South Carolina National Guard
By NaSwana Moon,
SPC Kimberly Hurtado is a South Carolina Army National Guard Soldier with the 1223rd Engineer Company, 122nd Engineer Battalion located in Columbia, S.C. She currently serves at the Joint National Training Center, Cincu, Romania, in support of Resolute Castle 17, an operation that builds infrastructure and relationships within Eastern European NATO countries.
SPC Hurtado grew up listening to a retired Marine uncle tell his war stories. “It interested me so much that I started to think about joining,” she said. “When he passed away, it solidified my decision to join.” Upon deciding to serve, she enlisted in the Army and her older brother enlisted in the Marines.
She began her military career training as a plumber in Advanced Individual Training, but has been learning other skills as well. At Resolute Castle 17, she has been building a berm that will protect moving targets from live tank rounds.
To support the construction of moving armored targets, at which tanks will fire for training purposes, she fills Gabion baskets that will support a protective berm. The baskets will later be covered with dirt, creating the berm, and receive the impact of the tank shells. Filling the Gabion baskets requires SPC Hurtado to build metal cages with spring coils, fill them with rocks, level the rocks and stack them.
“Just keep swimming” is one of SPC Hurtado’s favorite quotes that she applies to her civilian and military life. She relates to that as a Soldier and as a civilian, as there are times she has to do a job or complete a task that she doesn’t want to do, but she just keeps going.
She applies this philosophy to staying busy at home. Aside from her military career, SPC Hurtado works as a cook at a seafood restaurant, and she currently studies science and math at the Technical College of the LowCountry. SPC Hurtado’s dream is to become a chemical or mechanical engineer. “What I have in mind is something like an oil refinery, working the machines,” she explained.
She is ready to face the challenges in a field where women make up only 11 percent of the population. “It doesn’t matter to me,” she says.
Resolute Castle particularly focuses on engineer skills, deploying active Navy, Army Reserve and Army National Guard engineer units to work alongside the Romanian 10th Engineer Brigade and the UK Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers on training infrastructure at the Joint National Training Center in Romania. Additionally, Resolute Castle has overseen engineering operations in Poland conducted by the 15th Engineer Battalion, 18th Military Police Brigade.
The mission supports Operation Atlantic Resolve by developing training infrastructure in Eastern Europe, creating interoperability among NATO forces, and enhancing stability and resolve among allied nations.
