• Home Delivery
• Customer Services
• Contact Us

Print | Email |

Kingsport native Mark Landes takes command of Stryker battalion in Iraq

 

Change of command ceremony for the 2-23rd Infantry in Iraq. Photo courtesy of Morri Landes

_________

A Kingsport native has assumed command of a Stryker battalion stationed in Iraq.

"I think I'm the first (active-duty Army) infantry battalion commander from Kingsport ...in a long time," said Lt. Col. Mark Landes, who never dreamed of a military career until senior year at Dobyns-Bennett in 1986.

Until about two weeks ago, Landes was scheduled to command a unit that just returned from Iraq - the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment.

That all changed with a phone call from a lieutenant general Landes didn't identify. Lt. Gen. Charles H. Jacoby Jr. is the only lieutenant general stationed at Fort Lewis in Pierce County, Wash.

The lieutenant general asked if Landes could be ready in two weeks' time to assume command of the 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry in Iraq.

His response to the request? "Yes, sir!"

Landes left Fort Lewis on Sep. 26.

His wife, Morri Landes, a 1987 Sullivan South graduate, lamented the lack of ceremony on base because of the unusual circumstances, but said she learned Wednesday a small ceremony on Iraqi soil has formally established his command.

She’s happy to stay behind and volunteer with the Army's Family Readiness Groups, which hold "monthly meetings, social events, kids events, fund-raisers, Bible Studies, etc.," on base, she said.

She’ll also be preoccupied with caring for their two sons, Hamilton, seven, and Cooper, who'll turn three this month, who, "although they miss their Daddy dearly, they handle the deployment like troopers!"

Landes said his military career itself began as a bit of a surprise -- his D-B buddies dared him to apply to the United States Military Academy at West Point.

He did and was accepted.

And once he was in, Landes discovered he didn't want out.

"I was going to go up there and spend the summer or a year, get a year of free education and then resign and go somewhere else, but I never got around to resigning," he said.

A man who'd, as he said, "never seriously considered" a military future, found himself building one.

After West Point, Landes said he completed Ranger School, and later taught at the Ranger School's Dahlonega, Ga. phase.

He served as platoon leader and company XO (executive officer) for a mechanized infantry unit in Germany and served four years as company commander of a light infantry unit in Hawaii.

When the first Stryker came off the assembly line, Landes says he was there to take it to combat and bring it safely back.

CLICK HERE to learn more about the Stryker Armored Vehicle.

"The thing about the Stryker battalion is that it's a network-centric kind of organization where all of the vehicles can talk to each other via means to communicate both what's going on in their area and give the leadership a bigger picture. So it's just the fact that the Stryker battalions have a mobile system that they're allowed to move around pretty safely and at the same time, maintain communications with everybody."

In 2003, Landes left for Kuwait with a Stryker battalion, crossed the border into Iraq, and spent about a year in combat.

Now, he's back in Iraq to command a group of men in a war many Americans don't believe in, according to a recent USA Today/Gallup poll.

The poll indicates the percentage of Americans who believe the troop surge has made things better in Iraq has risen from 22 percent in early July to 35 percent, but reports that an estimated 64 percent of Americans don't believe we will win the war, and only 38 percent think troops should be kept in Iraq until things get better and the Iraqi people are able to stand on their own.

That sentiment doesn't weight too heavily on Landes' mind. He described the improvements he'd personally seen develop through troops' efforts to "help the Iraqi people stand on their feet.

"You can see that before you came and did something, there would be no running water or no sewer or no market and after you provide security, that you can walk down the same street and see a booming market and fresh vegetables," he said.

When he was deployed to Iraq in 2003, Landes' older son would send him a dozen or more soccer balls at a time, to hand out to Iraqi children. He snapped a picture for his son each time he handed a ball to an Iraqi child.

"Just a simple thing of handing a soccer ball to a young child makes a tangible difference, you know, you can see it in his face," Landes said.

He shrugged off the ongoing political debate about the war.

"You know, if they could see the Iraqi people as people, as individuals, I think they would understand what this is about a little bit more -- but no, I'm not going to say that they would justify it or not justify it, because that's -- that's the American public's view.

"If somebody believes it's not worth an American life in order to make it better for Iraq, that's their opinion," he said. "Whether they go over there (and see the differences they're making) or not, I'm not sure it's going to change it.

"You really don't pay attention so much when you're over there to what America is saying about that, because really you just don't have time to sit there and read Internet and figure out who doesn't like the war or who does..."

Landes also said he wasn't concerned about his predecessor. Although he knows the previous commander wasn't wounded and wasn't fired, he doesn't plan to ask any questions about what led to his departure.

"A normal command is only two years, so you're used to changing commanders out," he said. "The location makes it a little more interesting, but change in leadership is very normal for the Army."

His number one priority, then, is to be accepted by the battalion he's been asked to lead as they move forward with their mission.

"Create a stable and secure environment in order for the Iraqi government and businesses to recover -- that's exactly what my battalion will be doing," Landes said of Gen. David Petraeus' orders.

CLICK HERE to listen to Petraeus on NPR.

Landes likened his situation to that of a new football coach stepping in to take over a team that's already bonded through training and prior battles.

The battalion just moved to a new community north of Baghdad after a successful mission in a previous location under its previous commander, he said.

Success, according to Landes, is defined by Secretary Condoleezza Rice's "Clear, Hold, Build" strategy.

"Once you clear (the community of insurgents) and hold it (under Iraqi government control), and build it (economic infrastructure and democratic institutions), then you can move to the next area."

Their goal, as always, is to make it possible for the Iraqi government to assume control and develop their own country --not to shape it into something quasi-American, Landes said.

"The Iraqi people are not Americans," Landes said, "...the Iraqis don't want to live in America."

Many Americans, Landes believes, have difficulty understanding the importance of family and tribal relationships and the differences between American and Iraqi ways of life.

"It's very difficult (to understand) until you go there and live it with them," Landes concluded. "I think that's where you see most of the returning Vets will say they felt like they were doing an important job over there -- because they were walking in their shoes with them."

Home | Login | Local News | Obits | Sports | Business | Opinions | Blogs | Classifieds| Business Profiles

Web Feeds/RSS | Contact Us | Customer Service | Privacy Statement | Common Questions | E-Edition | Subscriptions | Site Map

© 2010 Kingsport Publishing Corporation - Innovation by Times Digital Group