Photo By Maj. William Carraway | Georgia Army National Guard Lt. Col. Davis Mitchum assumes command of the 1st...... read more read more
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The Georgia Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion 214th Field Artillery bid farewell to Lt. Col. Nathaniel Knight and welcomed Lt. Col. Davis Mitchum as its new commander during a ceremony at the unit’s headquarters in Elberton, Ga. Aug, 29, 2021.
“Today is another chapter in the long lineage of the Granite Battalion,” said Knight addressing the assembled Soldiers. “It is a celebration of what you have and will accomplish.”
Knight, who assumed command of the Granite Battalion in February 2019 recalled pivotal events over the course of his command tenure. He narrated battalion exercises and achievements from the Big Bow exercise at Fort Riley, Kansas under the Kansas National Guard’s 130th Field Artillery Brigade June 1-19, 2019 through civil support missions in 2020 and culminating with fire missions in Morocco in support of Exercise African Lion from June 7-18, 2021.
In his first remarks as commander of the 1-214th, Mitchum echoed the theme of history observing that he began his National Guard career nearly 20 years ago when he walked through the doors of the Elberton Armory Sept. 8, 2001.
“I look back over the past 20 years and I have loved every minute of it,” said Mitchum. “This is my battalion; I have always thought of it as my battalion, and I cannot tell you how happy I am to be back.”
The Granite Battalion’s history encompasses service in the American Civil War as well as overseas service in World War I in France and World War II in the European and Pacific Theater of Operations. Units of the 214th performed active-duty service during the Korean War and as part of Operation Noble Eagle in 2003. Units of the 1-214 also mobilized to Iraq and Afghanistan where the battalion was awarded the Meritorious Unit Citation.
| Date Taken: | 08.30.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 08.30.2021 12:57 |
| Story ID: | 404163 |
| Location: | ELBERTON, GEORGIA, US |
| Web Views: | 101 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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