Former Fort Bliss and 1st Armored Division commander Maj. Gen. Dana J.H. Pittard will soon be leaving Iraq, where he has headed up an important U.S. mission this summer.
Pittard, the deputy commander for operations for U.S. Army Central Command, has been leading the Joint Operations Center in Iraq, which provides command and control of U.S. troops advising and assisting Iraqi security forces in the fight against Islamic State terrorists.
He will be replaced in late October by Maj. Gen. Paul E. Funk, who is the commander of the 1st Infantry Division at Fort Riley, Kan., according to a recent announcement by the Army.
About 200 troops from Fort Riley will replace U.S. soldiers who have been serving as military advisers in Iraq since June.
The announcement didn't say where Pittard would be going, but he had served in Kuwait before going to Iraq.
Pittard served as commander of Fort Bliss from July 2010 to May 2013. He also led the 1st Armored Division after it relocated from Germany from May 2011 to May 2013.
After leaving Fort Bliss, he served as the special assistant to the commander of Training and Doctrine Command headquartered at Fort Eustis, Va.
Then in the summer of 2013, he was named the deputy commander for U.S. Army Central/Third Army in Kuwait.
Pittard graduated from Eastwood in 1977 and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., in 1981.
During his three-decade-plus military career, he has also been the commanding general of the National Training Center and Fort Irwin, Calif. He served as the military aide for President Clinton for about two years.
During his tenure at Fort Bliss, Pittard was generally credited with strengthening the bond between the installation and El Paso and creating an "easy access post" where it was easier for civilians to visit Fort Bliss. Under his watch, Fort Bliss also became one of the busiest deployment and training centers in the military.
©2014 the El Paso (Texas) Times. Distributed by MCT Information Services.
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