| Fort Leonard Wood commander assigned to Kuwait for Iraq drawdown |
By: Darrell Todd Maurina
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Posted: Monday, January 4, 2010 6:17 pm
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Maj. Gen. Gregg Martin
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FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. (Jan. 4, 2010) — The commanding general of Fort Leonard Wood announced Monday afternoon that he will be leaving the installation later this month for a new assignment in Kuwait.
Maj. Gen. Gregg Martin, who has served at Fort Leonard Wood’s commander since October 2008, said that on Jan. 27 he will become the deputy commanding general of the Third Army, US Army Central Coalition Forces Land Component Command.
“This move is a tremendous honor, and is necessitated by the Army's efforts to build up US Forces in Afghanistan, and draw down the US presence in Iraq,” Martin said in a prepared statement.
However, Martin also said the news is “bittersweet” for himself and his wife.
“Maggie and I love this community, region, and state. We have so many wonderful friends here, and our boys call Fort Leonard Wood home,” Martin said.
While soldiers move often, Martin has spent many years assigned to Fort Leonard Wood in various roles. As a lieutenant colonel, he commanded the 5th Engineer Battalion; as a one-star general, he headed the Army Engineer School. He’s previously served in Iraq during the first year of Operation Iraqi Freedom when he commanded an expanded brigade of 13,000 soldiers doing what the Army calls “full spectrum operations”
Martin saw the beginning of the Iraq war and his new assignment is likely to correspond to the end of major American troop operations in Iraq.
“The success of the responsible drawdown of US forces from Iraq by 2011 has been placed in the hands of Third Army,” according to the Third Army website. “In the year falling between fall 2009 and summer 2010, Third Army will facilitate the closure or handover of hundreds of military bases and camps in Iraq, entailing the movement, refurbishment, and possible redeployment to Afghanistan of thousands of end items and millions of pieces of equipment.”
Martin is a career engineer officer who holds a doctoral degree in engineering from the Massachussetts Institute of Technology as well as two masters degrees in engineering from military schools. He’s a West Point graduate and later served there as both an instructor and associate professor of national security studies, international relations and American politics in the Department of Social Sciences, as well as recruiting/admissions officer.
While Fort Leonard Wood has traditionally been an engineer post, the interim commanding general will be a military policemen, Brig. Gen. Dave Phillips, the commandant of the United States Army Military Police School and Regiment.
Martin said the Army’s announcement of his replacement will be “forthcoming” and Phillips will serve until Martin’s replacement has been announced.
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