U.S. Army Sgt. Maj. Duncan F. McGrath (center) of U.S. Army South (Sixth Army), presents the colors of the command to U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Philip J. Ryan,left), the commanding general of U.S. Army South, and U.S. Army Command Sgt. Maj. Eric B. Olsen during the U.S. Army South inactivation ceremony, May 29, 2026. The ceremony formally marked the inactivation of U.S. Army South after decades of supporting security cooperation, contingency operations, and partnerships throughout Central America, South America and the Caribbean. (Deane Barnhardt/U.S. Army)
The Army shuttered U.S. Army South last week and rolled its troops into the service’s new Western Hemisphere Command as part of a major reorganization spearheaded by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Army South cased its colors and inactivated on May 29 in a formal ceremony at San Antonio’s Trinity University, ending four decades of the unit’s service supporting military operations in the Caribbean region and Central and South America. The soldiers assigned to Army South — which was also known as Sixth Army — will continue to support U.S. Southern Command operations, but will now do so under Western Hemisphere Command, which stood up at Fort Bragg, N.C., in December.
“Army South’s mission, people and progress are not going away,” said Gen. Joseph Ryan, who leads Western Hemisphere Command. “Once again in its century-plus history, this organization is further broadening its scope, joining the best of Army North and Fifth United States Army to continue building the United States Army Western Hemisphere Command — an organization focused from the Arctic to the southern-most tip of the Andean Ridge, and driven by the necessary security of the American homeland.”
The Army last year announced a major reshuffling of its largest four-star commands as part of reorganization efforts mandated by Hegseth, meant in part to reduce the number of general officers in the service. Officials have said establishing one command focused on operations across the entire Americas also reflects the military’s directive to focus more attention near the U.S. homeland under President Donald Trump.
Western Hemisphere Command was activated Dec. 5 as the Army shuttered U.S. Army Forces Command, which for decades oversaw the manning and training of the service’s conventional forces across the globe. Under the new organization, regional component commands are now responsible for manning and training efforts for conventional forces in their areas of responsibility. Western Hemisphere Command will oversee forces assigned to operations in both U.S. Southern Command and U.S. Northern Command areas.
The Army last year also merged U.S. Training and Doctrine Command and U.S. Futures Command into a four-star organization now known as Transformation and Training Command, or T2COM.
U.S. Army North will inactivate in July and become part of Western Hemisphere Command, Ashley Patoka, a spokeswoman for the new command, said Tuesday.
Army South’s last commanding general, Maj. Gen. Phillip Ryan, said the closure of his organization, which had been based at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston since 2002, was not “an end, but a necessary and powerful evolution.”
“The threats and challenges of our modern operational environment demand a seamless, unified approach to hemispheric security,” Maj. Gen. Ryan said at the inactivation ceremony.
Army South was officially established as a major command in 1986 at Fort Clayton in the Panama Canal Zone. It moved in 1999 to Puerto Rico, where it was headquartered at Fort Buchanan for about three years before its move to Texas.
But Army South traces its lineage to the early 1900s, when the Army established the Panama Canal Guard. It later became the Caribbean Defense Command and in the 1940s it became U.S. Army Caribbean, which was focused on training soldiers in jungle warfare. In the 1960s, Army Caribbean became U.S. Army Forces Southern Command with about 10,000 to 14,000 soldiers focused on missions in Central and South America, according to a unit history. In 1986, Army South stood up as the Army’s component of U.S. Southern Command, responsible for operations in 31 countries and 15 areas of special sovereignty in Latin America and the Caribbean, except Puerto Rico and Mexico, which fall under U.S. Northern Command’s area of responsibility.
Army officials have said the bulk of the troops from Army South and Army North — which is also headquartered at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston — would move to Fort Bragg over the next year. Most will stay in San Antonio until their next preplanned rotation cycle, with their replacements reporting to Fort Bragg, Patoka said.
Western Hemisphere Command is also attempting to retain most of its civilian employees. About 60 civilian employees from Army South and Army North are expected to remain at JBSA, she said. Others will be offered the opportunity to relocate to Fort Bragg. Those efforts are underway and will continue for several months.
“Both commands are comprised of professionals who’ve dedicated themselves to the Army South and Army North missions there in San Antonio and we absolutely want to retain that critical talent here in the command,” Patoka said.
Officials expect Western Hemisphere Command to reach full operational capability by this fall.
Gen. Ryan, the Western Hemisphere Command leader, told the troops moving into his new command that their experiences in Army South would help his organization support SOUTHCOM.
“Your new mission has national attention, urgency, high-stakes, and it’s a mission that I, for one, am thrilled to tackle with you by my side,” Gen. Ryan told his soldiers.
