In a ceremony before family, friends and the “extended family” of the V.I. National Guard, Capt. Clayton A. Sutton became Maj. Clayton A. Sutton Thursday at the Armory on St. Thomas.
Sutton, a recipient of the Bronze Star, enlisted with the V.I. Guard 18 years ago and many of his former commanding officers, fellow enlistees and subordinates joined in the ceremony.
Deployed at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since November, Sutton serves as the training officer and is tasked with ammunition management, defense-readiness reporting and the detainee standardization program.
It was obvious Thursday that Sutton, a graduate of the Officers Candidate School at Fort Benning, Ga., is well thought of in the ranks.
Spec. Dominique Hedrington recalls the day she started with VING and how Sutton, her commander, made her feel welcome.
She recalls Sutton’s speech to the new recruits vividly.
“That is when I made up my mind to stay, and said ‘Yeah, I think I might make a career out of this,’” Hedrington said.
First Sgt. Lennie Reed recalled serving with Sutton during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
“It was all business,” Reed said, though they were regularly under fire from mortar attacks. “Rockets were always coming into the area.”
Reed said that one of their missions was to provide security to civilian vehicles, as well as to provide drinking water for everyone in Iraq.
“We were pretty good at it,” Reed said. “It was a major distribution point.”
Accepting his promotion, Sutton praised two of his mentors, Brig. Gen. Cleave A. McBean and Director Harold Baker, with whom he served at VITEMA.
Clayton also lauded his co-workers at Guantanamo, who missed the ceremony, and praised his wife of 14 years, Lorna, his daughter Lornali and son Kobe, who thinks he may follow in his father’s footsteps someday.
“I like helping people who don’t have what we have,” Kobe said.
