Cherry Says Goodbye to Ft Carson

Outgoing Battalion Commander Lt. Col. Donald L. Cherry Jr., a native of Bolivar, Tennessee, was honored on February 1 as the 2nd Battalion, 77th Field Artillery Regiment "Steel," 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, held a Change of Command ceremony at Fort Carson, Colorado.
Cherry led the Steel Battalion for the past two years. His accomplishments during this time include performing as the Brigade’s Fire Support Coordinator, leading the battalion through a Joint Readiness Training Center rotation nine months after a redeployment, supporting the brigade’s Combined Arms Live Fire Exercise and Warhorse Strike, supporting the brigade in Afghanistan with fire supporters and integrators at the brigade level in order to support their mission on the ground, massing fires as a battalion during artillery table 18s for the first time in 10 years, successfully deploying a battery to Afghanistan, supporting joint fire exercises with the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Army Special Forces, destroying 90% of the brigade’s high value targets and enabling the steel gunners to shoot more than 7000 artillery rounds and their fire supports to observe more than 800 fire missions.
Cherry is a leader who consistently made tough decisions, always choosing the ‘harder right’ over the ‘easier wrong,’ said Zinn, during the ceremony.
As Cherry bids farewell to Fort Carson and the Steel Soldiers he prepares to move to Germany where he will take over as the Deputy Brigade Commander of the new Fires Brigade there.