[03/09/01] Col. Robert Crear will turn over command of the Vicksburg District of the Army Corps of Engineers to Col. Frederick L. Clapp Jr. in ceremonies June 7.

The District, headquartered on East Clay Street, operates flood control and other civil works projects in Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana. It has about 600 employees based here and a total of about 1,000 here and in the field. The District and reports to the Mississippi Valley Division, also based here, which reports to headquarters in Washington, D.C. District engineers generally stay in Vicksburg for two to three years.

Crear, a native of Vicksburg, will become chief of staff of the Corps in Washington where he will oversee the day-to-day operations and coordination of the 900 people on the headquarters staff.

Crear is the first Vicksburg native and the first black to head the local District. He has been District engineer since May 1998 and is a graduate of Jackson State University with a bachelor’s degree in math. He received a master’s degree in national resource strategy from the Industrial College of the Army in Washington, D.C.

He has served as president of the Vicksburg Post of the Society of American Military Engineers, as federal liaison for the United Way Executive Committee and is a member of the Vicksburg Rotary Club and American Legion Tyner Ford Post No. 213.

Crear and his wife, the former Retha Hall of Vicksburg, have four children.

Clapp, a native of Columbus, Ga., is already a resident of Vicksburg, serving as deputy Division engineer of the Mississippi Valley Division and secretary of the Mississippi River Commission. Before coming to Vicksburg, he was deputy Division chief of the Joint Warfighting Center’s Joint Interoperability Training Division at the U.S. Joint Forces Command in Norfork, Va.

Clapp is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and received a master’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Florida and in construction management from Boston University. He is a licensed professional engineer in Virginia and is a member of the Society of American Military Engineers and the Army Engineer Association.

He is married to the former Robin Girone of San Antonio, Texas, and they have three children.