This post comes from Bro. Occasio L. Gee, Eastern Regional Webmaster. His line brother Cpt. Ashley Peppers (Spring 1998, Omicron Iota Chapter, Old Dominion University) recently assumed command over Headquarters Command, 1-63, Second Brigade, 1st ID in Iraq.
Headquarters Company, 1-63 CAB Changes Command
Story by: FSO Johnothan Boyle
1-63 CAB MAHMUDIYAH, IRAQ – Captain Ashley Peppers of Petersburg, VA, officially assumed command of Headquarters Company, 1-63 CAB, Second Brigade, 1st ID, on February 18th in a ceremony held on Forward Operating Base Mahmudiyah.
Captain Peppers assumed command from Captain Mike Blankenship of Knoxville, TN. While serving in command, Blankenship saw a very active time in his unit’s history. When he assumed command in March of 2007, there were approximately 50 people in the battalion, all of whom fell under the responsibility of the headquarters commander. The unit, then HHC, 2-70 Armor, was in the process of transitioning from executing the Fort Riley Military Transition Team Training Program to standing up a heavy brigade combat team. Blankenship was charged with establishing the initial stages of training necessary for Soldiers to safely and successfully deploy. Over the two years of his command, Blankenship and HHC in-processed nearly 800 Soldiers into the battalion, executed several tank and Bradley gunneries, a combat life saver training program, a National Training Center Rotation, movement to Kuwait, and four months of base defense operations in Mahmudiyah, Iraq.