MESA, Ariz. – Soldiers in the Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 653rd Regional Support Group, bid farewell to their families, friends, loved ones and employers during a mobilization ceremony on March 19, 2019, at the Arizona State University Polytechnic Campus.
Mesa Mayor John Giles, as well as several other community leaders from the surrounding areas attended the farewell ceremony to show support to the Soldiers. Once on station, the 653rd RSG will assume the mission as the Fort Bliss Mobilization Brigade, which serves more than 60,000 Soldiers annually deploying and redeploying in support of operations all over the world. Fort Bliss serves as the largest mobilization platform for deploying and redeploying Army Reserve and National Guard Soldiers and units.
“We get to be a part of that enterprise making sure that there’s ready, equipped and trained units to deploy,” said Col. Chandra M. Roberts, 653rd RSG commander. “Now we get to be the tip of the spear.”
Roberts’s husband, Lt. Col. Dan Roberts, has some familiarity with the mission she’s scheduled to assume at Fort Bliss. He currently works as the Senior Active Advisor to the Adjutant General for Arizona and Utah. In that capacity, he advises and assists the very same Army Reserve and National Guard units that Chandra will be mobilizing on training, readiness and operations.
“They are going to do a mission that is unlike any other,” Dan said. “I know the mission well because I’m a user of it. I push units through Bliss all the time, so I think it’s incredibly valuable what these Soldiers will be doing.”
Brig. Gen. Dianne Del Rosso, commander of the 311th Expeditionary Support Command commander, the 653rd RSG’s higher command, expressed her confidence in the unit, in Chandra, and the mission.
“Your mission is going to be vital to our nation’s interest in making sure that those soldiers get out the door fast, get out the door without delay,” said Del Rosso. “And, you play a very important part to that readiness effort.”
The Soldiers of the 653rd RSG will be the last faces these Soldiers see as they leave the country and the first faces they see when those same Soldiers return.
| Date Taken: | 03.19.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 04.05.2019 14:28 |
| Story ID: | 317125 |
| Location: | MESA, AZ, US |
| Hometown: | MESA, AZ, US |
| Web Views: | 167 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, 653rd Regional Support Group Mobilization Ceremony, by CPT Joselyn Sydnor, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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