On May 22, 2012, Thomas P. Bostick became the 53rd U.S. Army Chief of Engineers and Commanding General of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).

Lt. Gen. Bostick served as the senior military officer overseeing most of the nation’s civil works infrastructure and military construction.

This week, Gen. Bostick retired after four years as the chief engineer and commanding general, and 38 years of military service.

Bostick’s successor is Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite. The change-of-command ceremony was at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in northern Virginia.

Lt. Gen. Bostick was the second African-American to hold the post. In 1996, Lt. Gen. Joe Ballard, a graduate of Southern A&M College, became the first African American appointed the chief of engineers for the Army Corps of Engineers.

The chief of engineers is the principal adviser to the Army chief of staff in civil and military engineering, geospatial sciences, water resources, real property and environmental sciences.

Prior to USACE, Lt. Gen. Bostick served in command and staff assignments both in the United States and overseas.

Command positions include commanding general, U.S. Army Recruiting Command; director of military programs, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers with duty as commander, Gulf Region Division, commander, Engineer Brigade, 1st Armored Division, Operation Joint Forge, Bosnia-Herzegovina; and commander, 1st Engineer Battalion, 1st Infantry Division (Mechanized).

He served as executive officer to the chief of engineers, executive officer to the Army chief of staff, and deputy director of operations for the National Military Command Center, J-3, the Joint Staff in the Pentagon from May 2001 to August 2002, including the events of September 11, 2001.

Bostick trained as an engineer at the U.S. Military Academy, where he commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1978, and he later earned master’s degrees in mechanical and civil engineering at Stanford University.

He was also an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at West Point and was a White House Fellow, serving as a special assistant to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs.

Lt. Gen Bostick won the 2016 BEYA for Career Achievement at the 30th annual BEYA Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Conference held February in Philadelphia.