103rd Field Artillery

War in this day and age is never far from touching everyone’s lives. In our ChemArt family, this couldn’t be more accurate. Neil Bennett was like any other normal high school kid, trying to decide “what to be when he grew up”. His father was a marine, and two older brothers were in the military. Following in his family’s footsteps, Bennett went through ROTC at Providence College, then to Artillery School, and then to Rhode Island College for Graphic Design. However, he remained active in the National Guard.

Trying to pursue a job in his field of study, Bennett applied for and got a job at ChemArt in 2004 as a graphic designer. He was thrilled. “I was totally pumped to get out of the grind of a restaurant job and into something I really loved.” However, a mere two weeks after he started at ChemArt he got the call. His unit was being deployed to Iraq. Assured that his job would be secure until his return, Bennett left for two months of training at Fort Dix in New Jersey and then shipped out to Iraq.

In Iraq, his first six months were spent in Baghdad, doing military police work. This was an added challenge seeing that his unit's specialty was field artillery and not police work. His unit’s task was to provide force protection to approximately 20,000 troops and defend the largest forward operating base in Iraq. A primary responsibility involved monitoring the comings and goings of the people each day, to check their credentials, and more importantly, their intentions. “At heart I am a very trusting person,” says Bennett. “It was difficult at first to adjust to the reality that many of these people who we were trying to help did not like us or the western way of life. Some of the same faces that smiled at us every day were the very same people gathering intelligence for the enemy.”

Bennett recalls one incident where a vehicle approached one of the gates while a British Unit was on duty. They noticed that the car was riding low, immediately alerting them to something amiss. As the military personnel approached the vehicle, guns at the ready, the driver flipped a switch and an entire trunk load of artillery shells exploded. “I heard and felt the explosion from the other side of the installation. We immediately ran to investigate, having no idea what to expect. Needless to say, it was the worst.”

While on his tour of duty, Bennett received care packages from not only his family and friends, but his new family at ChemArt. “I couldn’t believe it,” says Bennett. “I was there for only 2 weeks, and here I was in a strange country getting gifts from what felt like my second family. The love and support we received as a unit was constant and strong.”

Bennett’s unit served one year in Iraq before returning to the states. He was very grateful not only for the safe return home but also for the fact that ChemArt had kept their word and held his position.

In a fateful turn of events, ChemArt had been working with the Family Readiness Group in RI to create a fundraising vehicle to support homecoming parties for the very unit that Bennett belonged to. In a subsequent year, Bennett was able to design one of the very ornaments used to support his colleagues fighting for freedom on behalf of the US.
103d FA BDE (Providence, RI) had over 260 soldiers deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The Family Readiness Group (FRG) needed a creative and meaningful way to raise funds for the homecoming parties for their loved ones.

 Download a PDF of the 103rd Field Artillery customer success story