The Marine Corps’ top officer — the man who has overseen a sweeping and much-debated transformation of the branch — is unapologetic as he moves through his last days in office.
“When you’re a service chief … you have a moral imperative to make sure you set in place what’s going to be needed five, six, seven years in the future,” Gen. David Berger, the Marine Corps’ 38th commandant, told reporters in one of his last official interviews in office on Wednesday, less than two weeks before he becomes a civilian.
“I have no regrets at all,” Berger said.
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When Berger took the reins of the Marine Corps in 2019, the seeds of transformation had already been sown, but it was under his tenure that the hard work of transforming the branch — dubbed Force Design 2030 — started to take place.
In March 2020, he released the first Force Design 2030 guidance. In July, 2020, the Corps began shutting down its tank battalions, and Marines in those units were reshuffled around the service or moved to the Army. The transformation also meant the shedding of heavy artillery, aircraft and Marines from combat units.
The move proved to be unpopular with senior, retired Marines and observers who would proceed to write editorials and articles about the decision throughout his tenure. They blasted the plan as making the Marines “much less capable”…
