FORT CARSON, Colo. (7/16/11) – Soldiers practiced room clearing, tactical movement, and team building during Military Operations on Urban Terrain training site at Fort Carson, Colo., July 16.

Well, these aren’t just any Soldiers; they’re more like soon-to-be-Soldiers. They are new recruits to the Colorado Army National Guard participating in the Recruit Sustainment Program.

“The RSP is the initial entry training piece of the National Guard,” said Capt. George O’Neill Jr., the commander of the RSP. “It’s where we take brand new enlistees from (the) Recruiting and Retention Battalion and  train them up in the first few months before they attend Basic Combat Training (and Advanced Individual Training).”

Simply put, the RSP is designed to increase the success rate of COARNG Soldiers at BCT and AIT by preparing them before they ship out. “The training here at the RSP is focused on three things: (being) mentally prepared, administratively correct, and physically fit,” said O’Neill.

“It gets them into the (military) mindset and they know what they’ve gotten themselves into and what to expect at BCT and AIT,” said Sgt. 1st Class David Ceja, the RSP’s senior instructor.

Staff Sgt. Justin Lee, a recruiter and site coordinator for the RSP in Montrose, Colo., said the RSP’s training structure reflects the training structure of BCT in that there are different phases. “Within each of the phases, there are PowerPoint lessons that a Soldier can get online and download, so that everybody is on the same page as far as training.”

“To keep their motivation up, and to keep them excited about the RSP and the Army National Guard, we’re out here to put the skills they’ve already learned to use,” said Lee. “So this weekend we  reserved a MOUT site at Ft. Carson, and we’re going to use paintballs to practice what we’ve taught them (in the classroom).”

“We’re giving them the experience, before they get to their units, of MOUT training,” said Ceja. “They’re learning peer mentoring, team building, and buddy aid; everything they would encounter in a real-world deployment, we’re trying to simulate right here. Sometimes Soldiers come back and say (the RSP) is actually tougher than BCT.”

The training and experience provided by the RSP is proving to be more and more valuable to the COARNG. “The value of the RSP is we’re more successful at keeping Soldiers in BCT,” said O’Neill. “Without the RSP we see a higher discharge rate. This prepares them for what they should expect and eliminates fear of the unknown.”

“The value of the RSP has many things attached to it,” said Lee. “The biggest thing is the training pipeline losses due to Soldiers not being engaged before they go to BCT and AIT. The other benefit that we see is creating that first impression of the military, and setting them up mentally for what they’re going to have to do down the road with the Guard.”

A training pipeline loss is someone who does not ship to BCT or AIT because of something either administratively or physically incorrect, explained Lee.

“I think it is vital to sustain the RSP because every unit in the state is of direct benefit from the RSP,” said O’Neill.

And quality training cannot be given without quality instructors. “The RSP cadre is composed of two areas,” explained O’Neill. “We have traditional Soldiers as cadre, composed of E-5s to E-7s. We also augment those Soldiers with recruiters from the Recruiting and Retention Battalion who help on the weekends to train RSP Soldiers.”

Many of the cadre are very excited about the opportunity to work with the RSP. “I really do enjoy the RSP and being a part of it,” said Lee. “I enjoy training Soldiers … and making sure they’re brought up correctly into the Army National Guard culture and way of life. The cool thing is, everyone who is a part of the RSP wants to be here, and the camaraderie between the instructors is really neat. Just to have the relationship and the ability to mold those Soldiers, and know that when they continue on to the next part of their training, that you had a part in making their Army National Guard career, is very exciting.”

Ceja agrees, adding that it is a great honor to be the first instructor, the first NCO they come across after their recruiter, and considers it a privilege to train the future of the COARNG.