WEST FORT HOOD — Leadership of the U.S. Army Operational Test Command switched from one aviator to another Thursday.

Brig. Gen. Donald M. MacWillie relinquished command to Col. Laura Richardson during a ceremony in front of soldiers, civilian employees, and Army and local officials.

MacWillie commanded the 1st Cavalry Division's 2nd Battalion, 227th Aviation Regiment and the 4th Infantry Division's Combat Aviation Brigade. He took command of Operational Test Command on June 15, 2009.

MacWillie's ties to the Fort Hood area run deep. He is a Killeen native, attended Rancier Middle School and is a 1978 graduate of Killeen High School. His wife, Sherri Gallagher MacWillie, is a Salado native, and their son and daughter graduated from Killeen High School.

The general and his children all attended Texas A&M University. His son — the sixth generation in his family to serve in the military — is a second lieutenant stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C.

MacWillie will next serve as deputy commander of the 1st Infantry Division and Fort Riley, Kan.

The general said he didn't make the command a better place; rather, it and the people there made him a better teammate, family man, friend and soldier.

MacWillie was promoted from colonel to brigadier general less than a year after taking command and joked that becoming a general officer came with some growing pains that those at the command likely experienced and witnessed.

Richardson comes to Fort Hood from Washington, D.C., where she served as chief of the Office of the Secretary of the Army's Senate Liaison Division.

She served as a company commander in Fort Hood's 6th Cavalry Brigade in the 1990s; military aide to Vice President Al Gore from 2002 to 2004; and as garrison commander of Fort Myer, Va., from 2007 to 2009.

Richardson's husband is Brig. Gen. Jim Richardson, the 1st Cavalry's deputy commander for support. He is serving in Afghanistan with the division and watched his wife take command Thursday via video teleconference.

The Richardsons served together as aviation battalion commanders in the 101st Airborne Division early in the Iraq war. They have a daughter who is a college student in Virginia.

The colonel said it was good to be back at Fort Hood, and she looked forward to working with the III Corps and U.S Army Test and Evaluation Command teams. The Test and Evaluation Command is the Operational Test Command's higher headquarters and is based at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md.

For more on this story, including Richardson's message to her deployed husband, read next week's Fort Hood Herald.


What is the U.S. Army Operational Test Command?

The command exists to test and assess military equipment and systems using soldiers to "determine whether the systems are effective, suitable and survivable," according to the command's website.

Aside from the command's testing mission at various American installations, teams deploy to Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan to carry out operational assessments and evaluations of equipment, vehicles and other systems that were rapidly deployed, according to information from the command.

Testers are soldiers, civilian employees and contractors.

To learn more about the command, go to www.otc.army.mil.