Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Leah Kilpatrick | The soldiers of the 4th Brigade Combat Team conduct pass and review during the...... read more read more
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FORT HOOD, Texas — A quick walk around the trailers located at Battalion Avenue and 31st Street on Fort Hood will reveal the remnants of a brigade, where once the very same area flourished with the hustle and bustle of training troops.
It’s a sight reminiscent of eight years ago when the whole brigade occupied one office with one desk and one laptop in the welcome center at Fort Bliss, Texas.
“We went from not having a UIC [Unit Identification Code] for funding, no money,” said 1st Sgt. Fernando Fernandez, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 4th Brigade Combat Team (Provisional), 1st Cavalry Division first sergeant. “We had to borrow everything from toilet paper to paper towels to everything to weapons. We had to borrow weapons from the ADA unit just to get our soldiers qualified. Then we had to pass them from company to company and battalion to battalion just to get everybody qualified.”
Now, after having procured office space, equipment, and personnel; deployed four times; and moved the unit from Fort Bliss to Fort Hood, the 4th Brigade Combat Team has cased its colors, and most of its soldiers have dispersed to the four winds.
Some of the soldiers have been welcomed into the formations of the other 1st Cavalry Division brigade combat teams. Some have moved on to other duty stations, and some are still hanging around the 4th BCT (Provisional) awaiting orders from their branches.
Regardless of where the 4th BCT’s soldiers have ended up, they all have memories and sentiments of the brigade.
“Since the formal announcement of brigade to deactivate came last summer, I’ve been asked numerous times how I felt, if I was disappointed,” said Col. William Benson, the brigade’s commander. “People have said they were sorry for the organization or for its soldiers and leaders, but I don’t share this sense of disappointment.”
For Fernandez, who has been with the 4th BCT for six of the unit’s eight years in existence, it is indeed bittersweet to see his unit go away.
“It’s mixed feelings,” said Fernandez, a native of Alamo, Texas. “I mean I’ve been with the brigade for so long that I hate to see the brigade go away just because all my combat experience has been with the brigade. But at the same time knowing that the war’s coming to a close, and there’s no longer a need for the additional brigades, that’s a good feeling as well. So it’s kind of bittersweet.”
“The need for the brigade is no longer, so this should not be a cause for disappointment,” Benson said. “The brigade accomplished its assigned mission. The efforts of this brigade helped provide the people of Iraq and Afghanistan an opportunity for a different future, a better future.”
On the other hand, Spc. Manuel Montejano, a field artillery automated tactical data systems specialist from Battery A, 5th Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, 4th BCT, is looking forward to going to a different unit.
Montejano, who has been on all four of the unit’s deployments, said he is looking forward to experiencing new opportunities. But he will miss the people and the camaraderie the most.
“We were like a family,” Montejano said. “We got along so good.”
Both Montejano and Fernandez were present at the activation ceremony when the unit first stood up and at the inactivation ceremony Oct. 17 at Cooper Field here.
“It’s an experience that I learned in my career to stand up a unit from scratch and to tear it down,” said Fernandez, “so I’ve seen both aspects of it, all in the same brigade. It’s kind of a unique experience.”
The soldiers of the brigade seem to all agree that the thing they will miss the most is the people.
“So while unit histories and affiliations are important they are not the most important they do not represent what the Army is ultimately about,” said Benson. “What really makes the Army run is its people.”
“That’s what I’ll miss,” said Lt. Col. Monte Rone, 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team commander. ”We’ve always had great people, had a good team across the board. Officers, NCOs and troopers, we just had good people. I think you had to have good people to do what the brigade was able to do. You had to have good people in place. That’s people who are very competent in their job but, more importantly, just good-hearted people.”
So after eight years and four combat deployments, the soldiers and leaders of the 4th Brigade Combat Team move on to other units across Fort Hood and across the Army, but they take the spirit of the LongKnife Brigade with them.
“So even as the brigade goes away, the people endure,” said Benson. “The soldiers endure. The leaders endure. The excellence endures. And the Army becomes a better institution. And though we may case our colors, we do not erase all that these brigade soldiers and leaders have accomplished in the past or will accomplish in the future. And this gives me hope and comfort that although we deactivate this brigade the Army and its soldiers continue to get stronger and that is only possible because of its people.”
| Date Taken: | 10.17.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 10.25.2013 12:36 |
| Story ID: | 115732 |
| Location: | FORT HOOD, TEXAS, US |
| Hometown: | ALAMO, TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 63 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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