THE GRIFFON • Fall 2010 • 21 plied and was selected as a candidate for the City of New York Department of Correction Training Academy. As his civilian career in was taking off he still felt something was absent from his life.“I missed the military and decided to join the Army Reserve in July 2008,” said Rios. Originally assigned to the 423rd Military Police Company in Long Island, N.Y. he served with the unit until January 2010 and then transferred to the 2nd Battalion, 417th Regiment, 4th Brigade, 98th Training Division (IET) based out of Fort Totten, N.Y.“It’s a very small unit, we have about twenty Soldiers assigned and are looking for people to join us,” said Rios. After securing his position in the Army Reserve he had to knock out his candidate training with the City of New York Department of Correction.The candidate training is 16-weeks compared to the eight weeks of initial entry training Soldiers receive. “It was kind of like basic training; you have classroom work and hands on work. It’s physical, we have combatives training and we go to the range and also take a physical fitness test. The only good thing about the academy is you get to go home at night,” said Rios,“I learned all of my skills for Riker’s Island from my training at Ft. Leavenworth while I was in the Army.” Riker’s Island is New York City’s main jail complex, as well as the name of the island on which it sits, in the East River between Queens and the mainland Bronx, adjacent to the runways of
LaGuardia Airport. The jail complex, operated by the New York City Department of Correction, has a staff of 10,000 officers and 1,500 civilians to control an inmate population of 14,000.“If someone has received their sentence and it’s a year or less they serve their time at Riker’s,” said Rios, “or if they are waiting to be sentenced.” Rios said he faced some challenges at the USAR Drill Sergeant School. “I was expecting it to be a lot harder from stories I heard.The hardest part I think would be learning and memorizing the modules in such a short time, when you have CQ and other stuff going on.You’re nervous doing the modules; you don’t want to mess it up because after the third time you get kicked out of the school.” He said the cadre was very helpful and professional.“If you had a question they were always there to help you out.” As for his future goals Rios said,“I want to get at least one deployment under my belt, hopefully with a MITT team and be promoted to sergeant first class. He also wants go back to college and get a Bachelors degree in the Law Enforcement field.” One of “New York’s Boldest” is also interested in becoming a Drill Sergeant Leader.“I would definitely come back as a Drill Sergeant Leader; I just want more experience first going out on the trail, doing different missions, so I can get firsthand experience. I would like to dedicate myself to training future Soldiers,” said Rios.
Staff Sgt. Jeffrey Rios was named Distinguished Honor Graduate, Class 004-10 (Option 5) at Ft. Jackson, S.C. in July 2010. Photo by Sgt. 1st Class Marty A. Collins, 108th Training Command (IET) Public Affairs.
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