Trump nominates former 11th Airborne commander to lead Eighth Army in South Korea | Military

Maj. Gen. Joseph Hilbert was nominated Friday to promotion to lieutenant general and assignment as commander of the Eighth Army, according to a Pentagon news release Friday. The post requires Senate confirmation.

Hilbert now serves as the special assistant to the commander of U.S. Army Pacific out of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska.

Eighth Army, based about 40 miles south of Seoul at Camp Humphreys, includes the 2nd Infantry Division and regularly conducts large-scale exercises with South Korean forces. The most recent, Ulchi Freedom Shield, was held across the peninsula Aug. 18-28.

The command has had two acting leaders since April, when Lt. Gen. Christopher LaNeve stepped down to become senior military assistant to Defense

LaNeve’s deputy, Brig. Gen. Sean Crockett, temporarily filled the role until his selection as deputy commander of the Army’s ROTC program. Maj. Gen. William Taylor, formerly U.S. Forces Korea’s operations director and 2nd ID’s commander, has served in an acting capacity since then.

Hilbert led the 11th Airborne from June 27, 2024, to Aug. 7, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson. He was the second commander of the division, reactivated in June 2022 as part of the Army’s effort to sharpen its focus on Arctic warfare.

His previous assignments include commander of 7th Army Training Command in Grafenwoehr, Germany, and director of Force Development at the Army’s Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff in Washington, D.C. He was commissioned as a field artillery officer in 1993.