EDWARDS COMMAND CHANGING.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE - Maj. Gen. Richard Reynolds, Edwards Air Force Base's commander for nearly three years, has been nominated for promotion to lieutenant general and tapped to head the Aeronautical Systems Center in Ohio.

Reynolds' name was on a list of seven lieutenant general and general nominees made by President Bush and sent to the Senate for confirmation, Air Force officials said. The announcement was made by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Reynolds is slated to be replaced at Edwards by Brig. Gen. Wilbert D. Pearson, now director of operations for Air Force Materiel Command in Ohio. The change of command is expected to take place in June.

Another Edwards officer, Col. Perry Lamy, now 412th Test Wing commander, has been selected for promotion to brigadier general and will take Pearson's place in Ohio.

Pearson, who has been selected for promotion to major general with his move to Edwards, is a Vietnam War veteran who spent eight years at Edwards in the 1980s, attending the Air Force Test Pilot School, working as a test pilot and commanding test units.

Flying an F-15 fighter, Pearson launched the first anti-satellite missile that destroyed an orbiting satellite in a test.

After Edwards, he did tours with the Air Force Systems Command, the Pentagon and the Air Force's Electronic Systems Center. Since 1997, he has been director of operations at the Air Force Materiel Command headquarters at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.

Reynolds became commander of the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards in July 1998, after a career that included piloting B-52 bombers, attending Edwards' test pilot school and testing B-1 bombers at Edwards.

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2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) REYNOLDS

(2 -- color) PEARSON