Two Fort Lewis-based brigades will receive new commanders Friday.

Col. Steven Bullimore will take over the 17th Fires Brigade, replacing Col. David McCauley. Bullimore was previously assistant chief of staff at I Corps, also at Fort Lewis.

McCauley oversaw the 17th’s transformation from a field artillery brigade, which included moving several subordinate units from Fort Sill, Okla.; Fort Bragg, N.C.; and Fort Campbell, Ky. Among other roles, the brigade is responsible for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, a six-rocket launching system mounted on the back of a five-ton truck.

The 62nd Medical Brigade will also receive a new boss, Col. John Powell. He will replace Col. Patrick Sargent, who was deployed last year with other members of the brigade's headquarters company, which ran the U.S. military's network of hospitals and medical clinics throughout Iraq. The unit returned in October.

Powell is leaving his post as the commander of the William Beaumont Army Medical Center at Fort Bliss, Texas.

It was just past 7 a.m. The sun had yet to rise. People exited the elevator, some still rubbing their eyes, and headed straight to the carafes of coffee waiting on their tables.

Marvin Shields Jr., though, was buzzing. The Air National Guard master sergeant was sporting his dress blues. Strangers approached him and congratulated him. He answered a wide smile and a firm handshake.

This seemingly bottomless energy is why Shields was at the posh Tacoma Club on Thursday morning. It’s the same energy that would allow him to finish a shift at the Western Air Defense Sector and then volunteer with troubled kids at Pierce County's juvenile detention facility. The same energy that has allowed him to earn a bachelor’s degree on a full-time schedule, start working toward an advanced degree and help the elderly ensure they have working smoke alarms. The same energy that allows him to play the guitar, bass and drums – or sing the national anthem before a Seattle Seahawks game.

That energy – and the community involvement it fosters – was recognized by the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce, which awarded Shields the John Anderson Military Citizen of the Year award.

“I just try to do what’s in my heart,” the 46-year-old Browns Point resident said in his acceptance speech, “and I plan on doing that until the day I leave this earth.”

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