![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/james3.jpg.jpg\")
Q.<\/b> How has the division changed since you arrived two years ago?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A. <\/b>We\u2019re not a normal [Modified Table of Organization and Equipment] division headquarters. We\u2019re what we call a [Table of Distribution and Allowances], a packaged organization of 249 soldiers plus one civilian. As a TDA organization, we wear the 7th Infantry Division patch. But every one of those subordinates [that fall under 7th ID] do not wear this patch. There are seven different left-shoulder patches in the 7th Infantry Division.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As I was driving out here [two years ago], I was thinking, \u201cOkay, so how do we pull together an organization that has all these different patches and don\u2019t have the same direct lineage when you want to pull a team together?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So we came up with the idea of Task Force Bayonet. So it\u2019s not just 7th Infantry Division, because the 7th ID represents the 250 soldiers in this building. Task Force Bayonet represents the 15,000 that are \u2026 part of our organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Q. <\/b>What are some of the challenges you\u2019ve faced during your time as commander, especially with threats from both the Pacific and Afghanistan?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A. <\/b>When I got here, the division headquarters in this building, a good chunk of it, roughly 100 of it, was in Afghanistan executing the [Train Advise Assist Command-South] mission. We\u2019re still focusing on the Pacific, but we had half our headquarters that was focusing on Afghanistan. The operational environment is different in those areas. Some parts of Afghanistan and Iraq are open desert, but some places in Korea are pretty doggone tight with lots of vegetation and mountains and hills. All of them have their challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So really, understanding the operational environments we\u2019re going to fight in and focusing on the fundamentals that really exist to fight in both of those. We have to focus on building agile and adaptive leaders that can fight in those different environments. If you understand and master the fundamentals, you\u2019ll be able to execute. \u2026 We\u2019ve got to be able to shoot, we\u2019ve got to be able to communicate, we\u2019ve got to be able to maneuver to a position of advantage on the enemy in those different terrains, and we\u2019ve got to also be able to maintain our stuff and take care of our soldiers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Q. <\/b>What accomplishments are you most proud of?<\/p>\n\n\n\n A.<\/b> It\u2019s not something I\u2019ve done, it\u2019s what the soldiers and the leaders that are in this great division have done. The first one is building readiness systems that allow us to keep the bayonet sharp and ready to go. That means taking care of the deployability of our soldiers, our fitness as the Number One priority. But we\u2019ve also got to maintain our equipment, and we have to be trained up on how to do it and we have to be able to sustain that equipment that\u2019s going to keep us alive on the battlefield. If you\u2019ve got people and equipment, then you have to pull it all together with training. You have to get realistic training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We just finished our Bayonet Focus, which is our big training exercise for 2-2 Stryker Brigade Combat Team. We had 7,000 soldiers at Yakima Training Center, and we created an operational environment that they had to deploy out there and fight just like they would in a small country somewhere. And I was really excited about what we were able to do. Training-wise, that\u2019s one of our biggest accomplishments in the two years I\u2019ve been here. The division came back from Kandahar a couple years ago, and now we\u2019re really focused on training and readiness of our subordinate units. \u2026 They\u2019re ready to go to [the National Training Center in California] and fight and then go anywhere in the world and fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Q. <\/b>What are your thoughts on Korea, especially since you\u2019ll be stationed there?<\/p>\n\n\n\n A.<\/b> Obviously it\u2019s an active theater. The leaders [at United States Forces Korea] are incredible. \u2026 It\u2019s been a pretty serious area for a long time. The Korean War never ended. There\u2019s a lot of militarization of that area, from mines and obstacles and ugly terrain and lots of artillery. And all of the arsenal that [North Korea] accumulated over time. There will be challenges. We\u2019ve got to fight in tough terrain, close terrain, restrictive terrain and a very heavy artillery environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019ve got to be able to operate in that type of environment. And then there\u2019s weapons of mass destruction that North Korea has that we\u2019ve got to be able to secure. We\u2019re working through those things. Our training program is preparing our soldiers to be able to fight in those kinds of conditions. I\u2019m comfortable that we will be ready if called, and that we will win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maj. Gen. Thomas James is heading to United States Forces Korea next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":73213,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":70,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[100,12,25,70],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2976],"class_list":["post-36857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-news","category-newsletters","category-your-army"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"QTOL4CAJRNBAJDET6BH7HBSVVA","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-army\/2017\/08\/11\/7th-infantry-division-commander-pulls-organization-together\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/james1.jpg.jpg\")