WASHINGTON — The Marine Corps on Tuesday put a Black colonel in control of one among its key preventing brigades, the newest in a collection of ste
WASHINGTON — The Marine Corps on Tuesday put a Black colonel in control of one among its key preventing brigades, the newest in a collection of steps that positions the Marine, Col. Anthony Henderson, for future elevation to senior management positions.
Colonel Henderson, whose beforehand introduced promotion to brigadier basic will take impact in July, took command of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade throughout a ceremony at Camp Lejeune, N.C. “If anybody has a doubt” about what the group is, he mentioned in accepting his new command, “it’s supposed to be prepared. It’s not right here as a coaching software or as an train software. It’s a preventing drive.”
A change-of-command ceremony for a Marine brigade shouldn’t be sometimes the stuff of stories reviews. However Colonel Henderson’s new command indicators a dedication to offering him with a frontline alternative to proceed to rise by means of the ranks. And it comes because the Pentagon — and significantly the Marine Corps — is grappling with problems with race and the low variety of African-American Marines in prime management positions.
As a Black man with fight command expertise in a service that has by no means in its 245-year historical past had a four-star officer who was not a white man, Colonel Henderson is a rarity within the Corps: an African-American with an opportunity of creating it to the highest of the service.
Solely 25 African-Individuals have reached basic in any kind within the Marine Corps, and just one different — Brig. Gen. Calvert L. Value — is presently an active-duty infantry basic, a gaggle from which the Corps attracts a lot of its senior management.
Colonel Henderson, 53, was handed over thrice for brigadier basic. In 2019, the Navy secretary, Richard V. Spencer, even added a handwritten advice to his candidacy. However the promotion board declined to raise him every time and as an alternative forwarded slates made up primarily of white males.
Present and former Marines pointed to Colonel Henderson’s tendency to talk his thoughts as an evidence for why he was handed over, however these traits haven’t disqualified white colonels. The Corps’ choice so as to add Colonel Henderson to its record of brigadier generals got here after an examination of his profession by The New York Occasions.
The choice to lastly promote him to brigadier basic, introduced in March, was vital as a result of many Black Marines who make basic shouldn’t have the command fight expertise of Colonel Henderson, who had a number of excursions in Iraq and Afghanistan. So these officers typically discover that they lack the background mandatory to succeed in senior management, they usually typically find yourself in positions the place they hit invisible ceilings.
Black Marines mentioned they hoped that Colonel Henderson would break that cycle.
“This command alternative retains Tony related and may be very seen to the Marine Corps,” mentioned Lt. Gen. Ronald L. Bailey, who was the primary Black man to command the first Marine Division, from 2011 to 2013, earlier than he retired. “Backside line: He’s in the course of the motion.”
Throughout the ceremony at Camp Lejeune, Lt. Gen. Brian D. Beaudreault, the commander of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Pressure, alluded to his new deputy’s tendency to say what he thinks.
Senior Marine leaders, Normal Beaudreault mentioned, should be prepared to talk reality to energy. “You’ve received to put it on the market; that’s what is predicted of basic officers — to talk the reality,” he mentioned. “With Tony, there’s by no means any doubt.”
There have been chuckles from the gang.
Colonel Henderson, who declined to be interviewed for The Occasions article in August and couldn’t be reached for touch upon Tuesday, vowed in his remarks that he would work to make sure that his brigade — which fought key battles in Nasiriyah through the Iraq struggle and in Marja in Afghanistan — would reply the decision when it got here. “We is not going to fail whenever you name us,” he mentioned, “whether or not it’s required to be prepared in minutes, hours or days.”
Colonel Henderson’s new command comes at a fragile time for america army as a complete, and for the Marines particularly.
The Pentagon, which for the primary time has a Black secretary of protection, is going through a depending on race after the Capitol assault on Jan. 6 laid naked the deep inroads that extremist teams have made into the army, each lively obligation and retired: A lot of the rioters with ties to extremist teams even have ties to army service.
This has additionally been the case with the Marine Corps. Senior Protection Division officers who’ve pored over movies from the Capitol riot have famous that the Marine Corps flag was among the many Accomplice battle flags and QAnon symbols displayed.