Employee spotlight
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Jose Arguelles got quite the surprise from U.S. Army Garrison Yuma Proving Ground (YPG) leadership. He was told the Garrison General Manager, Ronny James was conducting a site visit to the Military Personnel Division. What he not did expect is that James, Acting Deputy Garrison General Manager Ron Rodriguez and Garrison Human Resources Director, Chrissy Randle, would all be there to present him with the Department of the Army Civilian Service Achievement Medal.
“I didn’t expect it!” exclaimed Arguelles, “It’s nice to be recognized. You feel like people care about you.”
Indeed they do. Randle explained to Arguelles that he was being recognized for operating the division on his own for nearly five months.
“You were out by yourself out here doing two jobs and we as an organization wanted to recognize you for that.”
Adding, “You were faced with staff shortages and provided services flawlessly.”
Arguelles, the Garrison Military Personnel Division Chief with 16 years’ experience in the office manned it on his own from November 2019 to April 2020. This was not an easy task because the office covers about 16 functional areas including identification cards, Soldier actions, awards, retirements, personnel actions, Freedom of Information Act, record keeping, and in and out process Soldiers.
While a large majority of the workforce was teleworking Arguelles showed up daily.
His job requires a lot of face to face interactions plus document handling that just cannot be done teleworking.
“The Soldiers expect that someone will be there.”
Plus, Arguelles says, “I know the importance.”
He himself served in the Army and four of those years were at YPG in the same position. He knows the services provided are important to Soldiers and their families.
“If it wasn’t for the Soldiers none of us would be here. That’s the reason I do it because of them. I was a Solider for 21 years and I know the needs and the relief when you know your records are right and finances are correct.”
In addition to serving the Soldiers the division provides service to the entire YPG community,
“We help every contractor, civilian, dependent that comes through here with their CACs.”