Guardsman a teacher and a student in Honduras

NACO, Honduras -- Capt. Charlie Legerwood, the S-4 supply officer with the 1140th Engineer Battalion, Headquarters, Headquarters Company, understands the concept of teaching and learning; and will use a little bit of both as he serves down in Honduras for his two-week annual training exercise in support of the Beyond the Horizons 2012 mission.

In the civilian world, Legerwood, a Jefferson City native, is a high school history teacher, but for now, he is serving on the BTH 2012 mission conducted by U.S. Army South in Honduras, which is providing local people with various medical, dental, engineering and civic assistance types of services to the region.

During Legerwood's rotation, he will serve both as the day-shift and night-shift Battle Captain, where he oversees and makes sure all the Soldiers that are traveling to and from the worksites are doing so with organized transportation, as well as communicating with Soldiers when they arrive at the work sites to ensure safety.

The Battle Captain position is a role Legerwood once served while on deployment to Afghanistan.

"When I was told I was going to be a Battle Captain down here I knew a little bit about what I would be expected to do," Legerwood says. "It has been a really easy transition thus far; just a matter of communicating with the office down here making sure we are all on the same page, using the same paperwork and stuff like that."

Legerwood views the mission in Honduras as a type of situation he has found himself in before.

"I've been on a couple state-emergency duties and that's how I look at it down here," Legerwood said referring to Honduras, "We come in, learn a little bit about the community, get to know people and help out. So in that aspect, I feel like I understand and can help others understand a little of what is going on down here."

The BTH mission is coordinated through U.S. Army South and U.S. Southern Command in conjunction with the Honduran government, and features National Guard soldiers from various states performing various civil service type missions at various locations within the country of Honduras.

Aside from instructing and sharing his experience with other Soldiers down here, Legerwood also views himself as a student, learning and taking in different things he sees down here during the course of his training.

"It's always great to go away to another place to learn about the language, the different culture, and obviously how their military is," Legerwood said. "Making different connections, learning about other world cultures and how other people do things are always a great experience."

Legerwood views the overall BTH mission as a success.

"I've always wanted to come down here and finally got the opportunity to be here," Legerwood said. "Anytime you can come in and help people out it definitely makes all the work worthwhile."

BTH 2012 seeks to leave a lasting impact on the partnership of the United States and Honduras through cooperation and training.

For more information about the Missouri National Guard, please visit www.moguard.com and our social media sites: www.facebook.com/Missouri.National.Guard; www.twitter.com/Missouri_NG; www.youtube.com/MoNationalGuard; www.myspace.com/missouri_ng; www.flickr.com/photos/missouriguard; www.moguard.com/blog; www.pinterest.com/monationalguard/