Noah Montoya had his outfit picked out as soon as he woke up Wednesday – camouflage paired with more camouflage.
Nothing else would do for the 3-year-old’s trip to see his dad’s artillery battalion at work firing its howitzers at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. He’d heard about his dad’s job in the Army, but this was the first time he saw Sgt. Jonathan Montoya in action.
The little Montoya kept his eyes wide open as his dad covered his ears and the big guns cracked, sending rounds into the distance.
“He knows I go to work and I come here,” said Jonathan Montoya, 31, of Spanaway. “This is the first time he’s been here to see what I do.”
Montoya’s unit, the 2nd Battalion, 12th Field Artillery Regiment, invited families to watch one of the last events in a 10-day firing exercise at the base. It was an opportunity for the battalion to demystify its work for Army spouses and children.
“Families get a better sense of what their husbands do, and just that understanding can be reassuring,” said Maj. Deric Holbook of Lacey, the battalion’s executive officer.
The battalion hasn’t had time for much of that kind of outreach in recent years. It reports to the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, which has deployed to Iraq twice since 2007.
It last returned from Iraq in August 2010, and it doesn’t have another combat deployment in the immediate future.
More than 200 of the battalion’s family members attended the exercise. They packed into rows of bleachers as officers described different kinds of ammunition and rounds of artillery soared into a clear sky.
When the rounds stopped, children clamored over Stryker infantry vehicles and investigated the technological equipment that helps the artillerymen set their weapons.
“Now I know what he’s talking about,” said Isaura Zavala of DuPont, whose husband, Sgt. 1st Class Ommar Zavala, is the battalion’s master gunner. She brought the couple’s five kids to check out the exercise.
Kaitlyn Jones, 3, kept her attention a little closer to her dad, Staff Sgt. Brandon Jones. Kaitlyn hugged his neck and played with his uniform’s Camelback water container while the explosions sounded.
“She’ll be talking about this for a week,” said Brandon Jones, 27, of DuPont.
“Hopefully next time I deploy she’ll be able to picture this instead of just thinking I’m in the Army,” he said.
Some of the families built anticipation for the exercise by staying up to watch a nighttime firing Tuesday from their homes in the communities around the base. That’s when the battalion lit up a dark sky with illumination rounds. The Montoyas watched them from their porch in Spanaway.
“We told my daughter that was me saying good night,” said Holbrook, the executive officer.
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