FORT SILL — The Fires Center of Excellence and Fort Sill will welcome a new commanding general when Maj. Gen. Winston P. Brooks assumes command July 20 in a ceremony on the Old Post Quadrangle.
Brooks succeeds Maj. Gen. Kenneth Kamper, Fort Sill’s commander who was temporarily suspended as Fort Sill’s commanding general on Feb. 3, reportedly in an investigation by the Department of the Army’s Inspector General into allegations of repeated violations of hunting rules on base.
Kamper was officially relieved of command in mid-June. He “remains in the Fort Sill area, performing duties as directed by the Chief of Staff of the Army,” Cynthia O. Smith, deputy division chief of the Media Relations Division of Army Public Affairs in the Pentagon, informed Southwest Ledger on Friday.
Brooks is no stranger to Fort Sill, having taken the Field Artillery Basic and Advanced Courses as a young officer in the early ’90s. He also was the U.S. Field Artillery School Commandant for a year, from June 2020 to May 2021.
Brooks is a graduate of Memphis State University and received a master’s degree from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. He also was a Senior Service College Fellow at Texas A&M University in 2014-15.
The general’s first assignment was as a platoon leader with the storied 333rd Field Artillery Battalion in Germany and has spanned the globe with assignments in Bosnia-Herzegovina; Fort Benning, Georgia; Fort Irwin, California; Iraq, Fort Hood, Texas; Fort Bliss, Texas; Washington, D.C.; and Poland.
He is returning to Fort Sill from England as the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
The Assumption of Command Ceremony is set for 8 a.m. July 20 on the Old Post Quadrangle. Lt. Gen. Milford H. Beagle, U.S. Army Combined Arms Center commanding general, will officiate the ceremony.