Major General David Pack OBE

Major General David Pack OBE (Colonel of The Royal Gurkha Rifles (RGR)) assumed his new appointment and promotion from Brigadier on 9 September 2026. The role is Vice J3 in USEUCOM, based in Stuttgart. This is a key post in the US European Command of 86,000 troops. His appointment is for 3 years and he will remain the Colonel of the Regiment throughout.

Major General Pack commissioned into the RGR in December 1999. In the first two years of his career, he served as a Platoon Commander in the jungles of Brunei and Sierra Leone and in the Falkland Islands, before taking part in the invasion of Iraq in 2003 as part of the 16 Air Assault Brigade Combat Team. On return from Iraq, he was promoted to Captain and assumed the role of Company Second in Command of an Armoured Infantry Company, before deploying to Iraq for a second time. Post this tour, he returned to RGR and Brunei for another three years of jungle soldiering as the Intelligence Officer (deploying in this role to Afghanistan), before taking on the Adjutant’s appointment.

On promotion to Major, he was appointed Military Assistant to Director General Army Recruiting and Training, before assuming command of A (Delhi) Company of 1 RGR. In this command role, he led his Company in Afghanistan (Helmand) as part of the 40 Commando Battle Group (for which he was awarded an MBE) and in Brunei. Post Sub-Unit command he worked as the G3/5 plans officer in 1 Armoured Infantry Brigade, was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, attended the UK Advanced Command and Staff College, and completed a full two-year tour as the British Army’s lead Workforce Planner in British Army Headquarters.

In 2018, he returned to Brunei, as Commanding Officer of 2 RGR and Commander of the c2,000 strong Brunei Garrison (enabling the Unit to be Battle Grouped with Aviation, boats and logistic enablers). Over his two-year tenure he led on the Army’s contribution to influence and constrain activity in the Indo-Asia Pacific (which included of five Company Group (+) overseas deployments with regional allies), planned and executed counter-poaching operations in East Africa, and led the British Army’s Battle Group level warfare development in the jungle environment (for which he was awarded an OBE).

He promoted directly from command into the role of Assistant Head of Personnel Strategy in British Army Headquarters, where he was responsible for the British Army’s Strategic Workforce Plan, the conceptual development and subsequent tactical plan to deliver Human Advantage, and the overhaul and optimisation of people data. In 2022, he attended Higher Command and Staff College and was promoted to Brigadier.

Immediately after HCSC, he moved to America to assume the role of Deputy Commanding General (Plans), 82nd (US) Airborne Division, based at Fort Liberty/Bragg, North Carolina, from 1 May 2023 until August 2025. His tenure involved exercises in America as well as a deployment to Eastern Europe on Op ATLANTIC RESOLVE for nine months in 2024. Upon his return to the UK, he moved back into the Army Personnel Directorate as Head of Personnel Strategy.