Gov. Nathan Deal announced Monday that the management of the Georgia Military Affairs Coordinating Committee will return to the state as part of the strategic Defense Initiative that got under way late last year.
He also announced that the committee’s executive director, retired Maj. Gen. David Bockel, would be joining the Governor’s Office of Workforce Development as liaison for Veterans Programs, and that Charles Hunsaker would become assistant to the director of the Georgia Defense Initiative.
The initiative has spent the past six months identifying both challenges and opportunities for the state’s defense economy.
Bockel, who has served as GMACC’s executive director for the past two years, will assume a new role as the liaison for Veterans Programs within the GOWD beginning July 1. In this position, he will be responsible for developing and overseeing programs to connect Georgia’s unemployed veterans with employers who can benefit from their skills and training. He will continue to serve GMACC in an advisory capacity.  
Hunsaker has been senior manager of Defense Issues in the Global Commerce section of the Georgia Department of Economic Development. He retired as an Army lieutenant colonel before joining the department. Hunsaker’s experience includes serving as military-affairs adviser to one of Georgia’s congressmen.