Iacovelli comes back to 2-98th as commander

Taking command of the brigade in which he had served as a battalion commander kept him awake for a few nights, Col. Stephen Iacovelli said.

"I slept few hours the past few days thinking about what this means," Iacovelli said Saturday, after taking command of 2nd Brigade, 98th Training Division from Col. Jed Schaertl in a ceremony on Fort Jackson's Victory Field.

Iacovelli, who entered the Army in 1984 as a private, said it was "nice to be back at the 2-98th" and was aiming for his command to be "predictable." Such predictability would make it easier to solve problems as they occurred, he said.

Iacovelli had commanded the brigade's 3rd Battalion, 323rd Infantry Regiment before leaving to be the deputy chief of staff for intelligence at the 416th Theater Engineer Command in Darien, Illinois.

Speaking to his troops, Iacovelli said that although mistakes happened, he saw them as learning experiences.

"Don't take the easy way out," he told his troops during his first speech as leader of a unit first constituted in June 1921. "We must address problems so they won't happen again. We will make mistakes; we need to learn from them."

Brig. Gen. Michaelene Kloster, 98th Training Division commander, welcomed Iacovelli back to the division, saying he "comes with first-hand knowledge" of the brigade and she was "excited to have (Iacovelli) on board."

She called on the new brigade commander "to guide and mentor the 2nd Brigade."

Kloster also welcomed Iacovelli's wife, Carol, back to the brigade even though she could not attend the ceremony.

"I want to thank you ahead of time," Kloster said to Carol Iacovelli. "You will get calls at all times of the night."

The 2nd Brigade commander and his wife have a daughter, Sarah.

The welcome for the new commander was warm, but the former commander said he felt parting was bittersweet.

"This has been the most challenging (assignment) of my career," Schaertl said during a humor-filled going-away speech.

At the end of his speech, Schaertl recommended that his successor delegate tasks to his non-commissioned officers, take the long view, "develop the next generation of brigade leadership, and maintain a quality brigade climate."