Growing in Size, Growing in Mission

“I was young and buoyant in spirit, my men were mounted and all eager for a chase as well as a fray.” - John Bell Hood

Everywhere around us things are rapidly shutting down. Even the President has given the official announcement to the American people. We will be out of Iraq by the end of 2011. It would seem to most that an announcement like that would mean we could just start celebrating and simply roll south. It isn't that simple. Logistics operations are the key to any successful military campaign. History is wrought with the destruction of former empires who reached for more than they could handle. Napoleon's Grand Armee withered and starved deep in the winter wilderness of Russia, a premier fighting force rendered helpless without the ability to supply itself. Hitler's grand ambitions met a simliar fate 140 years later. But this has never been true of our Nation's military. Logistics are our unsung hallmark. The reason we are the most powerful military the world has ever known is not because of our sleek weapons. It's because the United States can project and support its military power anywhere around the globe for extended periods. The Iraq War has been a case in point. Now that the war is coming to a close it is accompanied by a retrograde of forces that is the largest of its type since the end of World War II. The heroes of this phase of the war are the logisticians who are working day and night to see men and material safely home. To that end, my Battalion tirelessly works day and night.

As we have continually moved our HQ south we've stayed in the fight. Our original home, COB Speicher, is now closed. So are all the other bases in the north we used to support. But as we've moved south we continue to grow in size and responsibility. Soon after we landed at COB Adder we held a TOA ceremony with another battalion whose time was up. Our Colors did not come to the ceremony cased because we are already hard at work and heavily engaged. We came to the ceremony with one baton already in our hands and then took another in the other hand. In the span of a thirty minute ceremony we became the largest battalion of our type in the history of the Iraq War. Not only that, we were entrusted with the honor of being the Combat Sustainment Support Battalion that will close out the logistical phase of this war. We will be the last unit of our type in the country as we sprint to the finish line. We were entrusted with this responsibility because of our proven track record of accomplishments. We are the Gypsy Battalion that can do it all. And now that is true like no other time during our deployment. Transporters, Quartermasters, Mechanics, Ordnance Personnel, and various other Soldiers of the logistical world all now call our Battalion home. Our Battalion is a true representation of the Total Army Concept that is comprised of Soldiers from the Active Army, Army Reserve, and Army National Guard. We are history in the making and we have entered the phase that will be in the textbooks for years to come. What we've already accomplished is phenomenal but it pales in comparison to what we will do in the next sixty days. When we leave there will be nobody left but the Iraqis and their country. I haven't decided if I'll leave the lights on or not. Probably not.