JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. – Joint Base Lewis-McChord Garrison Commander Col. Kent Park is leaving command and the U.S. Army, but he’s staying in the area.
After 25 years of military service, including two assignments at JBLM, Park is retiring.
“I’m going to leave the Army on an absolutely high point, at the pinnacle of my experience, and do a mic drop and walk away,” he said.
Park’s change-of-command ceremony will be held July 8 at 10 a.m. in front of JBLM’s Building 1010.
His two years in command went by in the blink of an eye, he said.
“Overall, it was probably one of the most rewarding experiences of my military career,” he said, adding that he has held various positions, including command positions, over the years.
“This was the first time where I was in a direct support position to help out service members and families, and it was just fantastic how much influence that I had to be able to make things better for service members and families,” he said.
Park said his main priority as garrison commander was supporting the base’s civilian employees and ensuring they were “fully empowered, resourced and supported.”
He named actions impacting civilian employees among his top accomplishments, including pushing for and receiving approval for expedited hiring.
“Unfortunately, some of those things are on hold right now, so we’re not really fully seeing the benefits,” he said. “I know things will be fine in the end, but I wish I was here to put a bowtie on that and see through all the transitions.”
Additionally, Park listed civilian workforce development progress, including the FORGE and Re-FORGE training courses for new employees, the Leader Development Course for supervisors, and JBLM Solve It – a civilian competition to create work efficiencies – among his proudest accomplishments.
“All of these, in my opinion, are related to hearing directly from the civilian workforce and seeing what challenges they are having and then, coming up with a way for them to try to help themselves, by creating a system for them to be able to discuss that,” he said, crediting Deborah Starr-Calhoun, JBLM Workforce Development Program specialist. “Then, the second piece is having that information make it up directly to the senior level, at my level, so I can weigh in.”
Park and his family have been considering the JBLM area for retirement since his first time being stationed here. He previously served as battalion operations and executive officer with 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment of the former 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division (now 1st Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division), and chief of Current Operations with the 7th Infantry Division.
“This came as a great opportunity, being able to come here as a JBLM garrison commander, and so the timing worked out perfectly,” he said, adding that his family plans to stay in the area for at least five years, while his youngest son finishes high school.
He described many high points of the installation and its Pacific Northwest location, starting with JBLM’s mission set, which he said provides service members with a lot of experience.
“The missions that we have are directly relevant to current day events,” Park said. “We are a power projection platform, and our units are deploying from here all over the world constantly.”
And when it comes to quality of life, “it is a phenomenal location,” he said, referencing coastal and mountainous area activities.
Additionally, JBLM’s 62d airlift wing “has space-available flights throughout the world located right here,” and the base is near Tacoma, Olympia and Seattle, where families can enjoy world-class restaurants, entertainment and professional athletic events, he said.
Park will be succeeded by Col. Joseph Handke, an Iowa native and graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point.
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