{"id":301,"date":"2011-05-02T16:52:32","date_gmt":"2011-05-02T16:52:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olewarskule.lsu.edu\/?p=301"},"modified":"2012-09-25T16:57:16","modified_gmt":"2012-09-25T16:57:16","slug":"purple-gold-from-the-front","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/olewarskule.lsu.edu\/?p=301","title":{"rendered":"Purple &#038; Gold &#8211; From the Front"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Cortez Assumes Command, Hangs LSU Flag<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Lieutenant Colonel Elward P. \u201cPat\u201d Cortez, a 1992 College of Art &amp; Design graduate, assumed command of the 27th Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division on the compound called COS Marez in Mosul, Iraq, on March 7.<\/p>\n<p>He writes: \u201cOne photo is of me (I\u2019m the guy with his back sort of to you) assuming the Battalion Colors in my change of command. The funny hats are called Stetsons and are a 1st Cavalry Division tradition. During the ceremony the Command Sergeant Major receives the colors from the honor guard and presents them to the outgoing commander. He in turn passes them to the next higher commander \u2013 our boss \u2013 and he presents them to me, the incoming commander. I then pass them back to the Sergeant Major and have assumed command. During my time at LSU I was in the ROTC program and a member of Bengal Raiders. Our mission here in Iraq will end in December. The state department will take over. \u201cCortez\u2019s \u201cboss\u201d is also a Tiger. Colonel Brian Winski, who earned a master\u2019s degree from the College of Arts &amp; Sciences in 2000, is commander of 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division.<\/p>\n<p>In early March, Cortez hung an LSU flag in the dining facility.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I hung the flag, it took all of two minutes to get the SEC fans going. Notice its location in front of Alabama\u2019s banner. In fact, it is up front where it belongs. I have a bet with the soldiers in my battalion to pick a team and at the end of the season each soldier will do ten pushups for every loss his\/her team takes. We have a few civilian contractors who are LSU and SEC fans. It will be a great college football year. I will try to get a photo of all of the LSU fans.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_302\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-302\" style=\"width: 457px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/olewarskule.lsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/front_a.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-0\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-302\" title=\"front_a\" src=\"http:\/\/olewarskule.lsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/front_a.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"457\" height=\"333\" srcset=\"http:\/\/olewarskule.lsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/front_a.jpg 457w, http:\/\/olewarskule.lsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/front_a-150x109.jpg 150w, http:\/\/olewarskule.lsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/front_a-300x218.jpg 300w, http:\/\/olewarskule.lsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/front_a-50x36.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 457px) 100vw, 457px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-302\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lt. Col. Elward Cortez hangs an LSU flag in the dining facility at COS Marez in Mosul, Iraq.<br \/><br class=\" wp-image-303\" title=\"front_b\" \/><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cortez Assumes Command, Hangs LSU Flag Lieutenant Colonel Elward P. \u201cPat\u201d Cortez, a 1992 College of Art &amp; Design graduate, assumed command of the 27th Brigade Support Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division on the compound called COS&hellip; <a class=\"continue\" href=\"http:\/\/olewarskule.lsu.edu\/?p=301\">Continue Reading<span> Purple &#038; Gold &#8211; From the Front<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/olewarskule.lsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/olewarskule.lsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/olewarskule.lsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/olewarskule.lsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/olewarskule.lsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=301"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/olewarskule.lsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":601,"href":"http:\/\/olewarskule.lsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301\/revisions\/601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/olewarskule.lsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/olewarskule.lsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/olewarskule.lsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}