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by Navy Lt. Jonathan Ryan
Sally Ride may have been the first American woman in space, but Joint Task Force Guantanamo’s own Army Col. Caroline Adams is a woman of many firsts.
Consider this: she attended the very first Officer Candidate School held in the U.S. Virgin Islands and is the first-ever female aide-de-camp to a general officer selected within the V.I. National Guard.
She was also the first woman to become a pilot and serve in the V.I. National Guard, the first female state Army aviation officer within the National Guard, and the first female in the armed forces to pilot the C-23B Sherpa; a small, versatile military transport plane.
Adams directs Joint Task Force Guantanamo’s Joint Visitor Bureau, where she coordinates and executes all distinguished visits to JTF. For all of these achievements, Adams has earned her 15 Minutes of Fame.
For Adams, flying aircraft has been a life-changing journey and a rewarding goal. As an aviator, Adams has over 16 years of experience, not only flying the Sherpa but also the UH-1 Huey helicopter. “When I began flight training, I went in with an open mind,” said Adams. “With my strong personal desire to be successful in the aviation community, I worked as hard as I could.”
Throughout her career, Adams has flown mostly humanitarian missions. She piloted aircraft in St. Maarten and the island of Antigua as part of the relief efforts after Hurricane Luis. Above and beyond her military flying experience, Adams has earned her Airline Transport Pilot Certificate, which Adams said is the highest level of aircraft pilot’s license one can obtain; one step above Commercial Pilot License.
“With any other license, you are limited in the aircraft you are able to fly, but with the ATP you are qualified to fly anything," Adams said. That includes both planes and helicopters.
Adams credits her long-term success and passion for flying to three good friends and mentors: Army Chief Warrant Officer (retired) Layton Timmons, Army Chief Warrant Officer Michael Foster and Ken Webster. From a military perspective, Timmons and Foster provided the majority of her flight training and guidance, according to Adams.
“Webster provided me a civilian perspective and knowledge for how mechanical things work,” she said. “It was important for me to have both military and civilian points of view.” But she credits her overall success to God, her parents and self-discipline.
Adams encourages young men and women interested in flight school to commit at a young age.
"It’s a challenging career field but very rewarding,” Adams said. “It’s all about serving people.” Since first entering military service, Adams wanted a career where she could interact with, help and serve people. Throughout the past 30 years, she has accomplished that goal while working in the three fields of aviation, personnel and protocol.
Although her job is demanding, she spends time each week socializing with her troopers. “Adams is very caring of her Troopers,” said Army Lt. Col. Gladys Turnbull, who first met Adams 15 years ago. “As battalion commander, Col. Adams always ensured morale of the troops was first-rate by hosting command barbeques and recreation events on a quarterly basis.”
by Army Spc. Archie Corbitt III
Going on his third deployment in seven years, Army Spc. Keith Chambers is no stranger to finding ways to keep himself entertained while away from home. Chambers has what may be the only military "gator" (a small all-terrain light transport vehicle sort of like a gas-powered golf cart) wired for sound. It consists of an MP3 player, speakers and a small 12-volt converter.
“This is a great way to spend some time, especially after a long day at work,” Chambers said. It is this skill and ingenuity that earns Chambers, an armorer with the 786th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, his 15 minutes of fame. Chambers joined the V.I. Army National Guard in 2000. Since then, he has been deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq, and now Guantanamo Bay. Chambers is instrumental in the operation of the motor pool as well as the storage and cleaning of weapons at Joint Task Force Guantanamo. He has found adjusting here a bit different from other assignments.
“The rules on a naval station are different from what I’m used to on an Army post,” Chambers said. “It’s a give and take, some rules are stricter, and some are more lenient.”
After spending his first few days in Guantanamo and driving to work with only the sound of the gator’s engine to keep him company, Chambers decided to enhance things. That’s when he “enhanced” his gator and added what he needed to be able to listen to music. Drawing from knowledge gained installing radio sets in cars, Chambers knew what he needed to get music, which he loves, into the gator he drives. Now, when he drives around the base, it is to the sounds of dancehall and calypso music. The music is new to many of his fellow troopers, but for Chambers, it helps him feel right at home.
“Chambers has always been a gadget guy,” said Army Sgt. Leonard Richards, a mechanic with the V.I. Army National Guard, who deployed with Chambers to Iraq in 2005. “He’s smart and working with electronics is something he is good at doing,” said Richards.
Chambers said when members of the 786th see him on the road and hear his music, they can only shake their heads and say, “only Chambers would do something like that.” The setup is not permanently installed and takes only a few minutes to put in place.
The preceding articles has been edited and reprinted with permission from the V.I National Guard.