Maj. Gen. Richard G. Kaiser will take over as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Mississippi Valley Division’s 39th commander at a change of command ceremony Thursday at 10 a.m. at the Information Technology Laboratory at the Engineer Research and Development Center in Vicksburg.

Maj. Gen. Michael C. Wehr, the division’s present commander, will transfer command of the division to Kaiser in a formal change of command ceremony officiated by Lt. Gen. Todd T. Semonite, the Corps’ chief of engineers.

Wehr, who served as division commander and president of the Mississippi River Commission since August 2014, has been assigned as the deputy commanding general for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Washington, D.C.

Kaiser comes to Vicksburg from Afghanistan, where he served as director of the Joint Engineering Directorate for the U.S. Forces-Afghanistan, and commander of the Transatlantic Division (Forward), Afghanistan.

As the division’s 39th commander, Kaiser will be responsible for the Corps water resources programs in a 370,000-square-mile area that includes portions of 12 states. Its boundary extends from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.

District offices are headquartered in St. Paul, Minn.; Rock Island, Ill.; St. Louis; Memphis, Tenn.; Vicksburg and New Orleans.

Kaiser will also will be president-designee of the Mississippi River Commission, the presidentially appointed agency that oversees the comprehensive Mississippi River and Tributaries flood control and navigation project, as well as the entire Mississippi River and its tributaries.