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Lieutenant General Vincent K. Brooks
is the commanding general of Third Army/US Army Central (ARCENT),
the Army service component of the United States Central Command
(CENTCOM). The command exercises administrative control over all US
Army forces in the CENTCOM area of responsibility (AOR), conducts
sustainment of ground operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and
performs theater engagement with 18 countries throughout North
Africa, Southwest Asia and Central Asia.
On June 3rd, 2011 he took command of
Third Army and Army Forces Central. The command is home-based at
Shaw Air Force Base near Sumter, South Carolina with portions of
the command continuously deployed to the Middle East countries of
Kuwait, Qatar, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Lieutenant General Brooks graduated
from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1980.
During his 31 years as a commissioned officer, he served in command
and staff positions in the United States; in Germany during the
Cold War; in Korea; in Kosovo; and in the Middle East. His tours of
duty with fighting units include the 82d Airborne Division as a
lieutenant; the 1st Infantry Division (Forward) as a captain; the
1st Cavalry Division as a major and again as a brigadier general;
the 2d Infantry Division as a lieutenant colonel; the Third Army
Central (with duty in Headquarters, Coalition Joint Task Force -
Kuwait) and the 3d Infantry Division (with duty in North Atlantic
Treaty Organization-Kosovo Forces) as a colonel; Headquarters,
United States Central Command; Headquarters, 1st Cavalry Division
(with duty as Headquarters, Multi-National Division-Baghdad) and
Headquarters, III Corps and Fort Hood as a brigadier general; and
the 1st Infantry Division (with duty as Headquarters U.S. Division
- South) as a major general.
General Brooks served at the
national-level in the Pentagon. Within Headquarters, Department of
the Army, he fulfilled staff duties as aide-de-camp to the Vice
Chief of Staff of the Army, and later as the Army's Chief of Public
Affairs. Within The Joint Staff, he fulfilled duties as Deputy
Director (J5) for Political-Military Affairs for the Western
Hemisphere, and later as the Deputy Director (J5) for the War on
Terrorism.
General Brooks holds a Bachelor of
Science degree from the United States Military Academy; a Master of
Military Art and Science from the School of Advanced Military
Studies at the United States Army Command and General Staff
College; and an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the New England
School of Law in Boston. He also served as a National Security
Fellow at the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of
Government.
General Brooks is married. Both
the general and his wife are from career military families.
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