Change of command at Fort Monmouth

Col. Stephen M. Christian

FORT MONMOUTH - Col. Ricki L. Sullivan, commander of the U.S. Army Garrison Fort Monmouth, relinquished his command in a change of command ceremony June 21.

Col. Stephen M. Christian, whose most recent assignment was as a Congressional legislative liaison for the Secretary of the Army, became the new Fort Monmouth Army garrison commander.

Sullivan, who has commanded the garrison since July 2004, is retiring after a military career spanning 25 years.

Sullivan has had an extensive Army career. During his assignment at Fort Monmouth, he has served as a nonvoting member of the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Planning Authority along with his many duties and responsibilities as garrison commander.

Before taking command at Fort Monmouth, he had served as chief of the Military Support Division, Department of the Army Operations Center.

Other previous assignments included: chief of the Initiatives Branch, Fort Sill, Okla.; commander, 5th Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery (Multiple Launch Rocket System), at Fort Sill; and field artillery branch chief, officer Personnel Management Directorate, U.S. Army Personnel Command.

Col. Stephen Christian accepts the garrison colors from Diane Devens, director, Northeast region of the Army's Installation Management Command, as Col. Ricki Sullivan looks on.

Sullivan was commissioned in the U.S. Army Field Artillery upon graduating from the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, N.Y., in 1982.

He holds two master's degrees in national security and strategic studies in addition to his bachelor of science degree in engineering from West Point. His military schooling includes the Navy Command and Staff College, Newport, R.I., and the U.S. Marine Corps War College, Quantico, Va.

Christian, a native of Las Vegas, served as the deputy director, Command Protocol for the U.S. Space Command, North American Aerospace Command, and Air Force Space Command from 1998 to 1999. Following that assignment, he served two years as the executive officer to the U.S. Space Command director of plans. He later served as the deputy U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command System manager for ground-based midcourse defense, formerly known as the National Missile Defense Program.

He was the commander of the 1st Battalion, 62nd Air Defense Artillery Regiment for three years and served as battalion commander and deputy director of operations, Combined Forces Command- Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom from February 2004 to February 2005.

Christian earned a bachelor of science in social psychology from Park University, Missouri; a master of science in administration from Central Michigan University; and a master of security strategy from the National War College, National Defense University, Fort McNair, Washington, D.C.

He enlisted in the Army in 1978 and in 1984 attended officer candidate school and was commissioned as an air defense artillery officer.