CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM Maj. Gen. Eric Olson, top, outgoing commander of the 25th Infantry Division (Light), did an inspection of his troops for the last time yesterday at Schofield Barracks.

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25th Division leader
leaves post

Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon
replaces Maj. Gen. Eric Olson

The first Schofield Barracks general to lead the 25th Infantry Division into combat since the Vietnam War relinquished command of more than 10,000 soldiers yesterday.

Benjamin Mixon: He comes to Schofield from U.S. Southern Command in Miami

But yesterday's Army show and parade were for outgoing Maj. Gen. Eric "Ric" Olson, who assumed command of the 25th Tropic Lightning Division in July 2002 and was described as a leader "who led his team from the front and from the heart."

Olson, 54, will remain in Hawaii and become deputy commander of the U.S. Pacific Command -- a job that means a third star as a lieutenant general.

Lt. Gen. John Brown, commanding general of U.S. Army Pacific, told an audience of military soldiers, dependents and supporters that Olson leaves Schofield Barracks at "an intersection of two crucial paths" from the past achievements to modernization.

He retraced the history of the Tropic Lightning Division from when it was formed to its combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan this year. During its 64-year history, which encompassed World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, the 25th Division has been awarded 44 Medals of Honor, Brown said.

He noted that initially in July 2003, only one brigade of 25th Division soldiers was chosen to spend six months in Afghanistan and then be replaced with another Tropic Lightning Division brigade for another six months.

But instead, the 2nd Brigade Combat Team was re-flagged to go to Iraq for a year, and the division's 3rd Brigade was tabbed a few months later to spend a year in Afghanistan.

That meant that there were more than 10,000 division soldiers last year in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Brown said Mixon, who comes to Wahiawa from the U.S. Southern Command in Miami, where he was director of operations, assumes the operations of one of the Army's 10 fighting divisions as the "Army continues to modernize, improve our training, make sure weapons systems are second to none and to ensure we are ready for the next battle."

"Today we call this path transformation, and the 25th Infantry Division is about to lead the Army and sprint down that path to remake itself as the most capable divisional fighting force ever fielded by an army in the world and make itself ready for its next battle, which is certain to come," Brown said.

Olson said in his farewell address that the nearly three years he spent as Schofield Barracks' commanding general was "the most important and most rewarding portion of my 33 years in the military."

He asked the audience for a moment of silence to honor 28 "fallen comrades" -- 13 Tropic Lightning soldiers who were killed in Iraq and 15 in Afghanistan.

Olson also was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal and the Defense Superior Service Medal, presented with the last shell fired by a Tropic Lightning artillery unit in Afghanistan.