Stone Group Architects (SGA) is PROUD to honor our Veterans each and every day through our work and in our lives every day. We are grateful to work alongside two Veterans at SGA, Todd Stone and James Linn. Read their stories below and honor a Veteran today and everyday. To all Veterans...thank you for your service!
Todd Stone, Retired Master Sergeant
Todd Stone’s military career started in 1990 serving as a combat engineer in Korea with the 2nd Infantry Division and 2nd Engineer Battalion (Mechanized Engineer), Charlie Company. He was then at Fort Campbell, Kentucky with the 101st Airborne Division and 326th Engineer Battalion, Alpha Company. (Light Engineer)
In 1993, he joined the SD Guard with the 153rd Engineer Battalion and in 1995 transferred to the ND Guard in Jamestown. He started teaching in 1997 at the North Dakota Regional Training Institute (NDRTI) at Camp Grafton, Devils Lake, ND during the summer months or other times when needed in the CET and Combat Engineer Lanes. He was an Architecture Student at NDSU from 1995 until 2002 as well as the ND guard.
He moved to Brandon, SD in 2002 and joined the 104th US Army Reserve Training Battalion that supported the NDRTI. He traveled to Germany twice and had missions to North Dakota, Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Mississippi, Louisiana, California, Missouri and other instillations in direct support of the Army Guard and Army Reserves and instructed, Auto-CAD, Surveying and Soils, CET and Combat Engineering, electrical, plumbing and vertical construction classes during this time.
His unit was mobilized to NDRTI in 2004 until 2005 for OIF (Operation Iraqi Freedom). They trained Units of Soldiers who were being cross trained in certain vertical and horizontal construction MOS’s before being shipped back to their units and over to Iraq.
For two years he was Operations NCOIC before becoming operations officer of our training battalion. Going back as an enlisted soldier he made the rank of Master Sergeant at the Reserve Mobilization Training Unit in Sioux Falls.
He was mobilized to Ft. Bliss in 2011 and trained entire units of Army, Air Force, Marines, Navy and Coast Guard units before they were deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Horn of Africa and elsewhere.
In 2012, he started his own Architecture Firm and a year later retired from the military after 23 years. In 2018 he merged with M+Architects in Sioux City, IA and started an office in Wayzata, MN, in 2020 Stone Group Acquired Image Group Architects in Moorhead, MN and is now a combined firm of four offices in Sioux Falls (corporate), Sioux City, Moorhead and Wayzata, Minnesota.
Colonel James Linn
James Linn enlisted in the South Dakota Army National Guard in 1988. Four years later, he was accepted into Officer Candidate School at the South Dakota Military Academy. He graduated with SDMA OCS Class 37 and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in 1993. He held numerous positions in the 147th Field Artillery as Forward Observer, Communications Platoon Leader, Battalion Ammunition Officer, Battery Executive Officer, Battery Operations Officer, Charlie Battery Commander, and Battalion Operations Officer for 2nd BN, 147th FA as well as the Battalion S3, Battalion Executive Officer, and ultimately Battalion Commander of 1st BN, 147th FA.
He has served in JFHQ as the Command Maintenance Evaluation Team Chief, Mobilization Planner/ARFORGEN Manager, Joint Staff Executive Officer, Pre-Mobilization Training Assistance Element (PTAE) Commander, and Deputy G3. He has been assigned as the Fire Support Coordinator for 196th MEB on two separate occasions and recently had the honor and privilege to serve as Deputy Commanding Officer of the MEB for the last 2 ½ years. Colonel Linn was recently selected to serve as the G4 for the SDARNG providing and overseeing integrated logistics policies, programs, and plans in support of readiness.
Colonel Linn’s deployment experiences consist of a Mobilization to Fort Campbell, Kentucky with 1st Battalion, 181st Field Artillery as the Alpha Battery Commander in 2003, Operation Iraqi Freedom as Battalion Operations Officer for 2nd Battalion, 147th Field Artillery from 2003 to 2005, Operation Iraqi Freedom as the Battalion Executive Officer for 1st Battalion, 147th Field Artillery from 2009 to 2010, and Operation Enduring Freedom as the Deputy Commanding Officer/Deputy Chief of Staff with the 196th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade in Djibouti, Africa from 2020-2021. Jim started at SGA last month as Chief Operating Officer.
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