Toy Assumes Mississippi Valley Division Command
Maj. Gen. Mark Toy assumed command of the Mississippi Valley Engineer Division in a formal change of command ceremony July 23 at the Vicksburg (Miss.) Convention Center. The ceremony was officiated by Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite, the 54th chief of engineers and commanding general for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Toy relieved Maj. Gen. Richard Kaiser, who is moving to Washington, D.C., to become the deputy commanding general for the Corps of Engineers.
Like Kaiser before him, Toy moved to command of the Mississippi Valley Division from the command of the Corps’ Great Lakes and Ohio River Division.
While assigned to the Lakes and River Division, Toy deployed to Kabul, Afghanistan, in support of Operation Resolute Support. He served as the director for the Enhanced Security Zone (ESZ) leading a task force composed of personnel from the Corps and the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization. Task Force ESZ’s mission was to improve the protective posture of Kabul’s “Green Zone” resulting in improved security for the international community and the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
Toy’s previous assignments include: commander, South Pacific Engineer Division, San Francisco, Calif., June 2014 to August 2016; chief of staff at Corps Headquarters, Washington, D.C., August 2013 to June 2014; commander and district engineer, Los Angeles Engineer District, July 2010 to July 2013; and commander, 84th Engineer Battalion “Never Daunted,” Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, July 2005 to June 2007.
Other key staff assignments include: chief, Engineer Branch, Officer Personnel Management Directorate, Human Resources Command, Alexandria, Va.; aide-de-camp to Lt. Gen. Robert B. Flowers, the 50th chief of engineers and commanding general of the Corps, Washington, D.C.; and assistant professor of environmental engineering, Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering, United States Military Academy, West Point, N.Y.
Toy is from Huntington Beach, Calif. He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1987 with a Bachelor of Science in operations research. He holds a Master of Business Administration from Boston University (1991), a Master of Science in environmental engineering from the University of California at Los Angeles (1996), and a Master of Science in national resource strategy from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces (2010). He is a registered professional engineer in the states of Arizona and Virginia.
As the Mississippi Valley Division’s 40th commander, Toy will be responsible for the Corps’ water resources programs in a 370,000-square-mile area that includes portions of 12 states; its boundary extends from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. District offices are headquartered in St. Paul, Minn.; Rock Island, Ill.; St. Louis, Mo.; Memphis, Tenn.; Vicksburg, Miss.; and New Orleans, La.
In addition, Toy will be president-designee of the Mississippi River Commission, the presidentially appointed agency that oversees the comprehensive Mississippi River and Tributaries flood control and navigation project, as well as the entire Mississippi River and its tributaries.
Caption for photo: Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite, chief of engineers and commanding general of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, right, hands the division flag to Maj. Gen. Mark Toy. (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers photo)
