The 1st Infantry Division community will welcome a new deputy commanding general and bid farewell to three deputy commanding generals during a July 30 Victory with Honors ceremony in Victory Park.
Brig. Gen. John S. Kolasheski will serve as the “Big Red One’s” deputy commanding general for maneuver. Before coming to Fort Riley, the armor officer was deputy chief of staff for strategic communications for Headquarters, Resolute Support/Operation Freedom’s Sentinel and the International Security Assistance Force/Operation Enduring Freedom with duty in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Kolasheski previously served with the 1st Inf. Div. as executive officer for the 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment; brigade operations officer for the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team including duty in Iraq; and later as deputy division operations officer.
Kolasheski is a graduate of Bucknell University and holds master’s degrees in engineering management and simulations/training systems design from the University of Central Florida and in strategic studies from the U.S. Army War College.
Brig. Gen. Eric J. Wesley, deputy commanding general for support, is departing Fort Riley to serve as deputy director of program analysis and evaluation for the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, financial management, in Washington, D.C. Wesley arrived at the 1st Inf. Div. in September 2014, and while the division headquarters served recently in Iraq, he also took on duties as the acting senior mission commander at Fort Riley.
Brig. Gen. Thomas C. Graves, deputy commanding general for operations, is departing the 1st Inf. Div. to serve as deputy commanding general for operations with Eighth U.S. Army in the Republic of Korea. Graves also arrived at the 1st Inf. Div. in September 2014 and deployed with its headquarters, which formed the core of Combined Joint Forces Land Component
Command-Iraq, from October 2014 to June 2015.
Brigadier, UK Christopher Ghika, deputy commanding general for readiness, is departing to serve as Head of Personnel Strategy for the British army. Ghika, an officer in the British army serving with the Big Red One as part of a senior leader exchange program, arrived at Fort Riley in November 2013.
He also deployed to Iraq with the division headquarters from October 2014 to June 2015.
Also during the July 30 ceremony, Col. Peter G. Minalga will be welcomed as the division’s new chief of staff, replacing Col. (promotable) Kenneth L. Kamper.
Minalga commanded the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Inf. Div., from July 2013 to May 2015. Kamper is set to take command of U.S. Army Operational Test Command at Fort Hood, Texas, in August. Kamper arrived at Fort Riley in September 2014, deploying for part of the division’s time in Iraq.
