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Old 09-22-2007, 10:19   #1
Dan
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Location: Fayetteville, NC
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Pagan promoted

http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=272994

Quote:
Pagan promoted to brigadier general

By Henry Cuningham
Military editor


Hector Pagan, who served in El Salvador and the Panama invasion and led the 5th Special Forces in combat in Iraq, became the Army’s newest general Friday at Fort Bragg.

The 50-year-old Special Forces officer was promoted to brigadier general in front of a standing-room-only audience in the Fort Bragg Officers’ Club.

“We couldn’t be happier to have had this happen here,” Pagan said. “Eli (his wife) and I think of Fort Bragg as home.”

Pagan became the Army’s sixth general of Hispanic descent, according to the General Officer Management Office.

The crowd included ROTC classmates, a friend from Chile, family members from Puerto Rico and a South Korean brigadier general. Also attending was Adm. Eric Olson, commander of U.S. Special Operations Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla.

Pagan, who has commanded troops in three of the five active-duty Special Forces groups, is deputy commander of the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg.

He was born in New York City, grew up in Puerto Rico and commissioned as an Army officer in the infantry through the ROTC program at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez.

“I am grateful to a nation, an Army, that allows a guy like me to be a general officer one day,” he said. “I am grateful for the great soldiers I have served with during the years I have been in the Army, mostly in Special Forces, exceptional men, like the ones we’ve lost in Iraq where we served with 5th Special Forces Group. I carry their memories with me every day of my life.”

Maj. Gen. James Parker and Pagan’s wife, Elizabeth, pinned the stars on his shoulders. Parker is commander of the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School.

“When I think of Hector, one of the first thoughts that comes to my mind is family, the love of his family, how important they are to him,” Parker said.

The Pagans have a daughter, Karla, a son, Hector, and a niece, Maria, who lives with them. They became grandparents last month.

Pagan’s assignments included a stint in the Army’s personnel command.

“One of the things he learned there was how to tell a captain he was going to the Western Sahara on a peacekeeping operation and have the captain hang up the phone and be happy about it,” Parker said. “Only Hector could do that.”

Parker spoke of how he served with Pagan, learned of his abilities and sought him out. One of their experiences together was in the 7th Special Forces Group at Fort Bragg with the Mexican Training Initiative. When training hit a snag, Parker turned to Pagan, his operations officer, and sent him off to Mexico City.

Problems surfaced with travel, funding and the State Department. Pagan solved the problems and came home by the following Friday, Parker said.

In 1998, Pagan was selected to command the 2nd Battalion of the 1st Special Forces Group at Fort Lewis, Wash.

“He came to me, and he said, ‘Sir, I’m so happy and so humbled to be selected to command, but why are they sending me, a Spanish-speaking boy from Puerto Rico to a cold place like Fort Lewis to command a battalion oriented to Korea? And they don’t speak Spanish there.’”
Military editor Henry Cuningham can be reached at cuninghamh@fayobserver.com or 486-3585.
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