will help her as a leader.\u00a0\u201cI know more about myself and I know more about being a leader and leading soldiers,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In January 2016, at the direction of then-Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, all combat jobs were opened to women.\u00a0Since then, the battalion has added a handful of infantry officers and some junior soldiers. Aguon is the second female from the Guam Guard to complete the infantry basic officer leaders course, or IBOLC.<\/p>\n

Aguon enjoyed her IBOLC experience, where she learned about being a leader and a teammate.\u00a0\u00a0As the only female in her company, her \u201cbrothers-in-arms\u201d pushed her to be better, to hold her own weight and eventually earned her more respect.\u00a0\u00a0\u2018At the end the journey, I completed the course and earned my \u2018Blue Cord,\u2019\u201d Aguon said.<\/p>\n

According to Wikipedia, the\u00a0Infantry Blue Cord\u00a0is a\u00a0U.S. Army\u00a0decoration worn over the right shoulder of all qualified U.S. Army infantrymen.\u00a0(PR)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A soldier from the Guam Army National Guard\u2019s 1st-294th Infantry Regiment\u2019s Delta Company completed the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":283202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[22480,1205,22481,22482],"class_list":["post-283201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pacific","tag-delta-company","tag-guam-guard","tag-ibolc","tag-rtac"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}