Maj. Gen. Peter Hronek will retire as Montana’s adjutant general and director of the Department of Military Affairs in June. Gov. Greg Gianforte has selected Col. Trenton Gibson to replace him.
The state’s adjutant general is part of the governor’s cabinet as the principal military adviser and serves as commanding officer of the Montana National Guard. The position’s responsibilities include natural disaster management, homeland security and veterans affairs.
Adjutant generals are frequently career military officers. Gianforte appointed Hronek in December 2020 after then-Adjutant General Matt Quinn assumed the role of executive director in the governor’s COVID-19 task force.
“General Hronek was appointed by Governor Gianforte to the position during the highest level of National Guard activation since World War II as part of the COVID-19 response,” Maj. Ryan Finnegan, a spokesperson with the Montana National Guard, wrote in an email to MTFP. “His tenure has included several overseas deployments of Guard members to Europe, Africa and the Middle East as well as activating hundreds of personnel for disaster response across the state during search and rescue, wildfires, and winter storms.”
Gibson first joined the armed services in 1995 as part of the Montana National Guard. Prior to his promotion, he commanded the 1889th Montana Army National Guard Regional Support Group in Butte and served as director of the Montana National Guard Youth Challenge Academy.
The Montana National Guard currently employs 1,000 airmen and 2,300 soldiers across 14 communities.
The Montana Army National Guard recently made headlines after a helicopter allegedly stole elk antlers from a private ranch. A spokesperson for the governor said that Hronek’s retirement is “in no way related to the current events of the department.”
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