WIESBADEN, Germany -- U.S. Army Europe welcomed German Brig. Gen. Kai Ronald Rohrschneider as the second multinational Chief of Staff at an official ceremony performed at Wiesbaden's Clay Kaserne Jan 26.
The ceremony was officiated by USAREUR Commander Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges.
"We are putting the U.S. Army Europe, a symbol we have been using since 1942, we put the symbol on Brig. Gen. Rohrschneider's uniform signifying that he is now our Chief of Staff," said Hodges. "This is a symbol of the trust that we have, that a German officer can be the U.S. Army Europe chief of staff, 30,000 Soldiers, hundreds of millions of dollars worth of budget, he is responsible for all of it."
Rohrschneider joined the Deutsches Heer, or German Army, in 1983 as an officer candidate at Panzer Battalion, Arolsen and has since served in a variety of command and staff assignments throughout Germany and on operations and deployments. Immediately prior to this assignment, he served as the Commander, 21st Panzer Brigade (Lipperland), Augustdorf.
Rohrschneider replaces outgoing Brig. Gen. Markus Laubenthal, who was awarded the Legion of Merit and thanked by Hodges on behalf of the entire command for his outstanding leadership as the USAREUR chief of staff at the ceremony.
As USAREUR's chief of staff, Rohrschneider is responsible for organizing, directing and supporting the staff of U.S. Army Europe. This entails supervising the staff to accomplish the training, readiness, supervision, management and synchronization of operations of the headquarters and all subordinate units. He also helps manage USAREUR's budget and the integration of NATO and other partners into USAREUR activities.
Lt. Gen. Jörg Vollmer, German Army chief of staff and operations commander, spoke at the ceremony and said he served with both officers previously and both are excellent officers and both understand the changing security situation.
"The German Army is proud of you both, It's a great honor for us, for Brig. Gen. Rohrschneider, it's a great position, I wish you all the best," Vollmer said. "We will continue together to defend Europe, it is us, together, USAREUR, Germany and NATO. We will make the rubber hit the road, and provide solidarity for our partners; together we will do it. We will continue to walk shoulder by shoulder."
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About us: U.S. Army Europe is uniquely positioned in its 51 country area of responsibility to advance American strategic interests in Europe and Eurasia. The relationships we build during more than 1,000 theater security cooperation events in more than 40 countries each year lead directly to support for multinational contingency operations around the world, strengthen regional partnerships and enhance global security.
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