Fort Knox, Ky.—Today was another normal day for Cadets in 2nd Regiment Advanced Camp going through CBRN training.
Cadet Joshua Best from Little Rock, Arkansas, attending University of Central Arkansas, was not one those Cadets.
Best started the training just like all the other Cadets. He sat through the demonstration and instructional session learning proper procedures and how to use the safety equipment issued, but his time in the gas chamber was a little different.
Best attended a promotion ceremony inside the gas chamber.
Best said he and newly promoted Spc. Dunlap hadn’t seen each other in a while.
“It was awesome because he is from California and I have not seen him in four years,” Best said. “He enlisted two years ago and then went on a deployment to Afghanistan and it was a god thing that he ended up in Fort Knox during our training time.”
Dunlap and Best worked with range and regiment Cadre members to arrange the ceremony.
“We just went in there a did the pinning ceremony, his OIC read the promotion statement and then I pulled his old rank and put the new one for him,” Best said.
Immediately after the promotion everyone in attendance removed their mask, breathed in the gas, then quickly exited the chamber.
For Best this event not only meant a lot to him because of his ability to connect with his family but also because he got to see his Cadre members differently.
“I asked my Cadre and they luckily worked it out so that we could do that inside the CBRN chamber,” Best said. “It has changed Advanced Camp for me because it is really cool to see how the Cadre care about the individuals and want to go the extra step to make sure something like that can happen for family. That is my family and it meant a lot to me that they were willing to do that.”