A former Fort McClellan officer will take command Aug. 12 of Anniston's Army stockpile of 661,529 weapons that face destruction starting in October.Lt. Col. Robert E. Jones, 41, a Virginia native, served with the current commander of the Anniston Chemical Activity, Lt. Col. Bruce Williams, during Jones' 1989-1993 stint at McClellan.
"I've got lots of extended family and friends in the area," Jones said. "It's sort of like coming home. The assignment I had at McClellan - nearly five years - was my longest one-time assignment in the Army."
Williams, 41, a Gadsden native, is retiring from the Army Aug. 30 and plans to stay in the Anniston area. During his normal two-year command tour here, Williams played a pivotal role in the public debate over what's to happen with the 7 percent of the nation's stockpile of chemical weapons that's stored at Anniston Army Depot.
Despite continuing public concerns about emergency preparedness, the Army favors incineration of the rockets and other weapons now stored in concrete bunkers. The Army and its private contractor, Westinghouse, conducted incinerator burns with non-toxic materials in the spring.
Actual weapons incineration testing is scheduled to begin Oct. 11 with rockets containing sarin nerve agent.
"Col. Jones is taking over the operations mantel at a critical time," Williams said. "We still plan on sending the first rocket over this fall."
Jones got his officer's commission in 1983 through the University of Richmond ROTC. He later earned a bachelor's degree in business automation at Virginia Commonwealth University and a master's in management information systems from the University of Maryland.
He entered active duty in 1984 at Fort Bragg, N.C., serving as a headquarters battery executive officer, assistant chemical officer, platoon leader and Nuclear-Biological-Chemical Center director until 1988.
At McClellan, Jones was an instructor, operations officer and platoon trainer for the 84th Chemical Battalion from 1989 to 1990. Then he commanded Company D and served as operations officer of the 82nd Chemical Battalion until leaving in 1993.
After leaving McClellan, he attended the Army's computer science school at Fort Gordon, Ga., and served in executive positions at the Army's European Command in Germany. In 1995, he returned to Fort Bragg and served in several chemical command roles before leaving in 1999 to attend the Naval War College.
His most recent position was as a staff officer at the Pentagon.
Jones has graduated from about 10 specialized Army programs, including a National Security and Strategic Studies program at the Naval War College.
Heis married to the former Karla L. Freeman of Fayetteville, N.C., and they have three children, Asya, Jackson and Jonathan. His family plans to move here in late July.
After retiring from the Army, Williams will work as a surety manager for Battelle, a major defense and energy contractor that's a subcontractor for Westinghouse at AAD.
"I think the central theme of what (the Army's) doing here is safe, secure storage of these chemical weapons," Williams said. "I'm very confident of the job we've done."
