BLACK SOICIAL HISTORY : AFRICAN AMERICAN FOUR STAR GENERAL WILLIAM E. "KIP" WARD OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY : GOES INTO THE " HALL OF BLSCK GENIUS "

                         BLACK           SOCIAL          HISTORY                                                                                                                                                                William E. "Kip" Ward born March 6, 1949

, is a former United States Army four-star general who previously served as Commander, U.S. Africa Command from October 1, 2007 to March 8, 2011. Prior to that, Ward previously served as Deputy Commander, U.S. European Command. After he left U.S. Africa Command, Ward reverted to his permanent rank of major general and served as a special assistant to the Army’s vice chief of staff pending an investigation in misuse of taxpayer money. Ward then retired with the rank of lieutenant general in November 2012, having been demoted following improper usage of funds.
Ward holds a M.A. in Political Science from Pennsylvania State University and a B.A. in Political Science from Morgan State University. His military education includes the Infantry Officer Basic and Advanced courses, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, and U.S. Army War College.

Ward was commissioned into the infantry in 1971. His military service includes overseas tours in Korea, Egypt, Somalia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Israel, two tours in Germany, and a wide variety of assignments in the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii. He relinquished command of Africa Command to General Carter F. Ham.

While a retirement ceremony was held in April 2011, Ward remains on active-duty, pending a special Army investigation by the Office of the Inspector General, U.S. Department of Defense. The investigation has run 17 months and a ruling on the matter is pending with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. Unnamed "defense officials said Ward is facing numerous allegations that he spent several hundred thousand dollars allowing unauthorized people, including family members, to fly on government planes, and spent excessive amounts of money on hotel rooms, transportation and other expenses when he traveled as head of Africa Command". In a Pentagon report, Ward spent $129,000 of taxpayer money on an 11-day trip with an entourage of 13 military and civilian personnel.

Ward held the four-star grade of general while serving as Commander, U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), a "position of importance and responsibility" under 10 USC § 601.^[7]