Brig. Gen. Kenneth C. Cole assumed the duties as U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence Deputy Commanding General in an “Honor Eagle” ceremony at Fort Novosel, Ala., August 9, 2024.
No stranger to Fort Novosel, Cole previously served as the USAACE deputy commander.
Maj. Gen. Clair A. Gill, USAACE and Fort Novosel commander, welcomed attendees. He lauded Sgt. 1st Class Deanna Lucchesi for her vocal rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner.
Gill welcomed the Cole family back to the home of Army Aviation, noting that while the servicemember serves in uniform, the families serve out of uniform.
“It is a hugely important day for us. I feel like a pro football team that just got the number one draft pick, so we are really celebrating the fact that we got Team Cole back to Fort Novosel,” Gill said.
“The Army saw it important enough that we brought a general officer back here to help us with the training, the readiness, the functional training and the training management of the USAACE,” he said.
He explained that includes the 128th Aviation Brigade and Noncommissioned Officer Academy at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia, and the unmanned aircraft systems training at 2d Battalion, 13th Aviation Regiment based at Fort Huachuca, Arizona.
“Ken’s going to be busy and on the road a lot, so it’s exciting and I’m honored to be able to serve with you,” Gill said.
Cole arrives at USAACE from his most recent assignment as the Deputy Commanding General – Support of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault).
Among his previous assignments, Cole served as Chief of Staff for XVIII Airborne Corps-- “our most deployable headquarters, so he’s been all over the world,” Gill noted.
His previous combat assignments and operational deployments include Germany as the Corps Chief of Staff, Iraq and Afghanistan as a Joint Special Operations Detachment Commander, Joint Special Operations Officer, MH-47 Company Commander and Platoon Leader.
He has deployed to support combat and other operational missions in CENTCOM, AFRICOM, and EUCOM on 21 total occasions. His overseas assignments include commander of 12th Combat Aviation Brigade in Katterbach, Germany, and commander of 3-2 General Support Aviation Battalion, Camp Humphreys, Korea.
He previously served as Joint Special Operations Command chief of staff, as well as in various other leadership and staff assignments.
Cole’s military awards include the Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit with two oak leaf clusters, Distinguished Flying Cross, and Bronze Star Medal with two oak leaf clusters.
As USAACE deputy commanding general, Cole serves as the principal assistant and deputy to the commanding general primarily responsible for advising the general on all functions related to readiness, functional training and training management of the USAACE. He provides direct supervision and execution of decisions, policies and all matters related to three brigades, two NCO Academies and four directorates.
He is charged with synchronizing the USAACE to ensure the best training with the best equipment is available and provided to ensure USAACE succeeds in its mission to provide the Army with world-class aviation Soldiers, NCOs, warrant officers and commissioned officers to compete and win in large-scale combat operations.
In his remarks, Cole thanked the senior command chaplain, Col. Kyle A. Taylor, who conducted a moment of silence at the ceremony opening and a prayer for the family of the contractor instructor pilot who perished during a training mishap at Fort Novosel on Wednesday.
He thanked leaders and family members for their attendance in-person and virtually.
“It is truly an honor to return home to Fort Novosel,” Cole said. “I was born here when my father was an instructor pilot, so our family’s roots to this area go pretty deep. It’s an honor to return to the Wiregrass and to the home of Army aviation.”
“We are truly home,” Cole said.
Cole thanked Gill, and said he is the rare leader he can call mentor and friend.
“I can’t want to share the mission with you and your family. Thank you,” Cole said to Gill.
Cole said the mission at USAACE is critical to our Army and to the world.
“Our aviation professionals that we train here at Fort Novosel are the best in the world and that’s because of the great training, where we receive them and teach them how to conduct their mission, starting with the basics all the way through the advanced, flying at night, tactics, techniques and procedures. We’re super excited about just being part of that team to help our aviators and our air crew members learn their mission to support the greatest ground forces in the world,” Cole said.
That the nation’s Army is the best in the world is not by mistake, he said.
“When we say Above the Best, we mean it,” Cole said. “There is not call from them we do not answer. There is no wounded that we will not get out. If they need to see something in front of them we will find it, and when they need something destroyed we will do that too. That is Army Aviation. That’s what we do here. That is a no-fail mission, and we do it here every day and every night.”
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