COL LaHavie J. Brunson, 13th Armored Corps Sustainment Brigade Command

COL LaHavie J. Brunson was born the son of SGM(R) Albert and Delphine Brunson, in Fayetteville, NC. He comes from a military family with two brothers who currently serve, and a sister-in-law and a brother-in-law who all have proudly served as officers in the United States Army. As a youth, he was heavily involved in academics and sports, and achieved the Eagle Scout rank. COL Brunson is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was commissioned as a 2LT in the Quartermaster Corps in 1998. COL Brunson's awards and decorations include the Legion of Merit (2nd Award), the Bronze Star Medal (2nd Award), the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal (3rd Award), ARCOM (6th award), AAM (5th award), NDSM, Kosovo Campaign Medal, Iraq Campaign Service Medal, GWOT Expeditionary Medal, GWOT Service Medal, ASR, OSR, NATO Medal (Kosovo), and the MOVSM. COL Brunson is authorized to wear the Master Parachutist's Badge, the Pathfinder Badge, the Parachute Rigger Badge, the Canadian Parachutist's Badge, the German Parachutist's Badge, the Samuel Sharpe Award, the Order of St. Martin, the Order of Saint Christopher, and the Army and Joint Staff Identification Badges.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
iHeartRadio is proud to support our military community from the
largest military installation in North America. Let's go on post
at Fort Hood. Brought to you by Elder Mitchibishi.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
We're pleased this morning to be joined by Colonel Lahaby Brunson,
who is with the thirteenth Armored Core Sustainment Command. Colonel
how are you, sir?

Speaker 3 (00:19):
I'm good. How are you doing today?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
I'm doing well. We appreciate the time. We're going to
jump right in. It is such a busy time for
you all at Fort Hood. The Fort Hood Garrison is
set to change command this week, sir.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
I think this Friday coming up, and you're.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Going to welcome a new commander during a ceremony at
nine am. And that's going to take place at Sadowski
Field right in front of a three Armored Core headquarters,
which is a huge field out there. Sir, this is
a huge, big ceremony at Fort Hood.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Colonel Stokes will relinquish command the Colonel Mark McClellan. I'm
going to be officiated by the ses That is the
mister Appleman as Director of Installation Management Command for Readiness.
She's been in there for two years and did some
amazing things with regard to improving the infrastructure, spending, quality
of life services for both soldiers and families. You know,
the Garritt Commander kind of sees the day to day

(01:05):
of the installation to include facilities and essential services that
impact the Fort Hood community and most importantly soldiers in
their families. I think Colonel McClelland's prior experience serving in
a number of very background experiences, most recently with the
director as the director of Department of Texas and Training Doctrine,
will kind of set him from operational perspective of understanding

(01:26):
what the needs of the soldiers and families are here
at Fort Hood and set conditions for an even greater
success upon the foundation that Colonel Stokes has created.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
Looking forward to the change, sir, let's talk just a
moment about a very big event. This goes on every
year and has been for a number of years, the
Lamb Passes Spring Hole Festival.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
Yeah, it's a fantastic event as I understand it. I
think this started back in nineteen twenty two honoring the
heritage of the community and it's natural springs, and so
that's where they get the name spring Ho. I got
to chuckle out of it the first time I heard
of it. The week long celebration past, the community event
and soldier and family community integration bands, carnival, all the

(02:07):
kind of family friendly events that make for a great evening.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
We are visiting this morning with Colonel Lajavi Bronson, who
is the thirteenth Armored Corps Sustainment Commander. Sir, let's talk
about thirteenth Armored Course Sustainment Command and your readiness.

Speaker 3 (02:20):
You know, as the Armored Corps Sustainment Command, we're the
principal support element for three Corps. We enable the corps
readiness right, we extend the operational region, enhance the lethacity
of the cores large. We got to demonstrate that most
recently at a war fighter exercise in conjunction with a
third Armored Corps with leadout events going all the way
back to this past August, and so for about a
month at the beginning of June, the Corps got to

(02:43):
stretch its legs and fully understand what a major theater
war would be like and how we, as the Corps
support element, would sustain it. Just a tremendous opportunity to
let our folks exercise all the skills that they can
bring to bear, and the three corps with forty eight
percent of the Army's lethality in terms of combat power,
it's important for us to always be at the tip
of the speer when it comes to how we sustained

(03:05):
and set precedent. I think for the.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
Army now, a big part of what you do there
at thirteenth Armored Course the stayment Command is the partnership.
She recently participated in the Belton Fourth of July Parade, Sir,
would you like to speak about the partnerships that are
so important?

Speaker 3 (03:18):
Absolutely? And I will just add as an aside, a
lot of people use the phrase not my first rodeo. Well,
at the fourth of July Parade, for the entire celebration
for Belton, I got to attend my first radio and
so it was a fantastic time. On the actual fourth
of July, I got to beak to the parade and
my command sat Major Commensal Major Gian and I took
partner of parade and it was a fantastic event. We
also support it by bringing some heavy vehicles, including bridging

(03:42):
assets provided by the thirty sixth Engineer Brigade to establish
a pedestrian bridge over the Nolan Creek. That is our
kind of similar event for each year in terms of
our partnership with our sister city at Belton, but we
also do a lot within the community. Next week, we'll
host thirty students from Caney Creek High School in Houston,
which is another of our partner cities, and we'll take
the kids around the installation and just show them all

(04:02):
the beauty that is an Army installation and in particular
for Hood with the Horse Attachment, museums, some of the simulators,
and then kind of get them an appreciation of what
it's like to operate a motor pool. And then our
military firefighters on civilian fighters that support the installation.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Colonel, we like to touch on something every week on
our broadcast. Sir, we are still in the fight absolutely.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
I think that notion of partnerships and us being in
the fight go hand in hand because our community support
our soldiers and families. Obviously here as the installation, we
have a number of services that afford soldiers and families
resources when soldiers are deployed, but our communities are also
a vital component of it. And I don't know, folks
appreciate it. But there's fourteen hundred soldiers from Forehood deployed

(04:44):
all the way around the world, and that's everything from
the border. We have soldiers in Europe, South Korea, South America, Africa,
and the Middle East. Certainly always want to keep the
soldiers and their families and your thoughts and prayers and
then those that are leading up to upcoming deployments within
the next fiscal year.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
We've been visiting this morning with Colonel LaHave Brunson with
thirteenth Armored Core Sustainment Commands. Sir, we really appreciate your
time this morning.

Speaker 3 (05:06):
Thank you, Dane, I can really appreciate you having me on.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
Thank you for supporting our military to get even more
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