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With the symbolic passing of the unit's colors Sunday, Orem resident Lt. Col. Alan Garrett took command of the Utah Army National Guard's 141st Military Intelligence Battalion, also headquartered in Orem.
Garrett, who got his start in the Utah Guard as a French linguist in 1985, took over command from Lt. Col Gregory Hadfield, who had served as the commander of the 141st for the past two years. Garrett's current job had been as a full-time administrative officer with the Utah Guard's 300th Military Intelligence Brigade.
"It's a great day to be in the Army and a great day to be in military intelligence," he said during the change of command ceremony at the Orem armory attended by Utah Guardsmen and their families. "Much of my roots are in military intelligence and I'm glad to be back."
Garrett thanked the 350 soldiers in his new command assigned to units in Orem, Camp Williams, Logan and St. George, for not only being present at Sunday's ceremony, but for their daily service.
"Each of you has a choice to serve your country ... the fact that you have chosen to be in the military at this time says volumes," he said.
Garrett said he looked forward to being a mentor to junior officers in the 141st and providing continual support to the family members of deployed soldiers. Roughly one-third of the 141st is currently deployed or has been deployed overseas during the past two years, he said. Another of his responsibilities, will be overseeing the unit's structural change from four human intelligence companies to two human intelligence and two signals intelligences companies.
During Hadfield's command, he and many in 141st were deployed to Iraq between 2006 and 2007 with a mission to provide intelligence support to the Joint Interrogation and Debriefing Center in Baghdad. They returned to Utah in October of 2007.
Garrett also served in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom between 2003-2004 as a theater linguist operations officer at the Coalition Forces Land Component Command. He said the 141st isn't expecting any large-scale deployments over the next year.
Brig. Gen. Jefferson Burton of the Utah Army National Guard thanked both men for their leadership and willingness to serve. He told members of the unit that their role in providing linguistics support on behalf of Army military intelligence in recent deployments was critical.
"What you do saves lives and it takes great commitment," he said.
Lt. Col. Garrett and his wife have four children and two grandchildren. |
