Photo By Maj. Scott Kuhn | The command team of the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Col....... read more read more
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FORT HOOD, Texas – After nine months in nine different countries in the Middle East in support of Operation Spartan Shield, the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team “Greywolf,” 1st Cavalry Division handed over authority for the mission in Camp Buehring, Kuwait to the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team “Iron Brigade,” 1st Armored Division in a ceremony Nov. 19.
“I am extremely proud to have been able to lead the brigade on such a great mission,” said Greywolf commander Col. John K. Woodward.
The Greywolf Brigade served as the theater reserve, capable and ready to answer U.S. Central Command’s call to assume missions within the area of operations.
“We came here to Kuwait to train and prepare with our partners for the defense of this great country and honor the storied partnership of our two nations. We were able to deter our enemies with our strong partnership at the same time contributing to CENTCOM’s fight against ISIS.”
The execution of those missions sent Soldiers to such locations as Jordan, United Arab Emirates and Egypt for theater security cooperation exercises where they partnered and trained with regional allies. Additionally, mission requirements sent some Soldiers to Iraq in a train, advise and assist capacity.
“Greywolf Soldiers executed numerous theater security cooperation exercises to continue to assure our regional partners that we are committed to their stability and deter our enemies from any acts of aggression. They were able to do all this while conducting an aggressive gated training strategy to remain ready for the next fight,” Woodward said.
While Woodward and Command Sgt. Maj. Alfred Ronneburg, the Greywolf command sergeant major neatly rolled up and cased the colors signifying this end of the brigade’s mission, simultaneously the Iron Brigade command team, Col. Charles Lombardo and Command Sgt. Maj. Kevin Dagraca unfurled their unit colors signifying the assumption of the OSS mission.
“The Greywolf Brigade has shown it is an agile and adaptive force with innovative leaders with the character that thrives on the complexity of the mission at hand,” said Maj. Gen. Victor Braden, the 35th Infantry Division commanding general. “I ask that you take the lessons you learned here and apply them to your future tasks -- tasks that our nation asks you to do.”
With these parting words, the last of the more than 3,000 Greywolf Soldiers who embarked on this mission boarded a plane bound for Robert Gray Army Airfield.
Sometime after 9 p.m., families were seated under the reviewing stand on Cooper Field, and although there was a nip in the air, the place was abuzz with excitement as they awaited the return of their Soldiers.
At the behest of the DJ, the family members hollered, “Move that bus! Move that bus! Move that bus!” The bus pulled off, and as it disappeared around a corner, a formation of Greywolf staff marched forward with all the pageantry that has become expected of the First Team.
Woodward said he is proud of the Soldiers and their successful execution of a complex mission.
“Our success, to me, has come in two different ways,” he said. “One; we did a very stressful, realistic train-up to get here and when we got here performed flawlessly in support of OIR as well as made our partner nations stronger because of the training we provided them. But the second part that makes us so successful is that we are going to redeploy back to Fort Hood at a higher level of readiness, training-wise, and fleet readiness than we deployed with.”
With that, Woodward and Ronneburg uncased the brigade colors, signifying that all boots are on ground and the mission is complete.
| Date Taken: | 11.20.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 11.28.2017 16:18 |
| Story ID: | 256681 |
| Location: | FORT HOOD, TX, US |
| Web Views: | 625 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Boots on ground: Greywolf Troopers wrap up mission, return home to Fort Hood, by SFC Leah Kilpatrick, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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