FT Carson Visit

I had an oppor­tu­nity to visit Fort Carson, Colorado last week where I spent time with Soldiers of HHC, 4^th STB, 4^th BCT includ­ing a meet­ing with AskTOP Subject Matter Expert SFC Mackie Ocampo. I also vis­ited the 60^th Ordnance Company.

I served as pla­toon sergeant and later first sergeant at the 60^th while we were sta­tioned in Friedberg Germany oper­at­ing the sec­ond largest ammu­ni­tion stor­age site out­side the United States. I left the 60^th Ordnance Company in October of 1995 as 1SG. At that time, the Soldiers and Leaders of the unit pre­sented me with a unit guidon. I hung the guidon proudly in all of my offices through­out the remain­der of my career.

Mark presents a guidon to 60^th ORD com­mand team

Space for my I Love Me Wall has dwin­dled since I retired. The 60^th has always held a spe­cial place in my heart. It didn’t feel right to pack the guidon away in a box, so I decided to give it back to the unit for cer­e­mo­nial use.

When I walked into the unit, I saw the unit motto “Wolf Pack” on the wall. That brought back mem­o­ries… I encour­aged the unit to choose a motto as none existed at the time within the 60^th and over­whelm­ingly they chose “Wolf Pack”. Funny how tra­di­tion car­ries on.

I spent some time with a group of Soldiers at the 60^th. This gave me an oppor­tu­nity to inter­act with a great group of Soldiers and lead­ers. As I stared into their faces I saw the next group of lead­ers that will lead the mil­i­tary of the future. Who knows, they may very well be some of the next great American civil­ian, polit­i­cal, and busi­ness leaders. After all, the mil­i­tary grows the best lead­ers this nation has to offer as they are tested morally and phys­i­cally. They must have the intesti­nal for­ti­tude to do what is right no mat­ter how tough things get. More impor­tantly we grow lead­ers that we will entrust with our country’s most pre­cious resource–the sons and daugh­ters of this great nation. They will be the ones to lead, grow, and men­tor our chil­dren as they tackle our nation’s future strate­gic and tac­ti­cal chal­lenges across the globe.

I would like to give a spe­cial thanks to 1SG Seip and CPT Parris of the 60^th Ordnance Company for allow­ing me the oppor­tu­nity to spend some time with their Soldiers. Also, a spe­cial thanks to the lead­ers of the 4^th STB, LTC Craft and CSM O’neal as well as SFC Mackie Ocampo and SFC Holland for their pro­fes­sion­al­ism and kindness.