Brig. Gen. Joseph Chaves, the commander of the 29th Brigade Combat Team in Iraq, took the action after Ostermiller, 41, was involved in an altercation with one of his staff officers, the Guard said.

Ostermiller, a 1982 Kamehameha Schools graduate who went through the University of Hawai'i ROTC program, was suspended after a verbal altercation escalated into physical contact between Ostermiller and his operations officer, a major, shortly after the battalion arrived in Iraq several weeks ago, officials said.

Brig. Gen. John Y.H. Ma, the general in charge of Army Reserve forces in Hawai'i, recently downplayed reports of Ostermiller nearly choking the operations officer and scuffling with military police, but said reports at that time were still filtering in.

"What we got back was he grabbed the officer by the collar and that's pretty much the extent that we saw," Ma said at the time.

Ostermiller's removal was effective yesterday. No further actions are pending against him, the Guard said. Ostermiller is being replaced by Lt. Col. Colbert Low from the 9th Regional Readiness Command. Low had served with the battalion in the past as its executive officer.