(By Michelle Tan, Army Times, 15 March 2016)

Retired Gen. Carter Ham will take the helm of the Association of the United States Army this summer, officials announced Tuesday.

Ham, who most recently served as chairman of the National Commission on the Future of the Army, will succeed retired Gen. Gordon Sullivan. He will serve as AUSA’s president and chief executive officer.

Sullivan, a former Army chief of staff who has led AUSA since 1998, announced Ham’s appointment Tuesday during the AUSA Global Force Symposium and Exposition here.

Ham’s appointment as president of AUSA, an influential non-profit educational organization that supports the Army and advocates for the service on Capitol Hill, comes less than three weeks after he was named as an executive vice president for the organization.

Ham, who retired in 2013 after almost 39 years of service, spoke to Army Times before Tuesday’s announcement. At the time, he declined to confirm rumors that he was to be the next AUSA president.

Before AUSA, Ham was the chairman of the National Commission on the Future of the Army, an eight-member panel tasked by Congress to study and provide recommendations on the size, force structure and capabilities of the Army. The commission released its long-anticipated report Jan. 28.

He is a veteran of Operations Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom, where he commanded in Mosul, Iraq, from January 2004 to February 2005. He commanded U.S. Africa Command, U.S. Army Europe and the 1st Infantry Division. He also has served as director of operations on the Joint Staff and during his career served overseas in Saudi Arabia, Germany, Macedonia, Qatar and Iraq.

Ham’s Army career began in 1974 as an enlisted soldier; he was commissioned as an infantry officer in 1976.