Ellsworth Air Force Base, just east of Rapid City, holds a formal change of command ceremony Friday afternoon…an invitation-only event.

Colonel Mark Weatherington has completed the normal 2-year rotation as base commander and commander of the 28th Bomb Wing, and is now headed to Washington to become the military assistant to Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter.

Replacing Weatherington at Ellsworth and in the 28th is Colonel Kevin Kennedy, who leaves a post in the Pentagon but served in several operational roles during 2 stints at Ellsworth…from 1999 to 2003 and again in 2007 to 2010.

He was also vice commander of the 379th Expeditionary Wing while deployed to Southwest Asia from 2011-2012. Like his predecessor, Kennedy is a B-1 pilot with 3,200 hours of flying time in either the B-1 or the T–38 Talon trainer.