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 Two Inupiat Eskimo Guardsmen Become a Team in Kuwait By Staff Sgt. Mac Metcalfe
                3rd Battalion, 297th Infantry
 CAMP BUEHRING, Kuwait - Sgt. 1st Class Floyd Ticket rides shotgun while Sgt. Jonathan Weyiouana drives their Humvee down a grayish, dust covered perimeter road on a small military base near the Kuwait-Iraq border. Ticket and Weyiouana are members of Alpha Company, 3rd Battalion, 297th Infantry, Alaska Army National Guard, and are making the rounds, checking on their Soldiers in guard towers and at entry gates. Their job is to help supervise the Soldiers, but they also help maintain morale with their ability to communicate and their knowledge of individual Soldiers. The two have an easy way of bantering between themselves and with the men. The Soldiers' faces show they appreciate the attention given to their concerns by Ticket and Weyiouana. The 3rd Battalion, 297th Infantry Soldiers have been in Kuwait since October. Some are from rural Alaska villages with names like Kotlik, Manokotak and Togiak. Others are from small towns like Nome, Dillingham and Eagle River. Many are from Fairbanks and Anchorage. "Here we get to know the whole state," said Weyiouana, who is an Inupiat Eskimo from Shishmaref, a small isolated village on the Bering Sea north of Nome, Alaska. Back home, Weyiouana, 41, is what he calls "a subsistence guy," meaning that he provides for his family by mostly hunting and fishing. Ticket is a 47-year-old politician.  Prior to being deployed, Ticket was serving as mayor of Buckland, a village 150 miles east of Shishmaref. "When I get back I will run again. You got to love politics. It makes the grass green," he said. Both men are very involved in their communities. For the past 18 years, Ticket has worked as the power plant operator at the Buckland school. He is also a member of the tribal council, a volunteer fire chief, a whale hunting captain and the high school basketball coach. His team recently won the Class 1A boys state championship with his twin sons, Bo and Brent, on the team. Ticket is also an Inupiat. Weyiouana is on a church council and a gospel singer. He is also a member of an Eskimo dance group that helped preserve ancient whale dances that were almost lost. "Years ago, missionaries encouraged people to stop dancing because they thought it was something shamans had us do," he said. Both men are grandfathers or soon-to-be grandfathers. Ticket's oldest son's wife is soon to give birth to twins. Ticket, who has eight children, said he is going to need a drawing board to keep track of family developments. Weyiouana has four children and four grandchildren, two of whom are twin boys. "They want me home tomorrow," he said laughing. Prior to deployment, Weyiouana and Ticket knew each other in passing, seeing each other during the National Guard's two-week annual training period. "Now we are just like brothers," Weyiouana said.
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