The 7th Infantry Division headquarters on Joint Base Lewis-McChord was formally recognized during a ceremony Wednesday morning at Watkins Parade Field.

The 7^th ID will provide command and control to five subordinate brigades (2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 3rd SBCT, 4th SBCT, 16th Combat Aviation Brigade and 17th Fires Brigade) and will focus on personnel, medical, material and training readiness of approximately 18,000 Soldiers located at JBLM. Secretary of the Army John McHugh announced the reactivation of the 7th ID earlier this year.

Maj. Gen. Stephen Lanza will command the division. He's honored and excited to be given the opportunity.

"I am humbled and excited in reactivating this storied division," Lanza said. "Our mission is to prepare those brigades to be trained and ready for deployment in support of our combatant commanders."

Lanza has already worked with combat leaders and assessed facilities for Soldiers and families. More importantly, he has spoke with doctors and behavior health professionals. He's also begun assisting with the deployment and readiness of the 4/2 Stryker Brigade Combat Team.

He was recently stationed in Washington D.C. where he served as the Army's Chief of Public Affairs.

"I am told it's exactly like this Washington, except here the coffee is better and the traffic is worse," he joked during his introductory speech. "I'm told it rains but we've been here for over a month and I'm not sure that's true."

The heavy fog and light drizzle throughout the historic ceremony was Lanza's first taste of the Pacific Northwest's wet climate.

In attendance at the ceremony were Pierce County Councilmember Dick Muri, Lakewood Mayor Douglas Richardson, and other political and military leaders, friends and family.

Also present at Watkins Parade Field were retirees of the 7th ID. Korean War veteran Dick Hazelmyer, a board member of the 7^th ID Association, served one tour during the Korean War from 1952-53 and enlisted in the Air Force in 1956.

"We're all brothers in one form or another," he said of the current 7^th ID. "I had a job to do and I went and did it to the best of my ability."

Lanza's speech echoed the thoughts of Hazelmyer.

"As with their predecessors in arms, these units are adept, adaptive and combat-tested," he said.

Lanza was previously the Army's Chief of Public Affairs and was responsible for all communication issues involving the U.S. Army, including the professional development of military and civilian Public Affairs personnel.

The 7^th ID, following Department of Army realignments, was inactivated in June 2006. Originally, it was organized in the Regular Army on Dec. 6, 1917 at Camp Wheeler, Ga. Elements of the 7th ID first saw combat on May 11, 1943 in an amphibious assault on Attu, the Western-most Japanese entrenchment in the Aleutian Islands.