Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez will retire from the U.S. Army on Nov. 1, a U.S. Army Europe official said Friday.
Sanchez, 55, has served in the Army for more than 33 years.
He will retire nearly two months after he relinquishes command of V Corps during a ceremony Wednesday on Heidelberg’s Campbell Barracks. During that time he will be on transitional leave, authorities said.
A successor had not been named.
“They’re going through the nomination process right now,” said a U.S. Army spokeswoman.
Lt. Gen. Pete Chiarelli, now commander of Multi-National Corps-Iraq, has been presumed to be the next V Corps commander.
Authorities would not comment on why Chiarelli was not being named V Corps commander.
Members of Chiarelli’s staff now in Iraq — who, like their boss, have spouses and household goods in Heidelberg — said that what the next move was remained unclear.
Chiarelli, formerly commander of the 1st Cavalry Division, took V Corps’ headquarters with him in December when he went to Baghdad. But he wasn’t named V Corps commander because Sanchez still held that position. Sanchez has been V Corps commander longer than any other in the corps’ 88-year history.
Chiarelli’s duties as Multi-National Corps-Iraq commander are expected to end in December, when Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno succeeds him with III Corps.
