Farewell for ‘Beags’: Fort Jackson’s commanding general looks to his next assignment

It turns out you can go home again, at least for a little while.

For South Carolina native and S.C. State University alum Brig. Gen. Milford Beagle Jr., coming to his home state and being the commanding general of the U.S. Army’s Fort Jackson for the last three years has been the opportunity of a lifetime. But his time leading the post is drawing to a close.

Beagle, who has been in the Army for 31 years, has served as Fort Jackson’s commanding general since 2018. In February, the Department of Defense announced he will become the commanding general of the 10th Mountain Division (Light) at Fort Drum in New York, according to the Pentagon. An official date for the transition hasn’t yet been announced, but officials have estimated it could come in June.

His service has taken him to military installations across the nation and world, including combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. In a recent one-on-one interview with The State at his office on Fort Jackson, Beagle acknowledged the infinitesimally small chance that, when he first entered the Army in 1990, he would ascend to the rank of brigadier general and eventually assume command of the installation in his home state.

“For me, it’s just a continued process of making it, fortunately, through the eye of the needle,” Beagle said. “That eye just keeps getting smaller and smaller. Lo and behold, here I end up commanding the installation in my state. You can’t describe the feeling, short of it being phenomenal. There’s a great sense of pride to do what you’ve done so long in your career, at home.”

Fort Jackson is the nation’s largest military basic training base with more than 50,000 recruits assigned there each year, and a key driver in Columbia’s economy.

As he watches trainees at Fort Jackson at the beginning of their military journey, he sees a bit of himself in the young men and women, Beagle said. While not all of them will go on to become commanding generals, Beagle said there are certain shared characteristics.

“You see that pride, that drive, that motivation,” said Beagle, a native of the small Upstate town of Enoree and a graduate of Woodruff High School. “That is what I see and what resonates with me and is a part of me. But my hope is always that they keep it, that they retain it. You have it right now. That pride, that drive, that motivation and desire to do good, to be right and be a part of a team. Just don’t lose that. That’s what’s got me here after more than 30 years.”

Beagle and his wife, Pam, have two sons: Jordan, who is a lieutenant in the Army, and Jayden, who attends S.C. State.

In his three years at the helm of Fort Jackson, Beagle — known as “Beags” to his friends — has worked to strengthen the longstanding bond between Columbia and the post. Columbia Chamber CEO Carl Blackstone said Beagle has been a success in that regard.

“During General Beagle’s tenure at Fort Jackson, he was instrumental in building community partnerships that helped the greater Midlands earn the recognition as a Great American Defense Community, which we will proudly proclaim for years to come,” Blackstone told The State. “As a strong military leader, advisor, business partner and friend, General Beagle leaves a notable mark on the military community partnership.

“As a military leader, Beags serves as a commanding officer, as well as a role model to those that serve under him. He has brought the same level of energy, commitment, and responsibility to being a great community partner.”

Third-term Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin said Beagle was “excited and giddy” three years ago at the opportunity to command Fort Jackson. The mayor said that energy has remained in the years since, and noted that he speaks with Beagle often.

“He stays deeply involved in this community, with open lines of contact. I’ve had wonderful relationships with several of the (commanding generals) at Fort Jackson. I’ve talked to no one on a deeper level than I have with General Beagle. He’s a star and I wish (the Department of Defense) would reconsider the promotion and let him stay a little bit longer. He’s a great guy with wonderful communication skills, and he’s very community focused and centered.”

His time at the head of Fort Jackson hasn’t been without challenges. In the last couple months, a pair of off-post incidents have grabbed headlines. In one, a white sergeant was arrested after a heated encounter with a Black resident on the sidewalk of the Summit neighborhood, an incident that was captured on video and went viral.

And on May 6, a Fort Jackson trainee was arrested after authorities said he left post with an unloaded rifle and briefly hijacked a bus filled with elementary school kids. No one was physically injured in that incident.

The Army apologized for the bus incident. Beagle said one of the first objectives when an off-post, high-profile event happens is to quickly reassure the community that the Army will work to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“Really, my start point is trust, and that’s what gets me to react in a time frame,” Beagle said. “You only have a small window, if a little bit of trust is broken, to seal that gap back up. You never want to lose it. I don’t want the installation to ever be in that position.”

Beagle was reflective during his recent conversation with The State, as ESPN’s SportsCenter played silently on the flatscreen TV in his office. (He’s an Oakland Raiders fan.) While there is a bit of melancholy in leaving his home state for his next assignment in New York, he remains proud of his time at Fort Jackson, during which 150,000 soldiers graduated and made their start in the Army.

“You leave and you leave a little bit sad, because of all the connections, all the people. This is not only on the post, but off the post,” Beagle said. “But you also leave with a sense of pride in what you were able to accomplish. And it’s not what I accomplished, it’s what we accomplished.”