Vicksburg native Brig. Gen. Robert Crear, whose assignments have included extinguishing oil fires in Iraq and leading Task Force Hope, the largest disaster recovery effort in the history of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, will retire next month from the Army, where he currently serves as commander of the Mississippi Valley Division and Mississippi River Commission.

Crear was born and grew up in Vicksburg and attended Jackson State University, where he later received his U.S. Army commission through ROTC.

His initial assignment back in his hometown, a first, was to serve as commander of the Vicksburg District of the Corps of Engineers from 1998 until 2001.

He was serving at Corps headquarters in Washington, D.C., when he was named commander of the Corps’ Dallas-based Southwest Division in May 2002 and promoted to brigadier general. The division is one of six in the nation. Crear was then sent to spend about 10 months in Iraq and Kuwait in 2003 extinguishing well fires set by Iraqis retreating after the invasion of Iraq in March of that year.

Crear’s next assignment was back in Vicksburg where he became the 36th commander of the Mississippi Valley Division and Mississippi River Commission in June 2004. The division covers all or parts of seven states with about 3,000 people and a $1 billion budget for annual programs.

After Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, Crear was at the fore of repairing the flood-protection system that breached as a result of powerful wind-blown waters through New Orleans. While there, he directed the removal of 224 billion gallons of water that flooded the city. The $2 billion effort, called Task Force Hope, continues in support of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s national response plan.

A formal appointment as president of the MRC came in October 2006 from President Bush. The commission, created by Congress in 1879, has management jurisdiction for the nation’s largest waterway and works to improve navigation, prevent flooding and facilitate commerce along a watershed that drains more than 40 percent of the United States and two provinces in Canada.

Throughout his career, Crear has received numerous honors and awards, including being named one of the 100 Most Important Blacks in Technology for 2006. He also received the Distinguished Leadership in Critical Infrastructure Resilience award from The Infrastructure Security Partnership earlier this year.

Crear will pass the torch to Brig. Gen. Michael J. Walsh, former commander of the Gulf Region Division in Iraq, in a change of command Feb. 20.

The general and his wife, Reatha, live in a home overlooking the Mississippi and owned by the Corps for use by its top local officer. Although word of the decision to retire came last week and Crear confirmed it in an e-mail, Corps officials said they would issue a press release later today.