Swoboda promoted to highest rank in Guards

Chris Swoboda has "seen it all" when it comes to his 27 years of active duty in the Minnesota National Guards. Recently, the Minneota resident was promoted to Sergeant Major (E-9), the highest ranking a member of the National Guards can achieve.
Swoboda is currently based out of Montevideo where the 1st Battalion, 15st Field Artillery (1-151 FA) headquarters are located.
The members of his 1-151 FA battalion are prepared to support the State of Minnesota with troops capable of assisting in a disaster. They are well trained and prepared in case they get the call to travel to the Twin Cities in the event that there is unrest during the upcoming jury selection and trial of Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin, who is being charged with the death of George Floyd.
There are six major units in the 1-151 Field Artillery: Headquarters and Headquarters Battery in Montevideo; Battery A in Marshall; Battery B in Madison; Battery C in Ortonville; 175th Forward Support Company in Appleton and Morris; and Battery C 1-194 FA in Alexandria.
Swoboda, who attended high school in Marshall, initially joined the National Guards on a bet with a buddy.
"I was only a junior in high school and me and my buddy made a bet to see if we could get into the military," Swoboda said. "We went downtown in Marshall and the Army, Navy and Marines recruiting places were side by side in one building. But the building was closed."
So the boys walked down to the National Guard Armory, which was open, and talked to a recruiter there about joining.
"Because we were only 17 and still considered a minor, we had to get our parents to sign off before we could enlist," Swoboda said. "My dad was okay with it, but my mom wouldn't sign it. That was around June or July. Eventually, she agreed to sign the papers and I joined the Guards on Dec. 30, 1993."
During a six-week period in the summer between his junior and senior years, Swoboda spent basic training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
"Basic training for the Guards is basically the same as the Army," Swoboda said. "You learn how to march, shoot your weapon, and there are a lot of physical requirements. What they do is break you down and build you back up."
Swoboda enlisted as an E-3 Private First Class and after three years was promoted to an E-4 Specialist Sergeant with the Marshall 1-151 FA. Because of his solid work ethic, Swoboda continued to be promoted. He spent 11 years as an E-6 Staff Sergeant, which included 1 1/2 years of deployment in the Twin Cities, and then was promoted to an E-7 Sergeant First Class in 2008.
Four years later, he moved up the ladder again, this time to an E-8 First Sergeant where he worked out of the 1-151 FA in Ortonville.
"I was in charge of making sure the troops are fed, healthy and disciplined," Swoboda noted.
Swoboda then moved to Alexandria and turned a former infantry unit into a new CB 1-194 Field Artillery battalion. After spending 1 1/2 years there, he was moved to Rosemount for two years as a First Sergeant with the 34th Infantry Division headquarters.
He then came to Montevideo in July of 2020 and was promoted to an E-9 Sergeant Major this past January. He is currently in the process of training and preparing the battalion for the possibility they are called to assist with any unrest in the Twin Cities having to deal with the Chauvin trial.
"We are on call," he said. "There are some National Guard members already in the Twin Cities to provide security and other things. If things get out of hand and a lot of people gather to protest, they might call and tell us they need 100 Guards to come and help. We will then ask for volunteers and we might get 20 from one 1-151 unit and 30 from another and so on. They don't have to all be from one unit, just as long as we get 100 from the 1-151 FA."
The 1-151 FA was called to support local law enforcement in response to civil unrest in Minneapolis and the surrounding areas following the death of Floyd while in police custody.
"What you saw on TV in terms of protesters getting in the face of the Guards and things being thrown at them was exactly the way it was," Swoboda said. "We are trained and ordered to not use physical violence or fire our weapon unless it's absolutely necessary. You just stand tall and take it."
Swoboda told of a 5-foot, 100-pound female Guard member from his unit being verbally abused by a large male.
"She did just what she was trained to," Swoboda said. "She never backed down or anything. She just held strong and did the job she was supposed to."
Swoboda has done three federal deployments. His first deployment was to Bosnia in 2002-03 on a NATO peacekeeping mission during the Bosnian-Serbian war. He was also deployed to Kuwait twice, the first time in 2009-10 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom to provide convoy security and force protection.
"That's when I got engaged to my wife Laura," Swoboda said with a laugh. "We were deployed together over there. Laura spent 13 years in the National Guards."
Swoboda's second deployment to Kuwait came in 2018-19.
"Mostly, we help out with security and protection in Minnesota and surrounding states when we're called," he said. "We help out with things like tornadoes and floods, strikes, protests and anything we can to help communities.”
Swoboda works for Meier Electric in Marshall. He and his wife and four children live in Minneota. His father, Doug, passed away in 2015 and his stepmother, Brenda Swoboda, lives in Minneota.