Maj. Gen. Clarence K.K. Chinn, whose parents are from Hawaii, will become deputy commanding general of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, the Pentagon announced Tuesday.

Chinn has been senior commander for Fort Bragg for the past year, a job involving the care of soldiers, families and civilians on post.

Before his Fort Bragg assignment, Chinn was in Afghanistan as commander of Regional Command-East, a component of the International Security Assistance Force Joint Command. Regional Command-East covers 14 provinces and about 43,000 square miles, roughly the size of Ohio, and shares 450 miles of border with Pakistan.

Chinn, a 1981 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., received his second star in April 2013.

His father, Dr. Clarence Y.L. Chinn, is a former Army officer and was a dentist for many years in Aiea, where he still lives.

Chinn lived with his grandparents on Kauai in 1969 while his father served in Vietnam.

Chinn’s wife, Val, graduated from Mid-Pacific Institute in 1980. His wife’s parents, Isamu "Lucky" and Gladys Uehara, owned New Liberty Grill, which operated in downtown Honolulu for more than 40 years.

Chinn was stationed in Hawaii from 1993 to 1997, serving as chief and exercise officer at U.S. Army Pacific at Fort Shafter and then as 2nd Battalion executive officer with the 25th Infantry Division’s 5th Infantry Regiment at Schofield Barracks.

From March 1999 to May 2001, Chinn commanded the 4th Ranger Training Battalion at Camp Rogers in Fort Benning, Ga. He deployed to Iraq in 2003 with the 75th Ranger Regiment and then served in Afghanistan.

Chinn commanded the Ranger Training Brigade from July 2004 to July 2006. Later he was assigned to the U.S. Special Operations Command at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., until June 2008.

In January 2011, Chinn became the commanding general of the Joint Readiness Training Center and Fort Polk, La.