JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON -- Col. Damon Delarosa became the 29th commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – Alaska District during an assumption of command ceremony today on the front lawn of the headquarters building near Anchorage.
Delarosa, a native of San Antonio, replaces Col. David Hibner who served as the acting district commander since April 2020. Col. Kirk Gibbs, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – Pacific Ocean Division in Hawaii, hosted the event that adhered to social distancing protocols.
Delarosa will oversee a multi-million dollar program that provides engineering, construction, planning, contracting, real estate, emergency operations, environmental and regulatory services to the military; federal, state and local governments; as well as the public in Alaska.
In addition, he will be responsible for the district’s support to the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command by designing and constructing humanitarian assistance projects throughout Southeast Asia. Under the Department of Defense Foreign Military Sales Program, the district also oversees master planning, requirements validation, design and construction of infrastructure for the government of India’s C-17 aircraft at Hindon Air Force Station, India.
Before assuming command in Alaska, Delarosa served as the human resource manager for engineer, chemical colonels in the Colonel Management Office for the Office of the Chief of Staff of the Army. Previously, he served as the commander of the Corps’ Walla Walla District covering six states stretching from the Tri-Cities in Washington to Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Delarosa’s other assignments include platoon leader and company executive officer in the 65th Engineer Battalion, 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii and the mine action officer for the 25th Infantry Division during the NATO Stabilization Force mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina. While serving in the 82nd Airborne Division, he deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom as the theatre security engineer and then again as the commander of Headquarters Company Commander for the 3rd Brigade Special Troops Battalion.
He is a graduate of the Engineer Basic and Advanced Courses at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri; the Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas; and the Airborne, Air Assault, Ranger and Sapper Leader Schools. His awards and decorations include the Army Bronze Star Medal, Distinguished Meritorious Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, and the Bronze Order of the DeFleury Medal. Delarosa was commissioned in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1998 after graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point in New York.
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