The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announces that Col. Leon Parrott will take command of the Huntington District in a ceremony to take place at the Huntington City Hall Auditorium on Oct. 11, 2013 at 11 a.m. The ceremony will be presided over by Brig. Gen. Margaret Burcham, Commanding General of the Great Lakes and Ohio River Division.
Col. Parrott comes to Huntington from Ft. Bragg, N.C. where he served as the Corps Engineer for the XVIIIth Airborne Corps. He has held a variety of command and staff assignments including: Platoon Leader, Company Executive Officer and Construction Officer with the 94th Engineer Battalion, 18th Engineer Brigade and 249th Engineer Battalion; Battalion Maintenance Officer and Company Commander with the 37th Engineer Battalion, 20th Engineer Brigade; Assistant Construction and Operations Officer with the 416th Engineering Command; Environmental Project Officer and District Executive Officer, Europe District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Battalion Operations and Executive Officer with the 1st Battalion, 395th Engineer Regiment; Group Engineer with the 5th Special Forces Group, Deputy and then Chief of the Emergency Operations Center for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Commander of the 326th Engineer Battalion; Deputy Engineer for Installations, Environment and Civil/Military Operations, U.S. European Command; Chief of Engineering at the Defense Intelligence Agency; and, most recently as Corps Engineer of the XVIII th Airborne Corps.
As the Huntington District Commander, he will be responsible for carrying out the District’s mission within the Ohio River Basin, which includes more than 300 navigable miles of the Ohio River in West Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio, plus nine major tributaries. This area encompasses 45,000 square miles in five states – West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Virginia, and North Carolina. His staff of more than 800 employees supports the District’s mission to operate and maintain 35 multi-purpose reservoirs and nine locks and dams, providing flood damage reduction, commercial navigation, recreation, and water supply while protecting the environment. The District is involved in significant planning, design, and construction efforts that address replacement of outdated navigation structures on the Ohio and Kanawha Rivers, dam safety measures at operating projects in central Ohio and southern West Virginia, other significant water resource challenges, as well as emergency management. His staff performs the Corps’ regulatory mission in West Virginia and Ohio.