Photo By Master Sgt. Doug Roles | Maj. Gen. Michael Wegscheider, right, incoming 28th Infantry Division commander, is...... read more read more
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The 28th Infantry Division welcomed a new commanding general while bidding farewell to its outgoing commander during a ceremony held at Fort Indiantown Gap, Pa. on March 9, 2024. Maj. Gen. Michael Wegscheider, previously the unit’s deputy commanding general – maneuver, officially assumed command on March 1 as the Iron Division’s 40th commander. The change of command ceremony marked the transition with the time-honored passing of the colors in front of a formation of division soldiers.
Maj. Gen. Mark McCormack, the outgoing commander, received the division colors from the division's senior noncommissioned officer, Command Sgt. Maj. Joshua Porter, and passed them to Pennsylvania National Guard Adjutant General Maj. Gen. Mark Schindler, who then passed the flag to Wegscheider. Wegscheider's passing of the colors back to Porter, completed the ceremony.
Porter took over as the division command sergeant major, from Command Sgt. Maj. Randall Pritts, during a similar change of responsibility ceremony prior to the change of command event.
“Both of these men are great soldiers, great patriots and great leaders in the 28th Infantry Division, Pa. National Guard,” Schindler said of the outgoing and incoming commanders. “Maj. Gen. McCormack has commanded this division in an outstanding manner.”
Schindler said he knows Wegscheider is up to the challenge of leading the division and he thanked the families of both leaders for their support. Schindler commended McCormack for building unit readiness and for leading the division’s Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion on its 2022-23 deployment to Kuwait as the headquarters element of Task Force Spartan. McCormack served as a deputy commander when the division had the Spartan mission in 2018.
“Your leadership ensured the 28th Infantry Division was always ready and always there whenever our nation or commonwealth called,” Schindler said. “To the soldiers of the Keystone division, thank you. You represent the best of America.”
McCormack’s operational deployments also include Operation Joint Endeavor/Joint Guard, in the former Yugoslavia, in 1997, and Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2007-08, when he served as the deputy commander for the 213th Area Support Group.
McCormack told the families, friends and former commanders gathered for the ceremony that he wished to express his “profound gratitude at for being allowed to command the 28th Infantry Division over the past three and half years.”
McCormack noted that during his tenure the division had an extensive list of requirements, including a Warfighter exercise, a National Training Center rotation, deployments for civil disturbance and COVID response.
“I want to thank the soldiers of the Iron Division. I have had the absolute honor of representing all of you,” McCormack said. “I want to remind everyone that we have more than 1,000 Iron soldiers deployed to the Horn of Africa and nearly 1,000 more ready to deploy in the coming months. I ask that you keep them in your thoughts ,and I wish them mission success and a safe return home.”
Wegscheider’s previous assignments commanding the division’s 56th Stryker Brigade Combat Team as well as the brigade’s 1st Battalion, 111th Infantry Regiment. He has been deployed to Kosovo, Iraq and Kuwait.
“I have the honor of accepting command of arguably, the oldest, and one of the most decorated divisions in America today,” Wegscheider said.
Wegscheider thanked McCormack and Pritts for their service to the division and said they have “left the division in a great place.” He said the division will continue to modernize and focus on increasing readiness and lethality while supporting units deploying overseas.
| Date Taken: | 03.09.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 03.10.2024 07:53 |
| Story ID: | 465838 |
| Location: | HARRISBURG, PA, US |
| Hometown: | HARRISBURG, PA, US |
| Web Views: | 797 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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