Brown takes command of Combined Arms Center and Fort Leavenworth

By Jennifer Walleman, Fort Leavenworth LampFebruary 20, 2014

Brown takes command of Combined Arms Center and Fort Leavenworth
Training and Doctrine Command Commander Gen. Robert Cone passes the colors to incoming Combined Arms Center and Fort Leavenworth Commander Lt. Gen. Robert Brown as Brown assumes command from outgoing CAC and Fort Leavenworth Commander Lt. Gen. David ... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (Feb. 20, 2014) -- In a ceremony Feb. 13 in the Lewis and Clark Center's Eisenhower Auditorium, the Combined Arms Center and Fort Leavenworth said goodbye to Lt. Gen. David G. Perkins and welcomed Lt. Gen. Robert B. Brown.

Brown comes to Fort Leavenworth from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., where he commanded I Corps and was the senior Army commander.

Perkins will assume responsibilities of retiring Gen. Robert Cone, commanding general of the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, headquartered at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va.

"Great leaders attract talented subordinates wherever they serve," Cone said in his remarks at the Fort Leavenworth ceremony.

"Today is a win-win for our Army. We are fortunate to keep two of our Army's premiere commanders and leader developers within the Training and Doctrine Command," Cone said. "Lieutenant Generals Dave Perkins and Bob Brown personify the best innovative thinkers, Army team builders and leader developers within the ranks of our senior leaders today."

The Combined Arms Center, often referred to as "The Intellectual Center of the Army," prepares Army leaders for war by developing and integrating operational and intellectual traditions using a set of beliefs called doctrine.

"We haven't always done that as well as we could have or would have liked because of our focus on other things, but over the past few years under the leadership of Dave Perkins we've gotten back on track," Cone said. "His efforts to bring more to the Army's approach to operations have been superb. We will be benefiting from the hard work of his team for years to come."

Perkins took command in November 2011. During his tenure, he was instrumental in the complete writing or re-writing of more than 50 doctrinal manuals, including, perhaps most notably, Cone said, Army Doctrine Reference Publication-01, "The Army Profession." This is the first publication that explores the nature and requirement for professionalism within the Army.

"I asked Dave during his assumption of command in November of 2011 to focus on leader development and the Army learning model involving our education and training establishment to more closely follow a university type model," Cone said. "Dave, you have flat out delivered and exceeded every expectation that I had."

Kirby Brown, deputy to the CAC commanding general, called Perkins a 21st century leader.

"The uniqueness is he wrote the doctrine for the Army on leadership, and he applied it," Brown said before the ceremony. "I don't know how better fit you can get than that. He would work and focus on those things he fixed as a three star, and we kind of got the business organized for him, and he could focus on doing things for the Army. That's what builds the Combined Arms Center reputation."

Perkins thanked his wife, Ginger, for her constant support and dedication to the Army and assured CAC soldiers and staff that Brown was the perfect fit for their leader.

"If you say show me somebody who has soul for the Army of soldiers, what would appear is a picture of Bob Brown," Perkins said. ?"There's nobody else in the Army that has more soul than him for the Army, for the commitment that he has for the profession."

During his command of I Corps, Brown played a significant role in the Army support in the rebalance of national focus on Asia and the Pacific Rim, Cone said.

"The combination of his diverse experiences will pay dividends for TRADOC and our Army during his time as CAC commander," he said.

In attendance for Brown were people he credits as being instrumental to his development as a leader including his wife, Patti, granddaughter Hazel, a former brigade commander, mentors from his time at the Command and General Staff College, his high school basketball coach and a former roommate from his first assignment.

"I'd like to start by thanking the Lord for many blessings of the Brown family this year, and I'm truly honored to join the CAC team and this great Leavenworth community," Brown said. "I've always been impressed with the Combined Arms Center and the work that they have done. I look back to the best year of my life in CGSC. What a fantastic year that was.

"I am very proud to follow such a gifted leader as Dave Perkins. He really has taken CAC to the next level," Brown said. "I'm really honored to follow in your superb command. I'm excited for the road ahead."

Kirby Brown said he sees the new commanding general continuing on the path Perkins paved to build the distinguished Combined Arms Center reputation.

"General Brown will be very much the same kind of leader," Brown said. "By our interactions over the last few days that he's been here, my sensing is we're going to continue in the same vein that we've been for the last two years, and we're going to take stuff to an even higher level."

Robert Brown was commissioned into
the Infantry in May 1981 after
graduating from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. His education includes a bachelor of science from USMA, a master?'s degree in education from the University of Virginia and a master?'s degree in national security and strategic studies as a distinguished graduate of the National Defense University.

Brown has served in leadership positions from platoon level to corps. He was a platoon leader and company commander in mechanized infantry units at Fort Carson, Colo.; a battalion commander of a mechanized infantry battalion at Fort Hood, Texas, including a deployment to Bosnia-Herzegovina in support of Operation Joint Forge; a Stryker brigade commander at Fort Lewis, including a deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom; and commanding general of the Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Benning, Ga.

Brown has also served in numerous staff positions including assistant professor of military science and deputy director of the Center of Enhanced Performance at USMA, plans officer at the U.S. Army Pacific; operations officer, executive officer and chief of G-3 Training in the 25th Infantry Division including a deployment in support of Operation Uphold Democracy in Haiti; personnel assignment officer in Human Resources Command; aide-de-camp and assistant executive officer to the Army vice chief of staff; plans officer in the Department of the Army G-3/5/7; a program analyst in the Dominant Maneuver Assessment Division, Joint Staff (J8); executive assistant to the Pacific Command commander and director of J-7 (Training and Exercises) at PACOM Headquarters; deputy commanding general for support of the 25th Infantry Division, including a deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom; and chief of staff U.S. Army Europe and deputy commanding general U.S. Army NATO.

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