Col. James Markert’s CoC at the 3rd Infantry Regiment
I was supposed to be there at Fort Myers last week when Col. James Markert assumed command of the 3rd Infantry Regiment, The Old Guard, but real work interrupted. Luckily, our buddy, Parachute Cutie made it along with that guy from Blackfive.
Mrs. Markert has invited me down there to attend Twilight Tattoo some Wednesday night to make up for missing the change of command, so maybe I’ll get some pictures when I can break away. But in the interim, Parachute Cutie took some great pictures of the professionals of the 3rd Infantry at their peak. You should go see her excellent photos.
I’m glad I’m too short for the Old Guard, because I just don’t have what it takes to be one of those guys, but I admire the Hell out of them.
Congratulations to Colonel Markert for the honor that it must be to command a regiment of soldiers like that.
Category: Military issues
Thank you for posting this, Jonn. You were geniunely missed. Karin Markert is anxiously awaiting for you to give her a date so that she can spoil you with nothing but VIP treatment.
Glad to hear he took care of his troops. Summerall Field gets hot in the summer, and it used to seem like some officers loved getting on their soapbox too much. A former Chief of Engineers was one of those, who spoke until we had a fallout, then singled the Soldier out under the guise of praise. No one I knew had a good opinion of the newly retired General after that.
I don’t know Col. Markert but the out going Cdr, Col. Dave Anders and I were Company Commanders together Twice. A few years later when my son made his 1st combat deployment to Afghanistan with the 1-325 PIR, Big Dave was the Battalion Cdr. I always slept a little better knowing my son had a top quality Cdr.
I’m sure we’ll see his name again.
John, our door is open to you ANY time! Tomorrow? Definitely! This sure is an amazing unit with great soldiers, and such an interesting history. 😉
Sorry, I bet you can guess that last comment was from me. Long day. 😉
While I was there, Colonels Taylor, Pricone, and Buche were the RCOs. COL Buche was also my battalion commander back in ’03. It seems that Alpha company is no longer “forward deployed” in DC, though. I checked Facebook yesterday and saw some pictures of the former Alpha barracks sitting empty on McNair. I guess the days of getting bussed across the river are over, for better or worse.