U.S. Army Alaska Change of Command scheduled The Army has announced that Maj. Gen. Michael X. Garrett, U.S. Army Alaska commanding general, will depart Alaska later this month for a new assignment. Garrett has been selected to be the next Chief of Staff for U.S. Central Command, headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla. U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) is one of nine combatant commands in the United States military. Six of these commands, including CENTCOM, have an area of responsibility, a specific geographic region of the world where the combatant commanders may plan and conduct operations as defined under the Unified Command Plan. Located between the European and Pacific combatant commands, U.S. Central Command’s area of responsibility covers the "central" area of the globe and consists of 20 countries – Afghanistan, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, SaudiArabia, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Yemen. Maj. Gen. Michael H. Shields, currently the director of Pakistan/Afghanistan Coordination Cell, J-5, Joint Staff, Washington, D.C., will become the new commanding general of U.S. Army Alaska and deputy commander of Alaskan Command. Shields previously served as commander of USARAK’s 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team at Fort Wainwright from July 2004 to December 2006, including leading the brigade in its 16-month first combat deployment during Operation Iraqi Freedom. The 172nd was redesignated the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division on its return from Iraq in December 2006. A change of command ceremony is scheduled for 11 a.m. July 30 at Pershing Field on JBER-Richardson.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Jul 2013 03:03:39 +0000
Trending Topics
© 2015