President picks Army general to lead new command

  • Published
  • By Donna Miles
  • American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON (AFPN) --  President Bush named Army Gen. William E. "Kip" Ward July 10 to help stand up U.S. Africa Command as its first commander.

General Ward has served as deputy commander of U.S. European Command in Stuttgart, Germany, since May 2006. In that role, he has been responsible for the day-to-day activities for U.S. forces operating across 92 countries in Europe, Africa, Russia, parts of Asia and the Middle East, the Mediterranean and most of the Atlantic Ocean.

If confirmed to his new post, General Ward will help bring AFRICOM to initial operational capacity as a command subordinate to EUCOM by October. AFRICOM is slated to be established as a separate unified command by Sept. 30, 2008.   He also will be responsible for consolidating U.S. government efforts and promote partnership arrangements in Africa.

In doing so, he will assume responsibilities on the African content currently shared by three combatant commanders. U.S. Central Command has responsibility for Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia and Kenya. U.S. European Command has responsibility for the rest of the nations in the African mainland. U.S. Pacific Command has responsibility for Madagascar, the Seychelles and the Indian Ocean area off the African coast.

In announcing the AFRICOM command Feb. 6, President Bush said it will strengthen security cooperation with Africa and create new opportunities to bolster the capabilities of African nations. 

"Africa Command will enhance our efforts to bring peace and security to the people of Africa and promote our common goals of development, health, education, democracy and economic growth in Africa," he said.

The motivation behind creating AFRICOM was the increasing importance of Africa strategically, diplomatically and economically, Navy Rear Adm. Robert Moeller, executive director of the U.S. Africa Command implementation planning team, said as the new command was announced.

"The view was that the time has come, in fact, with the increasing importance of the continent to the U.S., that we could better meet our requirements by standing up one unified command to consolidate all of (Defense Department) activities, as opposed to having three separate commands doing that," Admiral Moeller said. 

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