Maj. Gen. R. Mark Toy took command of the Mississippi Valley Division Tuesday in a change of command ceremony at the Vicksburg Convention Center.

Toy replaces Maj. Gen. Richard Kaiser, who commanded the Division for three years. Kaiser is leaving to serve as deputy commanding general and deputy chief of engineers for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Washington, D.C.

“Sir, I want to thank you for allowing me the opportunity to command this Division,” Kaiser told Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite, chief of engineers and Corps commanding general.

“You gave me the flexibility to command this organization, and you let me empower this team and I was able to pass that along to my commanders and let them command,” Kaiser said. “I think the results speak for themselves what the commanders and this division headquarters had done.”

Kaiser also thanked Assistant Secretary of the Army R.D. James, a member of the Mississippi River Commission, for his help on the commission.

“It has been your focus on the commission on flood control and navigation that put us in a position to get the congressional support we need or we would not have been able pass this historic flood that won’t end,” Kaiser said.

Concerning the employees and commanders of the Mississippi Valley Division, Kaiser said, “You have impressed me daily.”

Toy called the Mississippi Valley Division a special command.

“I’m told MVD stands for ‘most valuable division,’ and I know why it’s most valuable,” Toy said. “It’s because of the people.

“The Army has a motto, ‘Army strong,’ and our chief has a motto ‘Building strong.’ I’d like to share our motto in the Mississippi Valley Division; it will be, ‘Building strong and taking care of people.’ Out motto is dedicated to the 2,700 military service members and Department of the Army civilian employees who make the Mississippi Valley Division great.”

Semonite said the change of command ceremony “ensures a unit and its personnel are never without official leadership. A commander is always on orders.” It also ensures a continuity of trust and a transfer of allegiance and loyalty from the unit to the new commander.

By taking command of the Division, Semonite said, Toy inherited “not just the lineage and history of MVD, but you inherit the responsibility for all these people and all the projects and the trust of the American people in the Corps of Engineers in the Valley.

“The biggest single thing you inherited is the obligation to be able to make sure these people can have their destiny; they can make their future.”

After the ceremony, Kaiser said he would miss “the people, plain and simple … and our mission that we perform.”

Kaiser went through three flood fights during his tenure as Division commander, that, he said, “I will not miss.”

A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Toy comes to the Mississippi Valley Division from the Great Lakes and Ohio Division and was a member of the Mississippi River Commission.

As Division commander, he is responsible for Corps water resources programs in the Mississippi River Valley, a 370,000-square mile area encompassing the Mississippi River and included parts of 12 states.

Toy also serves as president of the Mississippi River Commission, which was established by congress in 1879 to develop the Mississippi River into a reliable transportation artery while protecting adjacent lands from flooding.