FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kansas — Lt. Gen. Milford Beagle Jr. relinquished command of the Combined Arms Center and Fort Leavenworth during a ceremony Sept. 5, 2025, at the Lewis and Clark Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Brig. Gen. Jeremy Wilson, deputy commanding general of CAC-Training, will be serving as interim CAC and Fort Leavenworth commanding general until the new CAC commanding general is announced.
The relinquishment of command ceremony was followed by Beagle’s retirement ceremony later that afternoon.
“The commonality between both ceremonies today is expressing an abundance of thanks and appreciation to all of you and all of my great teammates,” Beagle said. “But whether it be this ceremony or the retirement ceremony later, neither is about me. It's more about those who enable me to achieve and succeed along this Army journey.”
Beagle included a “final note” in the ceremony programs expressing his appreciation for the CAC and Fort Leavenworth teams, but he confessed that he wasn’t always thrilled about being nominated for the daunting task to lead CAC.
“I wrote that note on a day when my mind and my heart was clear — unlike today, as I've said earlier, my heart and my mind are not clear, because as I look out at the many faces and friendships that are represented here, my heart and mind are overwhelmed,” he said. “I have a lot of great memories, a lot of funny stories, a lot of hardships and a lot of great times, but on that note, my one and only confession today is the fact that when I received the word that I would come here and be nominated to be the CAC and Fort Leavenworth commander, my heart actually sank.”
He said he was concerned how he would break the news of another move, close behind the last one, to his wife Pam, who loved where they were at Fort Drum, New York. He said he felt overwhelmed — he compared how he envisioned commanding CAC and Fort Leavenworth to Mount Everest, Mount Denali and Mount Fuji, and he described his predecessors as a Mount Rushmore of leaders.
“It is the Intellectual Center of the Army, where everything in our Army is integrated and every leader in our Army will sit in the very seats that you're sitting in right now — every single leader. This is a place where every senior leader in our Army comes here seven times a year. There is no other place, other than the Pentagon, that receives that level of attention and recognition,” he said. “So, now you can sense what I was feeling on that day.”
Beagle said that overwhelmed feeling eventually subsided.
“It didn't take long because at every encounter, this team here was always willing to share with me what they knew. I leave with more knowledge, more wisdom, more understanding than I've ever expected to gain,” he said. “It proves that when you take care of your team, your team will take care of you.”
Beagle emphasized that being a caring commander was key to the success of CAC and Fort Leavenworth.
“This community didn't need a commander that knew more than them. They didn't need a commander who had more experience than them. They didn't need someone with all the answers. They simply needed someone to lead that cared, to realize the full potential of this command and community to unleash the full power of its people,” Beagle said. “Purpose, direction and motivation will only take you so far, but caring will unlock the rest.”
Ceremony host Gen. Gary Brito, commanding general, U.S Army Training and Doctrine Command, described the influence of CAC across the Army and joint force as limitless.
“CAC always has, will continue to be, and largely because of (Beagle’s) leadership, the mecca for lessons learned, doctrine, training, education, and leader development,” Brito said. “This amazing organization has trained and educated more than 300,000 students annually, … over 5,000 of those from 130 separate nations, and over 10,000 members from the joint force, sailors and Airmen, Marines and others. The end result: the most well-trained and educated and lethal service members, soldiers in the world; the most professional fighting force in an Army's culture that underpins our profession and major contributions to the future force. And that is where ‘Beags’ has truly left his mark.”
Brito said Beagle’s leadership of CAC over the past three years has exceeded all expectations, describing the outgoing commander as “a soldier’s soldier, a leader’s leader, and a scholar’s soldier,” noting that Beagle’s deferment of credit to the CAC team added to his respect for him.
“He is adept at influencing people, for providing very clear purpose, direction, and motivation. And please make no mistake about it, Lieutenant General Beagle and, underscored, the CAC team drove positive change through our training, leader development, education programs at all levels in our Centers of Excellence, with meaningful initiatives … They underscore what ‘Beag’s’ and his team has done for the United States Army in putting us on a trajectory of change,” Brito said.
Brito highlighted a few of those initiatives that have significantly evolved, including the Line of Departure professional discourse platform and the latest version of Field Manual 3-0 Operations, which was released in March 2025.
“It is driving what our Army does in supporting the warfighting concept — important — and under his leadership as well, FM 1, the Army profession, which drives a focus area which this command is responsible for,” Brito said. “CAC has always been responsible for gathering lessons learned across the Army, but with all that's going on across the globe, this took on a new dimension, and ‘Beags’ grabbed it by the horns and made it even more successful. So, the work that this command, for the Army, continues to do in looking at lessons in Ukraine, and others, will continue to make us a premier warfighting formation, and ‘Beags,’ I thank you for that.”
Brito also thanked Beagle and the CAC team for their work to help modernize the Army.
“Lieutenant General Beagle showed how TRADOC and CAC — my words — serves as a connective tissue to all major commands in the joint force, as shaping the future Army, developing designs and driving change across the force,” Brito said. “Because of this, CAC's efforts are critical and paramount to our success. So, ‘Beags’ and Pam, thank you for leading the way and driving change for the United States Army, and, most importantly, developing leaders for the United States Army and the joint force.”
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