Southwest native is Bliss-ful about work

Command Sgt. Maj. Alex Yazzie has a near perfect assignment both professionally and personally.

Yazzie, a 43-year-old from Page, loves being at Fort Bliss in his native Southwest, and he considers his new job as a battalion command sergeant major to be the “pinnacle assignment” of his career.

Yazzie took over as the senior enlisted leader on June 1 for 1st Battalion, 37th Armored Regiment with 2nd Brigade.

As the senior enlisted leader for the Bandit Battalion, Yazzie gets to do his favorite thing — train and lead soldiers.

“This is where I want to be,” Yazzie said. “This is the best position I’ve had. After this, I don’t know what I would want to do, except be a battalion command sergeant major again.”

Yazzie and family have been at Fort Bliss for the past two years and now get to stay at least two more years.

He had previously attended the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy from 2015-16 and then served as the operations sergeant major for 1-77 Armor with the 3rd Brigade. During that latter assignment, he deployed to Kuwait.

As a member of the Navajo Nation, he grew up in the Southwest. He also has relatives in both El Paso and Juarez on his mother’s side of the family.

It all adds up to make this a fulfilling and happy assignment for himself and his family, he said.

In his new job, Yazzie is helping with the final preparations as the battalion gets ready to go on a rotation in August to the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, along with the rest of 2nd Brigade.

He arrived at his new unit shortly after it finished Iron Focus, which was the battalion’s and brigade’s final large-scale home-station training event before NTC.

The focus right now is on maintaining and making sure the battalion’s tracked and wheeled vehicles are ready to go to NTC.

“Tanks and Bradleys, if you don’t constantly maintain them, they break down and parts wear out,” Yazzie said.

Soldiers who serve as mechanics and in specialty fields like logistics and communications have been working overtime to make sure the upcoming rotation is successful and are the battalion’s unsung heroes, he said.

Yazzie has never done a rotation at NTC, but has plenty of similar experience at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana.

He did two training rotations at Fort Polk and also served as part of the opposing force there for nearly four years from 1996-2000.

“I love CTCs (combat training centers),” Yazzie said. “It’s like the Super Bowl of everything you have been doing. It is the culminating event to test you and see how prepared you are and identify areas you need to fix.”

David Burge may be reached at 915546-6126; dburge@elpasotimes.com; @dburge1962 on Twitter.