Lt. Gen. Randy A. George, then-I Corps Commanding General at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, speaks with Army medical Soldiers. (U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Laurie Ellen Schubert)
WASHINGTON: The US Army formally assigned Lt. Gen. Randy George to be the service’s next vice chief of staff, according to a lengthy announcement of new assignments that included changes in leadership across the service’s acquisition offices.
George will succeed Gen. Joseph Martin has vice chief and will receive his fourth star. The three-star currently serves as senior military assistant to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. He previously served as the commander of I Corps and led the 4th Infantry Division. While the Senate confirmed George’s nomination by voice vote with little fanfare on April 28, this week’s announcement makes the move official.
The June 28 announcement from the office of the Army chief of staff also included other four-star assignments. Lt. Gen. Gary Brito will receive his fourth star and be the next commanding general of Training and Doctrine Command, a command with a central role in developing the Army’s multi-domain operations strategy.
Brito currently serves as deputy chief of staff for the G-1, focused on personnel issues. According to the Senate nominations website, Brito’s nomination for a fourth star was confirmed by the Senate by voice vote on June 23. Brito will succeed Gen. Paul Funk.
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The announcements also included already publicized assignments for Gen. Chris Cavoli to lead US European Command and Supreme Allied Command Europe, and Gen. Darryl Williams, currently the superintendent of West Point, to command US Army Europe and Africa.
As for the modernization portfolio, Maj. Gen. Richard “Ross” Coffman, currently the director of the Next-Generation Combat Vehicle Cross-Functional Team, will head down to Austin, Texas to join Army Futures Command as deputy commanding general. Coffman is heading out of the door of NGCV-CFT just after completing the prototyping phase of the Army’s new light tank modernization priority, called Mobile Protected Firepower.
Army Futures Command, which is a major player in the Army’s broad modernization effort, is still without a nominee to be its commanding general. Its first leader, then-Gen. John Murray, retired at the end of last year, and Lt. Gen. James Richardson is currently serving as acting commanding general. Futures Command recently saw its role in Army acquisition narrowed by Army Secretary Christine Wormuth, which has led House Armed Services Committee members to ask questions about what authorities the command has and who is in charge.
Coffman will be replaced by Brig. Gen. Geoffrey Norman, who currently serves as deputy commanding general for support of the 1st Infantry Division in Fort Riley.
Brig. Gen. Samuel Peterson, a deputy director at Army’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies, will move to Warren, Mich. to head up Program Executive Office Combat Support and Combat Service Support. And Col. (Promotable) Francisco J. Lozano will be the next leader at PEO Missiles and Space, which is developing a suite of new missiles and fires systems for the Army. Lozano is currently chief of staff to Army acquisition chief Doug Bush.
Additionally, Brig Gen. James Isenhower, commander of the service’s first Multi-Domain Task Force in Washington state, will join the 1st Armored Division as commanding general. He will be replaced by promotable Col. Bernard Harrington, currently a deputy commanding officer of the 101st Airborne Division. The Army has three MDTFs, two Pacific-based and another in Europe, which will house long-range fires, cyber and electronic warfare capabilities as part of multidomain operations.
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