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This is Sparta!!

Photo By Staff Sgt. Richard Wrigley | Command Sgt. Maj. Stanley Varner, senior enlisted leader of the 2nd Armored Brigade...... read more read more

FORT STEWART, GA, UNITED STATES

11.27.2014

Story by Staff Sgt. Richard Wrigley

2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division Public Affairs

FORT STEWART, Ga. - “The bulldog begins to circle the armored brigade. Claws of black steel, fur as dark night. Eyes glowing red. Jewels from the pit of hell itself.

“The giant bulldog sniffing, savoring the scent of the meal to come.

“It's not fear that grips the brigade, only a heightened sense of things. The cold air in their lungs.

“Windswept Georgia pines moving against the coming night.

“The brigade is steady, their form, perfect.

(the Bulldog is defeated)

“And so the brigade, given up for dead, returns to their people, to sacred Fort Stewart, Victorious!”

A famous quote from a famous movie, “300” (only slightly repurposed), where a would-be Spartan king is left for dead at a young age in the wilderness, yet successfully dispatches a monstrous wolf and returns to his people as their king.

Parallels, to this boy and his unexpected success, and the Spartan Brigade and their unexpected triumph in last week’s 3rd ID Marne Week abound.

The boy had trained hard and fought hard, his whole life. So had the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, “Spartans”, through out their long 97-year history.

There was not much left to the boy when he was finally left in the wilds. No fat, just muscle and bone, and not much of either of those to go around.

Just as there was little to the boy, there was, and is little left to the Spartan Brigade. The Spartans are slated to inactivate in January and have shipped off the vast majority of their personnel. They are now left with only a skeleton crew of a little more than 300 people. A brigade is usually staffed with more than 4000 personnel.

The odds were stacked against the young boy. His enemy, a giant wolf, was a vicious monster, huge and seemingly unbeatable.

For the Spartan Brigade, arrayed against them were teams pulled from across the entire 3rd Infantry Division. Each of the three other brigades had a team for each event, and some battalions also had their own teams. Each opposing team was assumedly composed from the cream of the crop of a 4,000 person roster. The Spartan brigade just had their 300-plus.

Yet when the 3rd Infantry Division reformed on Cottrell Field on the fourth day, to recognize the individual teams that won and to recognize the overall winner, which had yet to be announced, it was the Spartan Brigade who was called out to step forward. It was the Soldiers of the Spartan Brigade who were the ones to lift the trophy high above their heads and yell with a resolute thunder their motto, “SEND ME”.