The Indiana National Guard’s 219th Battlefield Surveillance Brigade officially became the 219th Engineer Brigade during an activation ceremony on October 14, 2017, at the Marriott East in Indianapolis. The element’s former colors were cased and a new guidon, the traditional symbol of a military unit’s pride and heritage, was raised for the first time.
Every Army element from a division down to a company has its own guidon. Colorful streamers attached to the top of the staff represent the unit’s achievements and history and pass from the old guidon to the new.
In the National Guard, unlike the active military side of the Army, the streamers follow the Soldiers and the community, said Brig. Gen. David N. Vesper, the commanding general of 81st Troop Command, who officiated the transition ceremony. “Commanders and Soldiers will come and go, but the guidon, the colors, will remain.”
That sense of honor and esprit de corps remains unchanged even though the brigade’s mission set has evolved from surveillance to that of engineers. A lot of training and planning had to be done to convert the units of the 219th to enable it to provide ready forces that support a combatant command and perform defense support to civil authorities for homeland security and natural disasters.
“I will ensure this brigade is ready to go where ever it is called to go,” said Col. Roger Dale Lyles, commander of the 219th Engineer Brigade.
Readiness is the Army’s No. 1 priority, and the National Guard supports that priority by providing premier force capabilities in order to defend, protect and secure our communities, state and nation.
Army Guard Engineer readiness is increasingly more relevant today than at any other time in history due to reductions in the active Army’s capacity and modernization and an increasing dependency on reserve units to assist first responders during natural disasters in the homeland. Other risks to the homeland and to international security are also growing due to increasingly capable adversaries.
| Date Taken: | 10.15.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 10.17.2017 13:29 |
| Story ID: | 251995 |
| Location: | INDIANAPOLIS, IN, US |
| Web Views: | 837 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Indiana National Guard Activates 219th Engineer Brigade, by Marshall Howell and SGT John Wolfe, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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