Chaplain Dave West, a native of McCormick, was promoted to the rank of Colonel in the United States Army March 3 at United States Central Command, MacDill Air Force Base, Tampa, Fla. On April 1, he will assume the duty of Command Chaplain for Special Operations Command Central. The ceremony was officiated by Major General Brian Geehan. A graduate of the University of Maryland and Southwestern Baptist Seminary, West was ordained as a minister by First Baptist Church, North Augusta, in 1998. He is founder and president of David West Ministries. Since 1976, West has served in numerous military positions, including assignments at Fort Belvoir, Va.; Fort Smith, Ark.; and in Kaiserslautern and Hanau, Germany, before entering the Army Chaplaincy program in 1997. Before being assigned to USCENTCOM in June 2002, Chaplain West served as operations and training chaplain,13th Corps Support Command, Fort Hood, Tex. West and his wife Faye have two adult children, David Jr. and Felicia Redding.