Guy Sands-Pingot

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Guy L. Sands-Pingot


Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Army
Years of service	1978-present
Rank	Brigadier General (United States Army)
Commands held	142nd Infantry (LRS) (Airborne) 411th Civil Affairs Battalion 360th Civil Affairs Brigade (Airborne) 353rd Civil Affairs Command
Battles/wars	Operation Desert Shield Operation Desert Storm Operation Joint Endeavor Operation Joint Forge Operation Enduring Freedom Operation Iraqi Freedom

Guy Ludvic Sands-Pingot is an American brigadier general in the United States Army. He serves as commander of the 353rd Civil Affairs Command located at Fort Wadsworth, New York.

1 Early military career and background
2 Special forces training, Bosnia, and Kosovo
3 Service in Afghanistan, and Iraq
4 Awards and decorations
5 References

[edit] Early military career and background

Sands was commissioned as an infantry lieutenant in 1978 from the Fordham University ROTC Program after graduating from The City College of New York. He went on active duty with assignments in the Berlin Brigade followed by assignments as a Tactical Officer at the US Army Ranger Training Brigade before being posted to Korea where he served on the General Staff of the 2nd Infantry Division and later as Commander of the United Nations Honor Guard Company.

Returning to Fort Benning, Georgia in 1984, he was selected to serve as a Senior Platoon Trainer, and completed his active duty service in 1988. He then accepted a fellowship to study international economics at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. After graduating he joined the New York Army National Guard, where he commanded the 142nd Infantry Detachment (LRS) (Airborne) until he was recalled to active duty during Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm with the 48th Infantry Brigade of the Georgia Army National Guard.

Following release from active duty, he was selected for Special Forces training with the 2nd Battalion, 20th Special Forces Group, and he underwent training at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center & School at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, completing the the Special Forces Officer Qualification Course in 1993.

[edit] Special forces training, Bosnia, and Kosovo

After completing Special Forces and Russian language training, he was accepted for assignment in the 353rd Civil Affairs Command in 1994. For the next six years he served in a variety of key civil-military positions with special focus in the Balkans, the first assignment being with the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) during the Bosnian Civil War throughout 1995 and later with the NATO Implementation Force (IFOR) and Stabilization Force (SFOR).

On the civilian side he worked in various managerial level positions in Bosnia with the Department of States Train and Equip Program for the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina Army, and afterward with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) mission in Bosnia. In October 1998 he was selected to serve as a senior planner for the OSCE Kosovo Verification Mission which he stayed with until evacuating from Serbia to the Republic of Macedonia in March 1999 for the duration of the NATO Air Campaign.

Following this assignment he returned to Kosovo in a civilian status in order to serve as the Chief of Plans and Liaison for the newly established OSCE Mission to Kosovo. He was subsequently named by the United Nations Mission in Kosovo as the International Administrator of one of the Municipal Districts of Kosovo and later served on active duty as Deputy J9 at the Headquarters of KFOR in Pristina, Kosovo.

[edit] Service in Afghanistan, and Iraq

Returning to the United States following the attacks of September 11th, 2001, he assumed Command of the 411th Civil Affairs Battalion located in Danbury, Connecticut. This was followed by at the Army War College in 2003.

Following promotion to colonel and graduation he assumed command of the 360th Civil Affairs Brigade (Airborne) at Fort Jackson, South Carolina in July 2003, he subsequently mobilized and deployed to the Central Command Area of Operations as the Commander of the Combined Joint Civil Affairs Task Force (Task Force Victory) which provided all civil-military operations throughout Afghanistan from September 2004 to July 2005.

He was subsequently appointed to his current position as a Department of the Army civilian in order to serve as Operational Programs Oversight Officer for the Technology Management Office in the Office of the Chief of Staff of the Army. He was nominated and confirmed to the rank of brigadier general in November 2005 in order to assume his current position as Commander of the 353rd Civil Affairs Command in Staten Island, New York in December 2005.

In addition to his Master’s Degree in Strategic Studies from the US Army War College, he holds advanced post-graduate degrees in Political Economy from Fordham University, International Relations from Troy State University, and International Economics from St. Andrews University, as well as having completed graduate work at Oxford University, and the University of South Carolina where he is a Doctoral Candidate in the Department of Political Science.