WASHINGTON - On Veterans Day comes word of the confirmation of a new director for the Army National Guard, Army Maj. Gen. William Ingram, former adjutant general of the North Carolina National Guard and current special assistant to the Army vice chief of staff.
Ingram's confirmation occurred during a historic Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday, the first ever when all six members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff testified to the full committee. The testimony, for which the Joint Chiefs were joined by Air Force Gen. Craig McKinley, the chief of the National Guard Bureau, was on the matter of whether the CNGB should join the JCS.
Senators confirmed Ingram during a brief break after they had reached quorum.
Ingram, who also was confirmed for appointment to the rank of lieutenant general on Thursday, will succeed Army Maj. Gen. Raymond Carpenter, who has served as acting director of the Army National Guard for 29 months, since his appointment by McKinley on May 29, 2009, following the retirement of Army Lt. Gen. Clyde Vaughn.
Ingram will be the 19th director and the third three-star general to fill the position. The first was Army Lt. Gen. Roger Schultz, who served in the role from 1998 until his 2005 retirement. Prior to Schultz, the director was a major general, except for a period in the 1960s when three consecutive directors were brigadier generals. The first director was Army Maj. Gen. Raymond Fleming, from 1948 to 1950.
The director is responsible for formulating, developing and coordinating all programs, policies and plans affecting the Army National Guard and its more than 350,000 Citizen-Soldiers.
Ingram already has almost 40 years of service as an Army National Guard officer. He was the Distinguished Graduate from Officer Candidate School at the North Carolina Military Academy at Fort Bragg in 1972.
His experience includes commanding U.S., United Nations and NATO forces in Croatia, Macedonia and Kosovo; the chairmanship of the Army Reserve Forces Policy Committee; leading roles in homeland security and domestic disaster response and his more than nine-year stint as North Carolina's adjutant general.
His awards include the Legion of Merit and multiple Meritorious Service Medals, as well as numerous awards for his service in North Carolina and overseas.
No date has yet been announced for Ingram's formal promotion and assumption of responsibilities at the Army National Guard.