At the Change of Command Ceremony for 311th Signal Command (Theater), Outgoing Commander, Maj. Gen. Donna L. Dacier hands over to Incoming Commander, Brig. Gen. Alan R. Lynn, at Fort Shafter, Palm Circle, Friday, Oct. 17, 2008
This traditional Army ceremony officially recognizes the transfer of leadership of the U.S. Army’s 311th Signal Command (Theater) from Maj. Gen. Dacier to Brig. Gen. Lynn.
BACKGROUND: The commander of the 311th SC(T) directs more than 1,900 active duty and reserve Soldiers and civilian employees stationed across 14 time zones, from Japan to Maryland. The command operates the Army’s Pacific LandWarNet (digital telecommunications network) across the U.S. Pacific Command’s area of responsibility that includes Hawaii, Alaska and 35 Pacific and Indian Ocean nations and territories.
The 311th SC(T) dates back to World War II, when it was activated as a signal service battalion for several European campaigns. In 1963, it became an Army Reserve command in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1996, it became a theater-level Army Reserve command at Fort Meade, Maryland. In September 2006, it was reorganized and relocated to Fort Shafter, where it became a major subordinate command of U.S. Army, Pacific, as part of the Pacific Army’s transformation into a combatant land force with expeditionary and joint-service responsibilities.
Prior to the change of command, an awards ceremony to honor Maj. Gen. Dacier will be held at 9:30 at the Palm Circle gazebo. Maj. Gen. Dacier will be retiring after 34 years of active and reserve Army service. Maj. Gen. Dacier’s leadership was key to the restationing of the 311th SC(T) from Ft. Meade, Maryland to Ft. Shafter and its transformation from a sustainment (support) command to an expeditionary command.
Major General Donna L. Dacier began her military career after receiving a direct appointment in the Women’s Army Corps in 1974. She served in a variety of company-level positions before transferring to the Army National Guard and subsequently to the Army Reserve where she served in signal and ordnance units.
In 1985, Dacier returned to active duty as a full time Army Reservist with a civil affairs unit in New York, and operators and maintainers at the Sacramento Army Depot. She then worked on the staffs of the Chief Army Reserve and for the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations in various force integration and resource management efforts during major Army initiatives to downsize and reshape Army forces.
In 1997, after graduating from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, she was assigned to command the 335th Theater Signal Command’s forward element in Saudi Arabia. She then served in senior leadership positions with Army Reserve commands in California before being mobilized in July 2004 to support of combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Upon her redeployment to the United States, Maj. Gen. Dacier assumed command of the 311th Theater Signal Command, then a strategic reserve force of the Army Reserve at Fort Meade, Maryland. She oversaw the command’s relocation to Fort Shafter in 2006 and its transformation into an operational force capable of functioning as a major subordinate command of U.S. Army, Pacific with theater-wide signal responsibilities.
Maj. Gen. Dacier has an M.S. in National Resource Strategy from the National Defense University in Washington D.C., and an M.S. in Instructional and Performance Technology from Boise State University. Her military decorations include a Legion of Merit with an Oak Leaf Cluster and the Bronze Star.
Biography of Brigadier General Alan R. Lynn
Brigadier General Alan R. Lynn entered the Army as a Distinguished Military Graduate of his university and was first assigned as an Air Defense Artillery officer in 1979 at Fort Ord, California with the 7th Infantry Division in short range air defense missile systems. In 1983, after graduating from the Defense Language Institute for Italian in Monterey, California, he commanded a long range missile detachment in Italy.
Brigadier General Lynn then commanded a signal company providing communications support to U.S. Army, Europe and 7th Army command posts during the height of the Cold War in Germany.
After graduating from signal officer schools in Georgia and Mississippi in 1989, Brig.Gen. Lynn served as an Infantry Brigade Signal Officer at Fort Campbell, Kentucky and was deployed to Saudi Arabia and Iraq during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. He commanded the 13th Signal Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, Texas and deployed it to Bosnia-Herzegovina during Operation Joint Forge.
From 2002-2005 he commanded the 3rd Signal Brigade, III Corps at Fort Hood, Texas and in Iraq while deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, developing the largest tactical communications system in the Army’s history.
Upon his return to the United States, B.G. Lynn served as Chief of the LandWarNet Integration Division and executive officer to the Army’s Chief Information Officer at Army headquarters in Washington D.C. In July 2007, he became Chief of Staff for the Defense Information Systems Agency in Arlington, Virginia. He was promoted to Brigadier General in February 2008.
B.G. Lynn has an M.S. in National Resource Strategy from the National Defense University in Washington, D.C. and a B.A. in English from the California University of Pennsylvania. His military decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit and the Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster.