The Airborne and Special Operations Test Directorate is preparing for a change of command.

Col. Mark L. Edmonds is set to become the 34th director of the ABNSOTD on July 29, in a formal ceremony, replacing Col. Marshall A. Hagen, who is retiring after more than 25 years service.

The ceremony is scheduled to take place at the ABNSOTD hangar on Pope Field at 10 a.m., with Col. Laura J. Richardson, the new commander for the Operational Test Command, receiving the unit guidon from Hagen then passing it to Edmonds.

The OTC, currently headquartered in Fort Hood, Texas, is part of the Army Test and Evaluation Command, which is headquartered at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md.

The ABNSOTD is the OTC’s most unique test directorate, tasked with testing all Soldier­essential combat equipment that can be transported in, airdropped from, or transported outside rotary-wing or fixed-wing aircraft. The ABNSOTD is the home of the test paratrooper, the Army’s experts in static-line and free-fall parachute operations.

Hagen took command of the ABNSOTD in July 2009. Some of the operational tests conducted during his command were the joint precision airdrop system, now used by combat forces in Afghanistan; the joint cargo aircraft (C-27) multi-service operational test, and the low cost, low altitude parachute system, which provides direct logistical support in both current theaters of operation.

Edmonds has been an infantry officer for 23 years and has served most of his career with airborne and light infantry units, including serving as deputy commander of the 82nd Airborne Division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team and as battalion commander of the 2nd Battalion, 29th Infantry Regiment at Fort Benning, Ga.

He comes to the ABNSOTD after serving as the chief of staff for the Mission Command Center of Excellence at the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., as senior advisor to the Afghan Minister of Interior and as director of operations for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Mission in Afghanistan.

Edmonds is married to Lt. Col. Sunnie Edmonds. They have a son and a daughter.