Change of command ceremony set for Benning commander

A change of command ceremony will be held Friday for Maj. Gen. Scott Miller, commander of the Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Benning, officials said.

After 20 months at the post, Miller will hand over duties to a successor, who hasn’t been named by post officials. The ceremony will be in Marshall Auditorium at McGinnis-Wickam Hall.

A recent report in the Washington Post said Miller is likely to be the next head of the U.S. military’s Joint Special Operations Command.

Before arriving at Fort Benning, Miller was the commander of NATO Special Operations Component Command-Afghanistan/Special Operations Joint Task Force in Afghanistan from June 2013 to June 2014. Miller succeeded H.R. McMaster, who was promoted to lieutenant general and reassigned to Fort Eustis, Va., where he is director of Army Capabilities Integration Center and deputy commanding general, futures at the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command.

Miller’s tenure at Fort Benning was part of history as he managed the Army’s high-profile, gender-integration class. In its 65-year history, the Ranger School accepted its first class with women in April 2015 to tackle the Army’s toughest combat leadership training course.

Three women would repeat phases of the training but finish the nine-week course to make history. Capt. Kristen Griest, a military police officer, and 1st Lt. Shaye Haver, an Apache helicopter pilot, graduated in August. Their success shattered another gender barrier as the Pentagon weighed expanded roles for women in combat.

Two months after Griest and Haver graduated, Maj. Lisa Jaster completed the course in October, becoming the third woman to meet the standards of the leadership course.

Throughout the process, Miller defended the Ranger School and insisted that the standards weren’t lowered.

“As we go into a gender-integrated class, the standards aren’t going to change,” Miller said before the class started.

This story was originally published March 12, 2016 at 7:10 PM with the headline "Change of command ceremony set for Benning commander."