Maj. Gen. Bernard Champoux will assume command of the 25th Infantry Division during Feb. 19 ceremonies at Schofield Barracks.

He will replace Maj. Gen. Robert L. Caslen Jr., who has commanded the division since May 2008. On Feb. 2, the Senate approved Caslen's promotion to lieutenant general, and he will be the next commanding general of the Army Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.

Champoux graduated from Saint Anslem College in New Hampshire and received an Army ROTC commission in 1977.

Champoux was assistant 25th Infantry Division commander in charge of support in 2003. He returned to Hawaii after serving as chief legislative liaison in the Office of the Secretary of the Army in Washington, D.C.

Before that, he was deputy chief of staff for operations at International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

In 1996, Champoux assumed command of the 25th Division's 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry, at Schofield Barracks. Three years later, he was assigned as commander of the 10th Mountain Division's 2nd Brigade at Fort Drum, N.Y., and deployed to Bosnia as a member of Task Force Eagle.

Caslen has been in the Army for 34 years.

In October 2008, Caslen took 4,500 soldiers from Schofield Barracks, including its 3rd Brigade Combat Team, and became the leader of 20,000 coalition troops in Multi-National Division North, near Tikrit in northern Iraq. He returned in October.

Caslen served in the 1991 Gulf War and took the 25th Infantry Division's 1st Battalion, 14th Regiment, to Haiti during a 1994 peacekeeping mission. Caslen also served two combat tours in Afghanistan before becoming the 70th commandant of cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.