GRAND FORKS, N.D. — The North Dakota National Guard Headquarters and Headquarters Battery (HHB), 1-188th Air Defense Artillery, in Grand Forks, welcomed three new Soldiers to the corps of noncommissioned officers in March.

Allison J. Ollenburger, Maple Grove, Minn., Ronald D. Olson, Mayville, N.D., and Jackie R. Raatz, Grand Forks, were greeted with boisterous applause as they accepted their promotion from specialist to sergeant during a unit ceremony.

At the ceremony, 1st Sgt. Gregory P. Brockberg’s, Moorhead, Minn., cited the Army’s “Noncommissioned Officer’s Creed,” when he spoke to the new NCOs, saying “all NCOs have three primary concerns: accomplish any assigned mission, take care of Soldiers, and take care of yourselves.” 

Brockberg went on to say, “we have put some trust in them; we have given them more responsibility, given them more expectations, and they have the responsibility to carry out what needs to be done.” 

The other NCOs of HHB celebrated the new members of their corps with the time honored induction ceremony.

Brockberg said the induction ceremony “is a huge thing for the unit and everybody knows how important it is; everybody knows what a big step it is. And we as an NCO corps grow closer and closer because of it.”

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Since the 2001 terrorist attacks on America, the North Dakota National Guard has mobilized more than 3,800 Soldiers and more than 1,800 Airmen in support of the Global War on Terrorism. About 70 percent of all members serving today have joined since that time. Currently, nearly 300 North Dakota Guardsmen are serving overseas while about 4,000 remain in the state for emergency response and national defense. For every 10,000 citizens in North Dakota, 65 serve in the North Dakota National Guard, a rate that’s more than four times the national average.