Return to Pointer View home page June 18, 2004

New commander takes charge at Keller

Story and photo by Spc. Eric S. Bartelt
Features Editor

Col. Peter G. Torok replaced Col. Brian D. Allgood as commander of the U.S. Army Medical Department Activity at West Point Monday during a change-of-command ceremony at Trophy Point.

Allgood, who has been commander at Keller Army Community Hospital since July 2002, heads to the 18th Medical Command in Yongsan, Korea.

Torok, a native of Oswego, N.Y., returns to West Point for the first time since he graduated in 1978.

After completing the Officer Basic Course and Ranger School, he was assigned as assistant S-2 and later S-2 of the 1st Battalion, 509th (Airborne) Infantry Battalion Combat Team, Vicenza, Italy from 1979 through 1982.

He would go on to serve at the Pentagon as watch team chief of the Army Operations Center. In 1984, Col. Torok entered the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences School of Medicine where he would graduate in 1988.

A family practice residency at Martin Army Community Hospital, Fort Benning, Ga., followed until Torok deployed as trauma team chief with the 197th Infantry Brigade in Saudi Arabia and Iraq in support of Operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm.

Torok returned to family practice training after Desert Storm and would go on to serve at Fox Army Community Hospital in Redstone Arsenal, Ala. He was the staff physician and chief of the outpatient clinic at Fox.

He would later serve at Fort Lewis, Wash., Fort Carson, Colo., and again in Vicenza, Italy, before his last assignment at Irwin Army Community Hospital, Fort Riley, Kan. There he served as primary care and community medicine chief and, most recently, deputy commander for clinical services.

Keller’s new commander said he is excited to be at West Point.

“I will try to continue what Col. Allgood has established and take care of the community,” Torok said. “People’s health is important to them and we must ensure the community is getting the best health care they can.

“Families must be taken care of and the mission of taking care of the cadets must be achieved,” he added. “For the cadets, this is their first exposure to Army medicine and it’s important that they understand the support that’s available to them -- the Army is all about people and that’s what has kept me in for 26 years.”

A Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians, Torok has been awarded the Order of Military Medical Merit, the Meritorious Service Medal with four oak leaf clusters, Ranger Tab, master parachutist badge and the combat medical badge.

Torok and his wife, Mara, have five children, Matthew, Veronica, Andrew, Luke and Libby.