Fort Carson leaders welcomed the new commander of the 4th Infantry Division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team on Tuesday during a change of command ceremony on post.

Col. Omar Jones assumed command of the brigade, which recently returned from a deployment to southern Afghanistan. The brigade spent a year training Afghan soldiers and police in Kandahar and the Arghandab River Valley.

Jones, a Bronze Star recipient and a 1992 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., deployed to Iraq twice and once to Afghanistan. He arrived from the National War College, where he earned a master’s degree in National Security Strategy.

Jones replaces Col. John Kolasheski, who was tabbed to be the Army’s senior fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City.

“They are dedicated leaders and total team players in this division and on this installation,” said Maj. Gen. Joseph Anderson, the post’s commander, also noting the brigade’s outgoing command sergeant major.

Anderson also welcomed three new battalion commanders, as well as new command sergeant majors for the brigade and three battalions.

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