FORT JACKSON, S.C. –
Lt. Col. Karl Painter and Command Sgt. Maj. Johnathan Bentley transferred the authority of Task Force Marshall to Lt. Col. Travis Quesenberry and Command Sgt. Maj. Thomas K. Watts in a ceremony Oct. 30 at Camp McCrady in Eastover, S.C.
Task Force Marshall, which falls under the Army Training Center’s Leader Training Brigade, is in charge of training all Navy individual augmentees prior to deployment to the Middle East.
Col. Fernando Guadalupe, LTB commander, thanked the outgoing TFM leadership team for their “sacrifices.”
“I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart” for what you do for Fort Jackson and the country every single day “through old-fashioned hard work,” he said.
The ceremony is different than most conducted on Fort Jackson because TFM is a battalion-sized training force comprised of U.S. Army Reserve Soldiers who have been mobilized for a year. Each year personnel conduct reliefs-in-place similar to active duty units when deploying to a combat zone.
The 108th Training Command, based in Charlotte, provides TFM with the reserve drill sergeants that make up its ranks.
In the words of the outgoing senior enlisted leader, Command Sgt. Maj. Johnathan Bentley, the Soldiers are “consummate professionals.”
To signify the transfer of authority, the unit colors were passed from the outgoing leadership team to Guadalupe who handed the colors to Quesenberry before Watts took charge of them as part of his duties as the senior enlisted leader.
Painter, who will be heading back to his job as a vice president for a major bank, will have fond memories of his time leading the task force.
It was his “honor” lead the “best NCOs and drill sergeants” as they trained Service members for overseas deployment.
Painter and Bentley made the incoming leadership team’s jobs easier because of the hard work they put in, Quesenberry said.
“I have an easy job,” said Quesenberry, who was mobilized from his job as a sales engineer for a commercial heating and air manufacturer, “but I have a hard path to follow” in trying to live up to the outgoing commander’s successes.