Major General William G. Beard assumed his duties as the Deputy Commanding General for United States Army Reserve, United States Army Pacific on July 21, 2011.

     Major General Beard was commissioned in August 1980 upon his graduation from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. His active duty assignments included a tour in Kaiserlautern, Germany, with the 5th Signal Command where he served as an operations officer and platoon leader with the 298th Signal Company. He was subsequently assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C., where he served as a communications officer for the 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment and as the S-4 for the 82nd Signal Battalion.

     He transferred to the Army Reserve in 1987, and served with the 120th Army Reserve Command at Fort Jackson, S.C., 87th Maneuver Area Command in Birmingham, Ala., and the 3220th Garrison Support Unit in West Palm Beach, Fla.

     He transferred to Civil Affairs in 1992, serving with the 478th Civil Affairs Battalion in Perrine, Fla., until 1997. During that time, he served as the Joint Civil-Military Operations Task Force Liaison Officer to U.S. European Command in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Upon his return, he spent two years with the 350th Civil Affairs Command in Pensacola, Fla. In 1999, he assumed command of the 411th Civil Affairs Battalion in Danbury, Conn., deploying the unit to Kosovo in 2000.

     He assumed command of the 304th Civil Affairs Brigade in Philadelphia, Pa., in 2001, deploying the unit into Iraq in 2003. Following that deployment, Beard worked as the Chief, Civil Affairs Strategic Planning Team for the 353rd Civil Affairs Command at Fort Wadsworth, N.Y. In 2006 he returned to Fort Bragg to assume command of the U.S. Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command (Airborne) 1st Training Brigade, overseeing training for select joint Reserve forces preparing for mobilization. After his promotion to brigadier general, Beard held command of the 351st Civil Affairs Command in Mountain View, Calif., for a year before deploying to Baghdad as the Deputy Commanding General for Civil Capacity for Multinational Corps-Iraq. Beard resumed his position as the Deputy Commanding General of the U.S. Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command (Airborne) upon his return to the United States in May 2010.

     Beard's military education includes the Signal Officer basic and advanced courses, the Civil Affairs Officer Advanced Course, the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College and the U.S. Army War College. In his civilian studies, he earned his J.D. degree from Cumberland Law School at Samford University, Birmingham, Ala.

     His decorations include two Legion of Merits, three Bronze Star Medals, three Meritorious Service Medals, the Joint Service Commendation Medal, three Army Commendation Medals, the Combat Action Badge, the Parachutist Badge, Air Assault Badge, Egyptian Parachutist Badge and German Parachutist Badge.