DESERET CHEMICAL DEPOT, Tooele County -- Col. Bruce E. Pate, former chief of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency's test branch at Kirkland Air Force Base, N.M., took over Thursday as commander of this army base.

Presiding over the change of command ceremony was Major Gen. John C. Doesburg, commanding general of the Army's Soldier and Biological Chemical Command.The depot, about 12 miles south of Tooele, is the location for both a huge stockpile of chemical munitions and the Army's $1 billion incinerator that is destroying the aging weapons. It is operated by the Army's Chemical and Biological Defense Command.

Pate replaced Col. Joseph E. Huber, who became commander of the depot in 1997. Huber has retired from the military. He and his family plan to return to the vicinity of Edgewood, Md., where he will be working in the private sector, said depot spokeswoman Susan Huff.

Pate, 48, has been an ordnance officer at Fort Sheridan, Ill., and then at two air defense posts in Germany. In 1978, he transferred into the Chemical Corps.

He has served as chemical officer at Fort Knox, Ky., and in Germany. In 1991, he took over command of the Chemical Biological Treaty Verification Program. At two different points of his career he worked with the Defense Nuclear Agency.

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In 1993, he commanded the Army's criminal investigation laboratory system, based in Georgia. More recently, he was assistant director of test operations for field command, in the Defense Special Weapons Agency.

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