Artillery fire filled the air during the 79th Sustainment Support Command’s change of command ceremony held Saturday, Dec. 5 at the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos. Lt. Gen. Jeffrey W. Talley, commanding general of the nearly 200,000 U.S. Army Reserve forces, officiated the ceremony.
Maj. Gen. Mark W. Palzer assumed command of the 79th SSC from the outgoing commander Maj. Gen. Megan P. Tatu.
“There is no better leader for this command than Mark Palzer,” said Tatu during her farewell speech. “He brings great energy and enthusiasm.”
Palzer recently served as the Director for Logistics Operations for the Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington, DC and is a New Jersey native. Tatu is a Southern California native with more than 30 years of active and reserve service. She will be reassigned as the chief of staff for Lt. Gen. Talley at United States Army Reserve Command in Fort Bragg, N.C.
The 79th SSC’s change of command ceremony included a salute battery by Bravo Battery, 143rd Field Artillery and ceremonial music by the 300th U.S. Army Band. Talley serves as the 32nd Chief, Army Reserve and Commanding General of the U.S. Army Reserve Command (USARC).
Hundreds of local Soldiers, as well as state, national and local government and civic leaders attended the event.
The 79th SSC, which is headquartered at Los Alamitos, is subordinate to USARC and executes command and control of the 4th, 311th, 364th, and 451st Expeditionary Sustainment Commands. These Brig. Gen. level commands account for approximately 19,000 Army Reserve Soldiers and Civilians assigned to 209 Sustainment units dispersed across 19 states west of the Mississippi River. Soldiers representing these units participated in this change of command ceremony based upon the tradition started by General George Washington when our nation was founded.
The 79th SSC traces its lineage as a combat infantry division dating back to World War I. The 79th Infantry Division was established in August, 1917, and immediately saw extensive combat in the Meuse-Argonne area where it earned the name of the “Cross of Lorraine Division” for the defense of France.
The division inactivated in June, 1919 and returned to the United States. The division again activated for WWII in June, 1942. After training in the United Kingdom from April 17, 1944, the 79th Infantry Division landed on Utah Beach, Normandy, June 12-14 and entered combat June 19, 1944.
For more information please contact Lt. Col. Bettina K. Avent, 79th SSC Public Affairs Officer, at bettina.k.avent.mil@mail.mil or 1-562-936-7663 / 7660 or cell 1-562-343-3349.
