Warriors' Voices: MAJ Scott Allen Davis, Force Integration Readiness Officer, Missouri National Guard
Having decided long ago, from personal experience, that he “didn’t like factory work”, Greenville High School graduate Scott Allen Davis joined the Missouri National Guard in the summer of 1985. It must have been an unusually good fit: He gained a Bachelor of Science degree in digital communication technology, courtesy of the Guard; participated in traditional weekend-and-summer service for six years; then, in 1991, made the move to full-time active duty Army service through the Missouri National Guard. “My everyday job is the Guard,” says Major Davis, who, together with wife Tobie, has made a home for their four children just outside of Jefferson City.
Davis speaks of realizing the family life he and his wife had envisioned early on: “When I made the decision to go AGR (“Active Guard and Reserve”, a term describing his full-time Guard status) in 1991, the year I got married…Well, by 2003, we’d had three children and purchased a nice house. We’ve made a lifestyle where Tobie’s been able to stay at home with our children, so that if anything goes wrong with them, it’s our fault.”
Currently Davis serves as one of two Force Integration Readiness officers for the Guard in Missouri; in this capacity, he handles new-equipment training and distribution for the entire state.
“I’m a ‘stay in my lane’ kinda guy,” says Davis, a person known for his meticulous treatment of paperwork and procedure. As an enlisted man, he summarily barred a general from access to a military installation for the officer’s failure to supply the correct password at the gate—and this, in the soggy, muddy wake of a rainstorm.
This single-minded approach to duty no doubt served Davis well the year he was 
deployed—with 42nd DISCOM, 42nd Infantry Division—to Forward Operating Base Speicher, near Tikrit, Iraq. There, from December 2004 to November 2005, Davis was responsible for repair-parts maintenance for “the 278th Regiment out of Tennessee, and ultimately the entire division”.
“Did I want to go to Iraq and carry around a weapon in 143-degree heat? I would have picked a much better place to be in the sand,” says Davis. “I’m sure firefighters don’t want to run into the fire. But there is a certain amount of responsibility involved.”
One aspect of Iraqi life struck Davis particularly deeply. “The amount of history there is amazing. We have George Washington; they have Abraham. They know their history, they live their history, they don’t forget their history.”
“If people are protesting the war,” he starts, now referring to vocal opposition to the war here in the States, “why are they protesting it? If it’s about violent death, why not protest drunk driving?
“But if it’s about infringement on Iraqi freedom—protesters have no concept of what Iraqi freedom is now, in comparison to what it was under Saddam Hussein.”
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