BRIG. GEN. WALTER PUDLOWSKI ASSUMES COMMAND OF THE PENNSYLVANIA NATIONAL GUARD’S 28TH INFANTRY DIVISION
FORT INDIANTOWN GAP (October 18, 1998) -- Command of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard’s historic 28th Infantry Division (Mechanized) changed hands today in a formal ceremony at Fort Indiantown Gap. Brigadier General Walter F. Pudlowski Jr. of Grantville assumed command of the division from Major General Walter L. Stewart Jr. of Bernville.
Leading the ceremony, on behalf of Governor Tom Ridge, was Major General James W. Mac Vay, state Adjutant General and commander of the entire Pennsylvania National Guard.
With nearly 15,000 members, the 28th Division is by far the largest formation in the Pennsylvania National Guard. Headquartered at the Harrisburg Military Post, 14th and Calder Streets, the “Keystone” division has units in 80 communities across the state.
Founded in 1879, the 28th Division is the Army’s oldest in terms of continuous service. Elements of the divison have been called up for nearly every conflict in which the U.S. has been engaged -- including the current NATO peacekeeping mission in Bosnia -- and have served in peacetime on countless occasions of civil emergency and natural disaster.
“General Pudlowski is a career Guardsman who has served with distinction as a planner, a trainer and a leader,” said Maj. Gen. Mac Vay. “He is the right person at the right time to lead the great 28th Division forward into the next millenium.”
Before assuming command of the 28th Division, Brig. Gen. Pudlowski had been its Deputy Commanding General for Maneuver. His military career began with enlistment in the Army in 1965. After commissioning as an infantry officer, a combat tour in Vietnam, and other assignments in the U.S. and Panama, he joined the Army Reserve in 1972. In 1975 he transferred to the National Guard and the 28th Division, where he rose through a succession of full-time operations, training and executive assignments within the division’s Scranton-based 55th Brigade. He moved to division headquarters as Chief of Staff in 1989 and was promoted to Deputy Commanding General in 1993.
Maj. Gen. Stewart has been reassigned as Deputy Commander, State Area Command, at Fort Indiantown Gap. He served in the active Army from 1966 to 1972, with a combat tour in Vietnam as a helicopter platoon leader. He joined the Pennsylvania Army National Guard in 1973, and he went on to serve in a variety of command and staff positions in the 28th Division and the state headquarters. He became Commanding General of the division in 1996, after an active-duty tour as Director of Mobilization and Reserve Component Affairs for the U.S. European Command in Germany. In his civilian life, Stewart is president of Roamer Tours and Travel in Reading.