The Georgia Army National Guard’s 48th Infantry Brigade Combat Team will mark its 200th anniversary this week with a ceremony honoring two centuries of service and sacrifice.
The
Macon-based
brigade, the largest in Georgia’s National Guard, has participated in nearly every major U.S. conflict since its formation in 1825 from the Mexican American War to more recent deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The celebration happens Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. at the brigade’s Volunteer Headquarters on Shurling Drive in Macon. A monument will be unveiled during the event, commemorating the brigade’s history.
Each side of the structure highlights a different war the unit has fought in, and organizers say it will stand as a lasting tribute to the soldiers who served and those who didn’t make it home.
Lt. Col. Jace Walden, who served in Afghanistan, is one of many soldiers helping prepare for the ceremony.
“You’ve got Afghanistan from the Afghanistan deployment here,” Walden said. “It’s part about honoring those that came before us and living in a way that brings credit upon them.”
The 48th IBCT has deployed multiple times since 2001. In 2005, the unit served in southwest Baghdad an area known to soldiers as the “Triangle of Death.”
They deployed again to Afghanistan in 2009. Between those missions, the brigade lost an estimated 30 soldiers.
“I was in Iraq during that mobilization as well,” Command Sgt. Maj. Ray Kinney said. “Three of my good friends are going to be memorialized on that wall.”
Kinney has spent 31 years with the 48th. He said the milestone is significant not just for current soldiers, but for families and communities across Georgia.
“It’s not so much for all of us,” Kinney said, “as it is for everyone that has ever had a piece of their heart, a piece of their family, a piece of their time that has been given in service to the 48th IBCT and the United States of America.”
