Princeton Army ROTC

Lieutenant Colonel George P. Wilcha was raised in Yonkers, NY and served 22 years with the Yonkers Police Department before retiring in 2001 as a Police Lieutenant.  Enlisting in the United States Marine Corps Reserve in 1976 and graduating boot camp at Parris Island, SC, LTC Wilcha served five years as a Marine Rifleman and Mortar man in Kilo Company, 3^rd Battalion, 6^th Marines, 2^nd Marine Division and Fox Company, 2^nd Battalion, 25^th Marines, 4^th Marine Division.  He later graduated the USMC Officer Candidate School at Quantico, VA in 1978. 

In 1979, LTC Wilcha graduated Iona College in New Rochelle, NY with a Bachelor of Business Administration Degree in Finance and in September 1979 was appointed a Police Officer with the City of Yonkers Police Department.  Transferring to the New York Army National Guard in 1981, LTC Wilcha graduated the Empire State Military Academy in 1982 and was appointed a Second Lieutenant and commissioned in the Signal Corps.  After serving with the 101^st Signal Battalion as a Platoon Leader in Charlie Company and Delta Company, LTC Wilcha was appointed Commander, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 187^th Signal Brigade in 1988 and promoted to Captain. 

LTC Wilcha returned to the 101^st Signal Battalion in 1992 as the Battalion Maintenance Officer until his reassignment back to the Brigade in 1994 as the Information Officer.  In 1995, LTC Wilcha was selected to serve as the Aide de Camp to the Commanding General, New York Army National Guard, and was promoted to Major.  In 1997, LTC Wilcha was assigned as the Battalion S-3 for the 1^st Battalion, 53^rd Troop Command.  Following that assignment, LTC Wilcha was assigned in 1999 to the 53^rd Troop Command as a Staff Officer until he entered active duty in the Active Guard / Reserve Program (AGR) and was assigned to the Recruiting and Retention Command, New York Army National Guard, as an AMEDD Recruiter in July 2001. 

Soon after September 11, 2001, LTC Wilcha was reassigned as the Recruiting and Retention Officer for the southern portion of New York State, and served in that capacity until being reassigned in 2006 to the 53^rd Troop Command as the Command Property Book Officer.  In 2008, LTC Wilcha was again assigned to command, and deployed the 27^th Financial Management Company to Kuwait in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (08-10), and was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel.  After returning to the United States in 2009, LTC Wilcha continued in his command position until he reached his Mandatory Removal Date of 28 years of Commissioned Service and retired in July, 2010 from the New York Army National Guard with over 34 years of total military service. 

LTC Wilcha is a graduate of the United States Army Command and General Staff College, and is Signal, Finance, Adjutant General, and Military Police qualified.  LTC Wilcha holds a Masters Degree in Public Administration from Marist College, Poughkeepsie, NY, (1994), and has a Certificate of Criminal Justice from the University of Virginia as a graduate from the FBI National Academy, Quantico, VA, having represented the Yonkers Police Department at the 197^th Session in 1999.  In January 2012, LTC Wilcha was recalled to active duty and is on a military leave of absence from his civilian position as a Federal Law Enforcement Officer with the United States Department of Veterans Affairs in Montrose, NY.  His hobbies include working out, motorcycle riding, and hockey.  LTC Wilcha is married to his wife of 32 years, Debra, and resides in Warwick, NY.