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Task force commander leaves for Pentagon

Feb-26-2005 » Filed Under: TF Olympia

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MICHAEL GILBERT; The News Tribune

Brig. Gen. Carter Ham’s first and only assignment at Fort Lewis didn’t last long. He was here four months before the Army shipped him off to Mosul, Iraq, last January.

But he played a major part in the fortunes of Fort Lewis troops, thousands of whom worked under his leadership in northern Iraq the past 13 months.

The post held a ceremony to say farewell Friday to the 53-year-old commander of Task Force Olympia, who’s back from Iraq but on his way now to a new job at the Pentagon.

Ham will be “deputy director for regional operations to the joint staff,” a liaison between U.S. Central Command and the Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs. Centcom, located at MacDill Air Force Base near Tampa, Fla., is responsible for combat operations in Central Asia and the Middle East.

Maj. Gen. Jimmie Collins, the deputy Fort Lewis commander, pinned him with a Bronze Star medal and praised him as “dedicated, committed, a team player, a war fighter without rival.”

A self-effacing Army general is a rare thing, but Ham joked with well-wishers that he thought Collins must’ve been talking about someone else.

“This past year has been the defining period of my life,” he said. “There have been triumphs and tragedies both large and small.”


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