FORT GORDON, Ga. (Nov. 20, 2015) - A new unit and the first of its kind in the Army Forces Command officially activated on Barton Field Nov. 10, including the uncasing of colors and command assumption.
"Make no mistake," said Col. James Walker, 525th Military Intelligence Brigade. "The Soldiers in this battalion are one team with one purpose, to serve the intelligence processing exploitation and dissemination requirements from FORSCOM and United States Army."
Walker hosted the ceremony uncasing the colors of the 525th Processing Exploitation Dissemination Battalion, with Lt. Col. Joshua B. Comstock assuming command and Command Sgt. Maj. Gerald Outlaw becoming the unit's command sergeant major.
"The purpose of the battalion is simple," said Comstock. "Our job is to do everything necessary to enable the companies that you see before you on the field, to do their jobs. There's some complexity to that but the ultimate purpose is very simple."
Two hundred Soldiers are on the ground at Fort Gordon now and it will grow to more than 330 individuals by next summer and the success of the battalion could mean less intelligence Soldiers deploying.
"By being able to conduct a mis- sion here, we won't have to send as many folks overseas," the commander said. "It costs less when you do that and your able to build in some efficiencies, if the expertise is good here, you'll be able to make up the difference on some of the decrease of intelligence positions elsewhere."
After a year in the making, the designated "Watchtower Battalion," is a product of consolidating Soldiers from three different brigades across the Army. The 525th PED Battalion is comprised of Soldiers from the 201st Military Intelligence Brigade, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington; 504th Military Intelligence Brigade, Fort Hood, Texas; and the 525th Military Intelligence Brigade, Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
"As the Army adapts, so will our intelligence corps, building on insights gained from a decade of war to provide the most agile multidisciplined intelligence force possible to support theater and Army war fighters at every echelon," said Walker.
The establishment of the 525th PED provides administrative control and support to Collection and Exploitation companies located at Fort Gordon, as well as facilitates the management of the C&E companies in support of FORSCOM PED requirements.
The battalion is unique in that it can perform a mission without deploying and it is a shared responsibility among three military intelligence brigades.
"To stand a unit from the ground up, to make our stamp, without falling in on preconceived idea of how a unit is supposed to function. That's an opportunity that doesn't come around often," Comstock said. "This is a rare opportunity to create something from nothing and build something new and that's simply an opportunity that you cannot pass up."
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