 He was then selected to serve as a joint staff officer, and was assigned as Chief, Joint Network Simulations at the Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama.He commanded 1st Battalion, 64th Armor, 3d Infantry Division (Mechanized) from June 1996 to June 1998 at Fort Stewart, Georgia, and following attendance at the U.S. Army War College, was assigned as the G3, 3d Infantry Division (Mechanized) from June 1999 to February 2001.In March 2001 as a Colonel, Tucker assumed command of the 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division, which culminated in a combat tour in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and then assumed duties as the Executive Officer to the Commanding General U.S. Army Europe and Seventh United States Army.