Air Force Maj. Gen. Kelly K. McKeague, who attended Damien Memorial School, today was named commander of the Joint Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Accounting Command by the National Guard Bureau in Washington, D.C.

He will replace Maj. General Stephen D. Tom, who assumed command of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command ay Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in January 2010. Tom will be retiring following the change of command in October at Hickam.

McKeague, who grew up in Kahaluu, is currently special assistant to the chief of the National Guard Bureau.

Falling directly under the U.S. Pacific Command, JPAC employs more than 450 joint military and civilian personnel and continues its search for the more than 83,000 Americans missing from past conflicts.

McKeague received his commission in 1981 through the Georgia Institute of Technology Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps program.

Maj. Gen. Bob Lee, former state adjutant general, called McKeague “a solid citizen. He will be terrific,” said Lee, who worked for eight years with McKeague while Lee was head of the Hawaii National Guard and McKeague was assigned to the National Guard Bureau.

McKeague began his military career as a civil engineering officer. He entered the Maryland Air National Guard and served on active duty as a civil engineer with assignments at Air National Guard Readiness Center followed by legislative liaison tours at the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force and the National Guard Bureau.