Before a crowd at Fort Eustis, the 18th commander of Training and Doctrine Command Gen. Gary Brito performed the Army custom of casing the colors by rolling up the command’s flag and placing it inside its sleeve for the last time.
“Although these case colors close one chapter in our great history, you will be an integral part of the next chapters yet to be written,” Brito said.
TRADOC closed the books on its 52-year history Friday during the inactivation ceremony hosted by Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George and attended by Army Secretary Dan Driscoll. The command officially shuts down Oct. 1.
Brito made a passing reference to the behind-the-scenes struggle since the Army decided to combine TRADOC with Army Futures Command in Austin, Texas, creating the new Training and Transformation Command, (T2COM) based in Austin.
“I could not be prouder of how this team, for the past few months, (they) remained strong and set the conditions for success for T2 com, and you know that says an awful lot about your professionalism and your character,” Brito said.
The Army still has not determined how many of the roughly 900 civilians and soldiers from the TRADOC headquarters will leave Fort Eustis. Some separate Army training functions at Fort Eustis are not impacted by the change, according to Maj. Chris Robinson, the TRADOC spokesman.
The command is stretched across 27 installations and trains soldiers throughout the Army, beginning with basic training.
Though its headquarters at Fort Eustis is being shut down, TRADOC had been the older and larger of the two four-star commands being merged. TRADOC began in the final days of the Vietnam War, created as the Army struggled to reinvent itself as a modern, all-volunteer force when the draft ended in 1973. Among their accomplishments, they ushered in new vehicles and weapons systems. The command created the counter-insurgency doctrine which mapped out ways to work with the local population after the military became bogged down fighting insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“TRADOC team understands that the world is changing fast,” George said. “That reality influences everything you do daily. Our adversaries are moving quickly, and technology even quicker. TRADOC was born out of a need for change in 1973 and today, we are adjusting again to stay ahead.”
Brito is scheduled to retire around the time of his command’s inactivation. He is one of a small handful of African American four-star officers in the U.S. military and was already set to retire before the announcement, according to TRADOC.
The inactivation of the four-star command at Fort Eustis comes as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is calling all top admirals and generals to gather at the Marine base at Quantico, Virginia, Tuesday. Few details about the meeting have emerged but Hegseth has repeatedly talked about shrinking the number of top officers in the military.
