Pagan to SOCSOUTH

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Published on Thursday, April 03, 2008



Pagan to lead forces in Latin America


By Henry Cuningham
Military editor
A Fort Bragg one-star general has been selected to head U.S. special operations forces in Latin America.

Brig. Gen. Hector Pagan will become commander of Special Operations Command South at Homestead Air Reserve Base, Fla. The command is part of U.S. Southern Command, which is based in Miami and oversees U.S. military operations in Latin America.

Pagan is deputy commanding general of the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center at Fort Bragg. He is former commander of 5th Special Forces Group at Fort Campbell, Ky., and in Iraq.

Special Operations Command South oversees Special Forces, civil affairs and psychological operations missions in Latin America. The command manages more than 200 special operations deployments per year with an average of 42 missions in 26 countries at any time, according to a South Com Web site.

Pagan’s replacement at Fort Bragg will be Brig. Gen. Bennet Sacolick, who is deputy director for the CIA’s Defense Counter-Terrorism Center in Washington, D.C. Sacolick commanded Delta Force at Fort Bragg and in Iraq.

Brig. Gen. Al Aycock, who was Fort Bragg’s garrison commander during the 2005 Base Closure and Realignment announcements, will become commanding general of Special Operations Command Korea. The command controls special operation forces in the United States Forces Korea. Since leaving Fort Bragg, Aycock has been director of the Korea Region Office of the Installation Management Command Korea.

The Army also announced that Col. William K. Fuller, who has been nominated and confirmed for promotion to brigadier general, will become deputy commander of the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg. He is chief of staff of Fort Bragg’s Joint Special Operations Command and led the 82nd’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team in Iraq.

Col. Patrick J. Donahue II, who has been nominated and confirmed for promotion to one-star general, will become assistant division commander of the 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized) at Fort Stewart, Ga. He is executive officer to the Army vice chief of staff in Washington, D.C., and commanded 82nd Airborne task forces once in Iraq and twice in Afghanistan.

Brig. Gen. James C. Yarbrough will become commanding general of the Joint Readiness Training Center and Fort Polk, La. He is commander of the Iraqi Assistance Group and has been the 18th Airborne Corps assistant chief of staff for operations at Fort Bragg.

[NousDefionsDoc]

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Originally Posted by NousDefionsDoc

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B. That's what I think too. The guy that is down there right now is Gen Cleveland and he's a prett good guy as far as I know. I know more about his wife than I do about him.

Thing is...Chuck is going to the SOC with Pagan in charge and he's happy about the change. Don't get me wrong, he like Cleveland. He just thinks Pagan will do a better job.

For me, anything that makes Chuck a happy soldier...well, that works really well for me.