CHEMICAL COMMANDER PASSES TORCH

By Wilson Brown/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Wednesday,  June 29, 2005 

Tears, uniforms and a command were shed Tuesday morning at the Pine Bluff Arsenal as the commander of the Pine Bluff Chemical Activity handed the reins over to his successor.

"There's no better place of command than Pine Bluff," said Lt. Col. James M. Bayha in a speech to family, friends and colleagues during a formal change of command ceremony held under brightly-colored tents on post.

Bayha formally retired from the Army on Tuesday after 10 years of service and about two years as commander of the Pine Bluff Chemical Activity.

The PBCA is the agency charged with maintaining, storing and disposing of 12 percent of the nation's chemical weapons stockpile housed at the Pine Bluff Arsenal.

During the outdoor ceremony, Bayha handed over the Arsenal's flag to incoming Lt. Col. Casey P. Scott, a native of Madison, Wis.

After receiving a Legion of Merit medal and a certificate of retirement from the Army, Bayha called his wife and two children up to the lectern to present them with a crest of the military wife and a framed military coin for standing by him during 12 moves in the 19 years he and his wife have been married.

Michael A. Parker, director of the Chemical Materials Agency, headquartered at Maryland, commended Bayha's service and called Scott a first-rate leader who will take it to great heights.

Scott, a father of eight children, received his Army commission in 1987 and is coming from McChord Air Force Base in Washington state, where he was chief of NBC Operations for the Western Air Defense Sector.

"The Army's losing a great commander and a great Army family," Parker said after giving Renee Bayha the commander's award for service for her leadership in Army family groups on post.

"Mr. Parker, may I break protocol and spend the rest of my military career with my wife?" Bayha asked as he saluted and left the lectern.

The Bayha family will be moving to Cary, N.C.

Bayha incorporated new troops to ensure the safety of the Arsenal's stockpiled chemical weapons after the attacks on the World Trade Center and helped to "make sure to the world" that the chemical weapons incineration would be "a seamless process."

Meanwhile, Scott said he will do everything to make White Hall and Pine Bluff a safer place as the incineration continues.

Scott's background includes an assignment to the 25th Infantry Division (Light) in Hawaii, where he served as the battalion chemical officer for the 4th Battalion, 87th Infantry and as a platoon leader and later executive officer for the 71st Chemical Company (Smoke/Decon.)

His subsequent assignments included brigade chemical officer of the 1st Infantry Brigade and commander of the 59th Chemical Company (Smoke/Decon) for the 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) at Ft. Drum, N.Y.; chemical advanced course small group leader and assistant director of training at the U.S. Army Chemical School at Ft. McClellan, Ala.; 1st corps support command chemical officer and brigade operations officer for the 46th Corps Support Group at Ft. Bragg, N.C.

"We've always enjoyed our assignments to the South," he said shortly before a reception Tuesday.