Photo By Master Sgt. Vannessa Josey | Lt. Col. Christopher T. Kuhn stands with his family for a photo after the change of...... read more read more
CAMP SHELBY, Miss. – Soldiers of 3-315th Engineer Regiment Battalion bade farewell to their outgoing going commander Lt. Col. Andrew Brickson and welcomed Lt. Col. Christopher T. Kuhn to the 158th Infantry Brigade family during a recent battalion change of command ceremony here.
“This has been the most humbling experience leading these soldiers,” said Brickson. “It was also a great opportunity. I learned a lot. I’m a much better man, soldier, father, leader than I was at the beginning based on this experience. I attribute that to a lot of patience and a lot of understanding from the senior noncommissioned officers and officers.”
Brickson also credited his success as a commander to teamwork and to support and mentorship he received from Command Sgt. Maj. Elmo Leichenauer.
“He was sent for a reason: to be my battle buddy, to teach and mentor me. He is one of the finest individuals I have met. This battalion is a success because of him being my teammate,” said Brickson.
Brickson, a native of San Antonio, Texas, leaves Mississippi for an assignment with NATO Training Mission – Afghanistan as a deputy commander with the Army Corps of Engineers.
“It’s the first time in my career I will be with the Corp of Engineers. I’ve always been a combat engineer, training or blowing things up,” Brickson said. “As we start to retrograde and withdraw forces and equipment out, we still have to continue building. We also have to complete a lot of the projects that are in theater. As an engineer, I’m going to actually do engineer work, building things.”
Knowing his family will be taken care allows Brickson to look forward to this deployment. “Camp Shelby is great, because it’s a family,” Brickson said. “The 158th is family. And whenever you can go downrange and not worry as much about your rear echelons, your family, it’s good. It’s what is needed so I can focus on being downrange. I know that is going to happen.”
When Brickson took command of the 3-315th, he said he set goals to ensure not only his battalion’s success but also that of the units they trained.
“I set three clear goals,” Brickson said. “One was to move the battalion from Joint Base McGuire Dix Lakehurst, N.J., and prepare to train. We had to build from scratch. Two was to redefine our mission here and become proficient and effective in training deploying soldiers. The third goal was to build the battalion in a sense of teamwork, camaraderie and cohesiveness.”
These goals were the basis of the battalion and now have set a sound foundation for the incoming commander to build.
“We can say we sent 10,000 soldiers through this last year,” said Brickson. “Or, whatever the number turned out to be. However, the reality is we should be tracking and saying this is how many soldiers we trained that came back. That’s our success.”
Kuhn agreed. “The goal for my battalion is to improve the training for the units that go through here. We have very critical tasks, both counter IED related and some MP tasks as well as Army warrior tasks. I want to make sure that training is relevant, realistic, tough, and will help prepare these soldiers for deployment.”
Kuhn’s previous missions at the National Training Center and a recent deployment had the same type of mission he now has as the 3-315th commander.
“I brought a lot of that experience and a lot of those products from my previous assignments. I’m going to integrate some of those tactical and technical procedures here to improve the training,” said Kuhn.
“My goal is to build a very cohesive and tight unit,” said Kuhn. “I’m sure working together as a team we’ll be successful.”
| Date Taken: | 07.26.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 07.31.2012 10:34 |
| Story ID: | 92433 |
| Location: | CAMP SHELBY, MS, US |
| Web Views: | 338 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
This work, 315th Rgt. Bn. changes command, continues success, by MSG Vannessa Josey, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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