By SGT. JOHN ZUMER
3/1 Brigade Combat Team, PAO
Blue skies, music, delightful weather, and hundreds of
Soldiers represent an ideal recipe for military events
staged for spectators and participants.
Those ingredients were in abundance Friday, and they
made for a fitting change of command ceremony as the
3rd Brigade Combat Team,
1st Infantry Division, based at Fort Knox, welcomed a
new battalion commander.
Lt. Col. Jesse Pearson assumed command of the 1st Battalion,
26th Infantry Regiment, also known as the “Blue Spaders,”
from Lt. Col. Brock Jones at a Fort Knox ceremony on
Brooks Field.
The significance of it all wasn’t lost on Col. Chris
Toner, the 3/1 commander, who made welcoming comments
and thanked Lt. Col. Jones for his strong leadership
of the 1-26. More importantly, he noted what Lt. Col.
Jones left behind, especially with a Duke Brigade deployment
to Afghanistan looming.
The “Blue Spaders will aggressively take the fight to
the enemy,” said Col. Toner, adding that Lt. Col. Jones,
along with the help of his company commanders and junior
leaders, played pivotal roles over the last year. They
helped to stand-up the battalion during the transition
from Fort Hood, Texas, to Fort Knox, and have led the
charge with 12 months of detailed and intense training,
Col. Toner said.
Such training included marksmanship, situational training
exercises, cultural training to prepare for an Afghanistan
deployment, family readiness group activities, and the
fielding of large amounts of equipment.
Much of the success that 1-26 recently enjoyed at the
National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., was also
attributable to the passion, leadership, and professionalism
of Lt. Col. Jones, said Col. Toner.
“I’m so very proud of you and what you represent,” he
said.
Lt. Col. Jones, who is heading to the Pentagon to work
in the counter-terrorism office, was appreciative, but
quick to assign credit elsewhere.
The Blue Spaders represented “The epitome of professional
Soldiers and warriors,” he said, noting that much of
his success was due to the support of family members
who helped keep the morale of their Soldiers up. Lt.
Col. Jones also thanked the Blue Spader Association,
a veterans group of former 1-26 Soldiers, for their legacy
that served as inspiration to his men.
Lt. Col. Pearson’s last assignment prior to assuming
command of 1-26 was at the Joint Readiness Training Center
at Fort Polk, La., where he served as the Brigade S-3
observer controller on the Brigade C2 Team. He received
his commission in 1993 after graduating with a bachelor
of science degree in biochemistry from Carnegie Mellon
University in Pittsburgh.
While Lt. Col. Pearson is mindful of the storied 1-26
history, the future is of paramount importance in more
ways than one, he said.
“I look forward to our service together,” he said to
his new Blue Spader Soldiers, but the message was equally
appropriate for a special guest in the audience.
Lt. Col. Pearson remarked to his fiancé, Reenia Worthan,
“Thanks for sharing the adventure and your life with
me.”
After the ceremony, he said “It’s the greatest honor
of my life to have been selected to command these amazing
Soldiers,” noting that the battalion he inherits is fully
trained to accomplish any mission on its upcoming deployment
to Afghanistan.
“We just feel blessed to be here today,” he added.
The importance of the occasion wasn’t lost on retired
Lt. Gen. John Brown III either, who serves as the honorary
colonel of the regiment. He journeyed from his northern
Virginia home to attend the ceremony. He credited his
service in the 1-26 at the beginning of his 39-year military
career for much of the success that followed.
“If you can’t get excited about the men standing out
there on the field, you need your blood pressure tested,”
he said. |
