Command Sgt. Maj. Kenneth Graham became the U.S. Army Operational Test Command’s new command sergeant major in a change of responsibility ceremony Friday at West Fort Hood.

Graham, most recently commandant, III Corps and Fort Hood Noncommissioned Officers Academy, replaced Command Sgt. Maj. Antoine Overstreet as the senior enlisted advisor at OTC.

Brig. Gen. Scott Spellmon, OTC commanding general, welcomed Graham and his Family as being no strangers to Fort Hood and Central Texas.

“I will just give you some early guidance up front: don’t worry too much about all the test-related acronyms; you will be using them yourself soon enough,” Spellmon said, bringing chuckles from the crowd of Central Texas leaders, Fort Hood representatives and OTC Soldiers and Department of the Army civilians.

Graham thanked Spellmon for selecting him to serve as OTC’s new command sergeant major.

“I understand that what we do is serious business and we can’t afford to cut corners,” Graham said. “We never know when an item we have tested will find its way into the hands of an American Soldier or our joint partners fighting our nation’s wars.

“If and when it does, it better work as intended,” he added, “and I am committed to ensuring we do just that.”

Spellmon praised Overstreet for bringing the operational experience of the warfighter to the testing community.

“You advanced our relationships with III Corps and Fort Hood, with our higher headquarters, the Army Test and Evaluation Command, as well as with the Brigade Modernization Command at Fort Bliss, Texas,” Spellmon said. “Under your leadership, OTC successfully executed four Forward Operational Assessment Team deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq, and your personal combat experience has been integral to the improvement of the Network Integration Evaluation.”

Overstreet thanked Brig. Gen. Laura Richardson for selecting him to serve as the OTC command sergeant major two years ago; OTC’s soldiers DA civilians and contractors for their service; and his Family for their support.

“The strength of our nation is our Army,” Overstreet said. “The strength of our Army is our Soldiers and the strength of our Soldiers is their Families. It has truly been a privilege and an honor to have served at OTC.”

OTC, a subordinate command of ATEC, is the Army’s only independent operational test organization. Testing and assessing equipment, systems and technology in a realistic environment, OTC uses typical soldiers to determine effectiveness, suitability and survivability in varying environments. OTC headquarters staff and four test directorates are located at Fort Hood with four additional test directorates located at Fort Bliss; Fort Bragg, North Carolina; Fort Huachuca, Arizona; and Fort Sill, Oklahoma.