Soldiers in the 525th Expeditionary Military Intelligence Brigade welcomed a new command sergeant major on Wednesday during a ceremony at Fort Bragg.

Command Sgt. Maj. Jebin Heyse assumed responsibility from outgoing Command Sgt. Maj. Edward Baptiste. Heyse joins the brigade after serving as a senior ground analyst in Afghanistan and in numerous intelligence units across the country.

“I look forward to continuing the time-honored history of this brigade with you, striving for excellence daily, moving to meet challenges and always taking care of each other,” Heyse said.

The 525th Expeditionary Military Intelligence Brigade has one of the Army’s only rapidly deployable intelligence headquarters. It has war-time experience spanning more than a decade.

Col. Daniel Benick, commander of the brigade, welcomed Heyse, while bidding farewell to Baptiste.

“He conducted routine oversight of company-level training to ensure soldiers were adequately prepared to facilitate a successful collective training plan for the 519th Military Intelligence Battalion as they approached their deployment,” he said. “Simultaneously, he coordinated with ... sergeants major across 18th Airborne Corps and Fort Bragg to educate other senior enlisted military intelligence leaders on the capabilities of the new expeditionary military intelligence brigade force structure and to synchronize support to training exercises and combat training center rotations.”

In the fall, Baptiste was part of about 100 soldiers from the brigade who returned from a seven-month deployment to Afghanistan, where they provided support and multi-discipline intelligence to the ground forces commander through the Combined Joint Operations Area-Afghanistan in support of Resolute Support.

Among their achievements, they conducted persistent missions over at-risk areas for improvised explosive devices.

Baptiste thanked the soldiers for their hard work, noting the brigade is constantly the forerunner for military intelligence.

“Continue to be professional, ready, innovative, dedicated and effective at everything you do and you will never fail,” he said.

Staff writer Amanda Dolasinski can be reached at adolasinski@fayobserver.com or 486-3528.