President Joe Biden has nominated the Marine Corps' current assistant commandant, Gen. Eric Smith, to lead the service after the retirement of Gen. David Berger, according to the records of the Senate.
If confirmed, Smith will take over the task of transforming and reshaping the Corps — an effort broadly known as Force Design 2030 — into an older, more mature island-hopping force aimed at countering China in the Pacific.
The nod also comes amid a larger shake-up in the military leadership overall with several other senior officials set to retire. Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown Jr., the current chief of staff of the Air Force, has been named to take over for Gen. Mark Milley as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, leaving the leadership of the Air Force and Space Force unfilled for the moment.
Read Next: After 3 Years of Delays, Army Has Again Paused Rewriting Suicide Prevention Policies
Gen. James McConville, the Army's top officer, is also set to retire and be replaced with Gen. Randy George.
Although Smith began his career of more than 30 years in the Corps as an infantry officer, in recent years he's held jobs that put him at the heart of the massive revamping and rethinking of the storied branch of the military.
Before taking on the No. 2 job, Smith served as deputy commandant for combat development and integration — a position that meant he had a heavy role in designing and writing the policies and strategies…
