Colonel Dallen Atack Promoted to Brigadier General

By Lt. Col. Hank McIntire

See images or hear audio of the event.

Colonel Dallen S. Atack was promoted to brigadier general in a ceremony Oct. 29 at the Utah National Guard’s Draper headquarters.

Atack, of Draper, enlisted in the Utah Army National Guard in 1986 with a Military Intelligence unit. He graduated from Brigham Young University and commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1988. He served as a traditional Guardsman for three years and then joined the ranks of the Utah Guard’s full-time force in 1991 as the Fire Direction Officer for First Battalion, 140th Field Artillery.

His subsequent assignments included personnel officer, targeting officer, operations officer, executive officer, company commander, commander of Recruiting and Retention Battalion, and he later served as commander of the 1-145th Field Artillery.

In 2010-2011 he deployed to the Horn of Africa (Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti) in support of Operation Enduring Freedom as the operations officer for the Special Operations Command and Control Element.

Upon his return from deployment he served as Director of Human Resources for the Utah National Guard before being assigned as Assistant Adjutant General—Army, his current position. In this new post he will have responsibility for the training and readiness for more than 5,700 soldiers.

At the promotion ceremony, Atack’s father Rodney and Atack’s wife Kimber pinned on his stars. For many, the most touching moment of the event was when Atack’s father, a retired colonel who served in both the Air Force and Army, saluted his son, and then the two embraced.

“We are lucky to have Dallen as our newest brigadier general,” said Maj. Gen. Jeff Burton, adjutant general of the Utah National Guard. “These positions [of leadership] are not jobs, they are callings. We know he is ready for this challenge.”

“Less than one-half of one percent get [promoted to general] in their careers,” Burton continued. “Dallen didn’t get here because he was a self-server. He got here because he loves soldiers and he seeks to serve them.”

Atack’s first order of business when he stepped to the microphone to give his remarks was to present bouquets of flowers to his mother, wife and daughters, “for weathering every storm the military has had to offer,” he said.

Speaking of the “horrible arithmetic” that spouses and children must calculate as their loved one in uniform is away on military assignment, Atack acknowledged that family members have the toughest job of all.

“The amount of time adds up over a career: birthdays, anniversaries, dinners at home, homework events, Scouting events, just being there,” he said. “I thank you so much for supporting me and allowing me to stay in a little bit longer.”

Atack paid tribute to the many sergeants major with whom he has worked over the years, thanking them for their mentoring and friendship. He also praised all in the room who have worn the uniform, quoting Theodore Roosevelt:

• “The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood . . . . who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

“If you are in uniform today or if you have worn the uniform, you are never to be numbered among the timid souls,” said Atack. “You have each entered in the arena. I salute you.”