FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. — U.S. Army Garrison Fort Leonard Wood held a change-of-command ceremony June 25, 2026, on the Maneuver Support Center of Excellence Plaza, where Col. Steven Bartley relinquished command to Col. Eric McCall.
During the ceremony, Maj. Gen. Christopher Beck, Maneuver Support Center of Excellence and Fort Leonard Wood commanding general, thanked Bartley, who is retiring after more than 29 years of dedicated service to the nation.
“Thank you for this job you’ve done here — more importantly, thank you for the service you have given to our Army and our nation,” Beck said. “You need to know that you did it right, and you need to know that the legacy of the units and the individuals that you influenced will carry on long beyond your time in uniform.”
Beck noted Bartley successfully guided the garrison through Army and MSCoE transformations.
“The thing I could always count on is that you were always part of our team. It didn’t matter what patch you wore, didn’t matter who your boss was — you were part of the MSCoE and Fort Leonard Wood team,” he said. “I never lost sleep over anything we were doing in the garrison, because I knew you understood intent and you were going to take whatever you and your team were doing well beyond the intent and deliver something incredible.”
Reviewing Officer Col. Harry Hung, Installation Management Command — Training, Transformation and Training Command — interim director, said he has seen this garrison evolve over the years.
Noting specifically the building of new housing and the recent grass cutting agreement, Hung said, “some of the most remarkable achievements have occurred over the last two years under the leadership of Col. Steven Bartley.”
Hung said garrisons have the responsibility of operating and maintaining the core infrastructure, as well as providing the critical services needed for improved quality of life and to keep training and transformation on the path at the pace it needs to move.
“Fort Leonard Wood is a special place with the IMCOM Transformation and Training Directorate portfolio of 25 installations. This is the one right in the middle of America’s heartland and surrounded by the beautiful Ozark lakes and mountains. Among the outdoor beauty is also one of the four installations where we turn young civilians from recruits to highly capable and lethal Soldiers, and that doesn’t happen on its own,” Hung said.
Bartley said the torch of military service has been passed down from generation to generation since the Revolutionary War before thanking family, friends and the garrison team for their support and hard work, in addition to Beck for his leadership.
“I would match this team against any in the Army,” Bartley said. “Over the last two years the only constant has really been the winds of change. We’ve faced shifting organizational structures, lean budgetary realities, yet day in and day out our dedicated Army civilians have been the anvil upon which every success of this command has been forged.”
He said the civilians and Soldiers within the garrison are the custodians of a sacred trust.
“We often speak of the magic of Fort Leonard Wood, a chemistry that extends far beyond our gates. This magic is no accident of geography,” Bartley said. “It’s a result of the collective devotion to a purpose higher than ourselves. The unshakable conviction that training our Soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen is a sacred trust.”
Bartley said as he reaches the conclusion of his military career he has been reflecting on why he chose the Army, and why he continued to serve and concluded that the U.S. Army allowed him the opportunity to live the American dream.
“I never laid my head down at night feeling the work we did didn’t matter, or that the sacrifice was not for the greater good,” he said. “Wearing this uniform has never been a mere job, or a calculation of careerism. Once I understood its true meaning, I knew it was exactly where I belonged. To be entrusted with the leadership of America’s sons and daughters, and to safeguard our way of life is the highest honor a country can ask.”
He concluded his remarks by welcoming McCall and said the mission he is accepting is vast.
Hung noted that being a garrison commander is arguably one of the toughest and hardest assignments one could have, and one that McCall was specifically chosen to fill.
“You have been specially selected, with all the right credentials — assignments with professional logisticians at all echelons from no stars to four stars — with leadership skills honed over 23 years,” he said. “All of it will be necessary to continue building upon the many years of hard work that came before you to drive the next generation of improvements to the underlying platform that makes Fort Leonard Wood a great place.”
McCall said he was humbled and honored by the welcome he received.
“It is good to be at Fort Leonard Wood,” McCall said. “I look forward to getting to know each of you over the next two years.”
McCall comes to Fort Leonard Wood from Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, where he recently graduated from the U.S. Army War College. In his most recent assignment prior to attending the war college he served as a branch chief, J-5, for the U.S. Transportation Command at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois.
More photos from the ceremony are available to view and download on [theFort Leonard Wood Flickr](https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCXCWE) page.
| Date Taken: |
06.25.2026 |
| Date Posted: |
06.26.2026 16:12 |
| Story ID: |
568716 |
| Location: |
FORT LEONARD WOOD, MISSOURI, US |
| Web Views: |
15 |
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This work, Fort Leonard Wood says farewell to Bartley, welcomes McCall at change of command, by Dawn Arden, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
