Photo By Kimberly Hackbarth | Col. Brian Gibson, the 69th Air Defense Artillery Brigade commander (right), passes a...... read more read more
FORT HOOD, Texas – After serving 31 months as 69th Air Defense Artillery Brigade’s senior enlisted adviser, Command Sgt. Maj. William Maddox relinquished responsibility of the brigade to Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Brown during a Change of Responsibility Ceremony April 30, here.
Brown, who most recently served as the command sergeant major of 2nd Battalion, 44th ADA Regiment at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, said leader development will be one of his biggest priorities during his time as brigade command sergeant major.
“Leader development is what the Army needs right now,” Brown said. “Leaders, no matter what level or position you are, learning is life-long.”
One of the ways he hopes to continue to develop leaders, boost healthy competition, and instill pride in the unit, is by continuing Lightning Warrior Week, the brigade’s quarterly Soldier competition that Maddox began when he first came to the brigade in October 2012.
“That’s what develops Soldiers: the pride in what they do, how they carry themselves, (and) the things that they accomplish,” Brown explained.
Maddox said he hopes he is giving Brown Soldiers who have a sense of teamwork and family and who understand that they have an important mission to do.
“Hopefully I’ve left some little nuggets of mentorship, particularly to the junior (noncommissioned officers), to take care of your Soldiers, take care of their families, and accomplish the mission,” Maddox said.
Another aspect that Brown said he wants to focus on is teamwork.
“You can’t do anything without teamwork and family,” he said. “Being a member of the team is more important than anything in the Army today.”
Always having one battalion deployed, one battalion in training, and one battalion in reset, is the high operations tempo (optempo) that Maddox is passing over to Brown.
Both Brown and Maddox have backgrounds as Avenger crew members, which is a different weapon system than the Patriot missile defense system used in 69th ADA Bde.
Brown said being in charge of a Patriot unit will make him a better leader.
“It will definitely be a challenge that I’m looking forward to,” he said. “It will also improve me as far as diversity.”
Brown says he plans to spend as much time as possible with the Soldiers in the brigade to gain more knowledge on Patriot operations and ensure that lines of communication are constantly open.
“I think the main thing is communications for the Soldiers and letting them know the reasoning behind where we’re at as a branch and as an Army today with all the constant deployments,” he said.
As Maddox departs the brigade, he said he is confident in Brown and his leadership abilities.
“I think (Brown) is going to do a great job,” Maddox said. “I feel like the brigade will be in good hands.”
| Date Taken: | 04.30.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 05.05.2015 10:47 |
| Story ID: | 162258 |
| Location: | FORT HOOD, TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 283 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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