Sergeant First Class Joseph Banfield

SFC Joseph Banfield joined the United States Army in June 2002 and completed Infantry One Station Unit Training at Ft. Benning GA, graduating as an 11B Infantryman.  His first unit of assignment was with the 1^st Battalion 4^th Infantry Regiment of the 7^th Army training command. While assigned there he served in numerous positions within the Battalion as a M113A1 armored personnel carrier, rifleman and M249 squad Automatic Weapon gunner. Also earning the coveted Expert Infantry Badge as a Specialist in 2005.

SFC Banfield in 2005 and was assigned to the 1^st Battalion 14^th Infantry Regiment, 2^nd BCT  25^th infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, HI.  He served as a grenadier, M240B gunner as well as TM leader, and deployed two times to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, in 2007 & 2010. During the 2007 to 2009 deployment, he was hand selected to be the tail gunner for Battalion personal security detachment Command Sergeant Major’s Stryker. In 2010 he continued to serve the Battalion PSD as a mounted gunner and Vehicle Commander during his second deployment with 1^st battalion 14^th infantry regiment.

SFC Banfield was assigned to Able Company 1^st BN 506^th infantry regiment Currahee where he took ownership of the company arms room and transformed it into the best arms room across the Brigade. He attended the Sabalauski Air Assault School in 2014 receiving his certification and in 2015 became an instructor for the premier Air Assault school and shortly after arriving became the senior instructor for team 1. SFC Banfield was then assigned to 2^nd BN 22^nd Infantry regiment 1^st BCT 10^th MTN DIV (LI) in 2017 where he served as squad leader, weapons squad leader and platoon Sergeant. SFC Banfield is currently assigned as a Military Science Instructor at Virginia Tech Army ROTC.

SFC Banfield Civilian and Military education includes the Combat Lifesaver Course, the Warrior Leader Course, Advanced Leader Course, Senior Leader Course, U.S. Army Air Assault School, Army basic instructor course, Battlefield forensics, Common faculty development instructor course, Pathfinder, Rappel master, FRIES and SPIES master and Unit armorer.  SFC Banfield has 36 semester hours toward a degree in general studies and will be pursuing a bachelor's degree in higher education from Western Kentucky University.  SFC Banfield awards include the Purple heart, ARCOM W/C devise, ARCOM(5), AAM(5), VUA, MUC, AGCM(6), NDSM, ACM-CS(2), ICM-CS(2), GWTEM, GWTSM, ASR, OSR(4), NATOMDL, CIB, EIB, PFDRBAD and AIR ASLT.

SFC Banfield is married to Nicole Banfield and they have 4 children: Natalie (21), Jacob (19), Jackson (13) and Malia (11).