Maj. Gen. Randy Taylor took the helm of the Army's Communications-Electronics Command during a change of command ceremony at CECOM's headquarters located at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, on April 13.
Taylor, who comes from the Army's CIO/G-6 office where he served as the director of architecture, operations, networks and space, takes command from Maj. Gen. Bruce Crawford.
"During this time of controversy, this time of threats, it counts on people like the great organization of CECOM to make sure that our Army is ready," Gen. Gustave Perna, commander of Army Materiel Command, who hosted the ceremony, said Thursday.
"CECOM commander is responsible for $2.2 billion worth of support. CECOM is one of four of our life cycle management commands. It is the material integrator for the entire Army command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems," Perna said.
CECOM provides "engineering and field support, training, cyber defense, supply chain management, and manufacturing and sustainment operations to assure our expeditionary Army remains ready to fight and win every day, anytime, anywhere. The readiness of our Army relies on this organization. There is more than 185,000 solider that are forward. … They are supported by CECOM every day," he added.
Crawford called CECOM and Aberdeen Proving Ground "the Army’s home of innovation and the Army’s home of opportunity."
In his first remarks as commander of CECOM, Taylor told the audience of active-duty, retired and civilian personnel and their family members: "We are unique here at APG, Aberdeen Proving Ground — no one else does what this team does, to enable our Army’s readiness, to fight and win our nation’s wars."
"Through Gen. Crawford’s leadership, I will tell you that you have contributed every day to the success of our Army and the chief’s No. 1 priority of readiness. And you ought to be proud of it," Perna said, referencing Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley’s readiness priority.
"I believe that our proximity to the battlefield is not directly correlated with the significance of our contribution to the fight and the Army’s readiness to win," Taylor said. "If you think what we do here is like running a business — and it is in many ways — I’ll tell you we have just one customer, and that’s the American soldier — the solider who’s deployed in harm’s way or must be ready to deploy. Our Army and our country — quite frankly the world — needs us to succeed here as a team. We have no other option; the stakes are too high."
Mark Pomerleau is a reporter for C4ISRNET, covering information warfare and cyberspace.
