Photo By Markeith Horace | FORT BENNING, Ga. (July 24, 2018) – Col. Michael A. Scarpulla, incoming commander of...... read more read more
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FORT BENNING, Ga. (July 24, 2018) – The Airborne and Ranger Training Brigade held a change of command July 24 at Victory Pond at Fort Benning, Georgia.
The ARTB welcomed Col. Michael A. Scarpulla to command and bid farewell to Col. Douglas G. Vincent during the ceremony.
Maj. Gen. Gary M. Brito, commanding general of the Maneuver Center of Excellence and Fort Benning, presided over the ceremony and said the ARTB was a “storied, magnificent unit” during his remarks.
“As many of us know, this is a non-stop mission,” said Brito. “On any given day, there’s some type of training going on here at Fort Benning, at the Dahlonega or at the Florida ranger camps – rangers, airborne students, jumpmasters, pathfinders conducting some type of POI training to sharpen their skills and contributing to the lethality of the force.”
The ARTB provides transformational training through the Ranger, Airborne, Jumpmaster, and Pathfinder courses that increases the Army’s technical competency, tactical skill and leadership ability.
Scarpulla enlisted as an infantryman at Fort Benning in 1985, and he served in Infantry leadership positions before commissioning as a second lieutenant in 1996. After the Captain’s Career Course and the Command and Staff Service School, he was assigned to the Ranger Training Brigade as the brigade assistant operations officer. Since then he has also served as the battalion executive officer for the 4th Ranger Training Battalion and the commander of the 5th Ranger Training Battalion. He has deployed to Iraq and to Afghanistan.
More recently Scarpulla served as the division deputy chief of staff for the 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, and chief of training for U.S. Army Pacific at Fort Shafter, Hawaii, before attending the U.S. Naval War College at Newport, Rhode Island.
“I am convinced we will continue to accomplish every mission assigned to the brigade through teamwork, discipline and confidence,” said Scarpulla. “I look forward to working with each and every one of you and to continue the great traditions of this brigade.”
“I’ve known Mike for many years, and I am 100 percent confident that he will be a great leader, a great team builder, and a great teammate for all of MCoE,” said Brito of Scarpulla. “Soldiers of the ARTB and all of Fort Benning, you and we are in great hands.”
Vincent had been commander of the ARTB since July 2016. Brito enumerated the accomplishments of Vincent during his two-year tenure at the ARTB. Under Vincent’s command, the brigade trained and graduated more than 24,000 paratroopers, 2,800 rangers, 1,200 jumpmasters and 1,200 pathfinders. Brito commended Vincent’s “superb leadership and direction” in accomplishing this task.
“Doug, in all your successes and all those of the brigade, I appreciated your humbleness and the personal interest that you took in developing your leaders, caring for Soldiers, and managing and sometimes developing systems that were important to the MCoE and important to the United States Army,” said Brito. “You embraced your mission and made every aspect of it better.”
“In the more than 27 years I’ve served in the U.S. Army, the best organizations I have been a part of have been ranger and airborne units,” said Vincent. “To play a part in the creation of those very same specially selected and well trained Soldiers – those elite troopers – has been the greatest experience of my life. I know beyond any doubt that this is the most rewarding, impactful and fun job for any colonel anywhere in the world, and it just doesn’t get any better than this.”
Vincent is not set to leave the Maneuver Center of Excellence family behind. His next assignment is as the chief of staff for the MCoE at Fort Benning, Georgia.
| Date Taken: | 07.24.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 07.24.2018 15:56 |
| Story ID: | 285550 |
| Location: | FORT BENNING, GEORGIA, US |
| Web Views: | 332 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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