New Colonel of The Royal Gurkha Rifles – Brigadier General David Pack OBE

Brigadier David Pack OBE was honoured to be appointed as Colonel of The Royal Gurkha Rifles (RGR) in September 2024.

He is currently serving as the Deputy Commanding General (Plans) 82nd (US) Airborne Division. In this role he Deployed to Eastern Europe for a nine-month tour of duty and is an integral part of the US Army’s high readiness force.

Brigadier 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 the wild mountainsides of the Falkland Islands with 2 RGR, before taking part in the invasion of Iraq in 2003 with D (Gurkha) Company 1 Royal Irish. On return from Iraq, he promoted to Captain and assumed the role of Company Second in Command of an Armoured Infantry Company with 2 Royal Green Jackets, before deploying to Iraq for a second time, this time with the 1st Battalion, Royal Anglian Regiment.  Post this tour he returned to the RGR and Brunei for another three years of jungle soldiering with 1 RGR: initially as the Intelligence Officer (deploying in this role to Afghanistan (with his Unit being employed as the Regional Battlegroup (South) in an Air Assault role)); 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) Coy of 1RGR. 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, 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 for a fourth and final time, as Commanding Officer of 2 RGR (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.