ROTC commander at UM to take new job

ORONO – Lt. Col. Charles Forshee will relinquish command of the Army Reserves Officer Training Corps battalion at the University of Maine. A change of command ceremony is scheduled for 11 a.m. today at the armory in UMaine’s field house.

Forshee has served as a professor of military science and commander of the Black Bear Battalion since June 2001. He will be moving with his wife and three children to Fort Hood, Texas, where he will assume command of an infantry battalion.

Lt. Col. Josef Hallatschek will replace Forshee.

Hallatschek and his family are coming to Maine from Stuttgart, Germany, where he was director of public works for the 6th Area Support Group.

Hallatschek is a U.S. Military Academy graduate and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1982. He earned a master’s degree in systems management from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles in 1988.

Hallatschek has earned several military distinctions, including the U.S. Army Ranger Tab and the Parachutist’s Badge.