{"id":342311,"date":"2024-12-29T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-30T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=342311"},"modified":"2025-01-01T02:06:10","modified_gmt":"2025-01-01T02:06:10","slug":"guardsman-follows-father-in-state-partnership-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=342311","title":{"rendered":"Guardsman follows father in State Partnership Program"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Left: Col. (Ret.) William Johnston, then Major, presents a gift during a Subject Matter Exchange in March 2010. Johnston was the director of the Washington National Guard State Partnership Program from 2008 to 2013. <\/p>\n

Right: Sgt. William Johnston, a crew chief with Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 168th General Support Aviation poses for a photo with a Aviation soldier from 9th Battalion, Royal Thai Army during an exchange, December 2, 2024 in Lop Buri, Thailand. <\/p>\n

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CAMP MURRAY, Wash. \u2014 During a recent subject matter exchange in Lop Buri, Thailand, Sgt. William Johnston, a crew chief with Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 168th General Support Aviation, participated in his first visit with soldiers from the 9th Battalion, Royal Thai Army.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a genuinely rewarding experience,\u201d said Johnston. \u201cThe soldiers of the 9th Battalion are extremely knowledgeable and eager to learn how we maintain and operate our aircraft. They were very welcoming and made sure we were well taken care of both on and off duty.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the trip marked Johnston\u2019s first experience with the State Partnership Program, it wasn\u2019t the first for his family. From 2008 to 2013, his father, retired Col.\u00a0William Johnston, served as the program director for the Washington State Partnership Program. The elder Johnston traveled frequently to Thailand to participate in exchanges and develop relationships with the leadership in the Southeast Asian nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always heard about the SPP program from my father, and I jumped at the opportunity when it was offered by leadership,\u201d said Johnston. \u201cI have fond memories of Thailand from when I vacationed there with my family. Now, being able to return and share something I enjoy doing is truly special. Combining my passion for traveling with the chance to work alongside foreign counterparts is incredibly rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnston joined the Washington National Guard in November 2018, about a year after his father retired from the organization. He now works as an aircraft mechanic on the KC-46 Air Refueling Tanker at Boeing full time and drills with the Guard in the same aviation unit his father once commanded.<\/p>\n

\u201cAviation is a big part of my life, and it\u2019s been great to see both civilian and military operations firsthand to become a better aircraft mechanic for the Guard,\u201d said Johnston.<\/p>\n

Johnston acknowledges his father passed along valuable advice before he participated in his first exchange.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe told me to be open to all experiences and to be prepared to make close friends within the program,\u201d Johnston said. \u201cThe Thai soldiers have so much to teach us as we share our own knowledge with them. Be a sponge and find ways to help them however you can. At the end of the day, they\u2019re just as excited to interact with us as we are with them. Not everyone gets this kind of training, so don\u2019t take it for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was this advice, along with his own experiences, that Johnston says has strengthened the Washington-Thailand relationship over the past two decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cHave an open mind to different cultures and take the time to learn how they operate in a professional setting,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were given this opportunity not only to strengthen their maintenance programs but also to build a stronger bridge between our two nations. They work in a tropical and humid environment, so they face different constraints within the aviation community. As we deploy around the world, there are many operator- and mechanic-specific lessons we can incorporate into our own standard operating procedures.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Left: Col. (Ret.) William Johnston, then Major, presents a gift during a Subject Matter Exchange in March 2010. Johnston was the director of the Washington National Guard State Partnership Program from 2008 to 2013. Right: Sgt. William Johnston, a crew chief with Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 168th General Support Aviation poses for a photo with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-342311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=342311"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":342312,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342311\/revisions\/342312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=342311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=342311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=342311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}