The sword of responsibility has been passed, and the Vanguards of the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, have a new senior enlisted leader.
The transition was made to Command Sgt. Maj. Brendan P. McIntyre in a formal change of responsibility ceremony Thursday at Fort Stewart’s Marne Garden.
Sgt. Maj. Jerold Pyle, the light-infantry brigade’s operations sergeant major, passed a gold-handled sword in its scabbard to Command Sgt. Maj. Mark Barnes, who in turn passed it to Col. Kimo Gallahue, the 4th IBCT commander, symbolically relinquishing his responsibility for the brigade’s 3,900 enlisted soldiers.
Gallahue then passed the sword and responsibility as senior enlisted soldier for the brigade to McIntyre as the new brigade command sergeant major. McIntyre slightly pulled the sword from its scabbard, and then snapped it back in place to signify that he was accepting responsibility as the Vanguard Brigade’s new enlisted leader.
“(Barnes) has been the epitome of a senior (noncommissioned officer),” Gallahue said after the ceremony. “I could not have asked for a better man.”
Gallahue thanked Barnes’ wife Patty for her support for the brigade and her husband. He then welcomed McIntyre and said he was “the right man for the right time.”
In his farewell to his old unit, Barnes thanked his commander and the soldiers he led as well as Command Sgt. Maj. Edd Watson, 3rd ID command sergeant major, for “mentoring” him. Lastly, he thanked his wife for being willing to raise two boys as a single mom through multiple deployments with the Marne Division. Barnes said he was gone 40 percent of the time.
Read more in the May 9 edition of the News.