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West Coast Marine bases come under local chief

CAMP PENDLETON ---- Officials and local civilian authorities gathered at the main parade ground on base Friday to officially celebrate the creation of a single organization that combines seven West Coast bases under a single commander located on Camp Pendleton.

The afternoon ceremony also welcomed the new base commander, a colonel fresh from fighting in Iraq, as the former base leader stepped into his role heading the newly formed regional base command.

The colonel now in charge of Camp Pendleton, who has been the Marine expeditionary force chief of staff in Iraq for most of the last 2 1/2 years, enthusiastically assumed his post Friday and promised to work as hard for the communities on and around the base as he did in Iraq.

Col. John Coleman, a tall Marine and seasoned infantry officer at 51, said he issued the same directive to his new base staff that he would issue to Marine infantrymen constructing defensive positions in battle: "It can always be better; there is always something that can be done to make it better."

Marine Corps officers said the new organization, called Marine Corps Installations West, integrates seven isolated bases into complex ranges geared for modern warfare.

They include Camp Pendleton; Logistics Base Barstow; the air stations at Camp Pendleton, Miramar and Yuma; the Mountain Warfare Training Center at Bridgeport; and the Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms.

"The Marine Corps remakes itself every few generations," said Brig. Gen. ---- soon to be Maj. Gen. ---- Michael Lehnert, who now heads the regional organization.

The existing bases, Lehnert said, were built and equipped based on the Marine Corps' doctrine and weapons of the World War II era.

"But the Marine Corps has gone on. The Marine Corps has changed," he said.

He said the missions that the Marines have been dealt over the last four years ---- striking deep into Afghanistan from the sea in 2001 and storming into Iraq with 70,000 troops in just two weeks in 2003 ---- proved that the current structure of individual bases could not sustain the training required for such missions or support such rapid deployments.

"We have to go further and faster than ever before," Lehnert said. "And we need bases that will allow us to train as we fight."

He said the bases under his command are now part of a "constellation" of training facilities, and training missions could now more easily include combinations of bases and ranges to give a better range of distance and diversity of terrain.

Lehnert said he will work one on one with the commander of the Marines' West Coast expeditionary force, the I Marine Expeditionary Force, which is also based at Camp Pendleton.

"It will give him one bellybutton to touch to get things done and make things happen," Lehnert said, pointing to Lt. Gen. John Sattler, commander of the expeditionary force.

In addition to the afternoon ceremony, the two generals attended an earlier ceremony on base recognizing the redesignation of the Marines' West Coast expeditionary logistics wing from 1st Force Service Support Group to 1st Marine Logistics Group.

That organization, too, was restructured to better integrate with Sattler's ground and air forces.

"It will help us get out the door faster," said the logistics commander, Brig. Gen. David Reist. "It'll be like a suitcase already packed."

In addition to improving training and logistics capabilities, officials said the realignment of the bases will also combine and streamline purchasing, contracting, some family services and relations with state and federal agencies.

While Lehnert said no jobs will be lost on base ---- just shuffled, he said ---- saving money and getting more efficient use out of facilities, systems and people will likely be another dividend the realignment creates.

"What we want to do is be as effective and efficient as we possibly can," he said. "It's all about supporting the war fighter ---- the war fighters and their families."

Each base will be run by a colonel rather than the customary one- or two-star general.

They, in turn, will answer to Lehnert, who will then answer to Sattler, the troop commander, and Lt. Gen. John Goodman, the commander of Marine Corps Forces Pacific, which includes some 70 percent of the Corps' nearly 145,000 Marines.

Col. John Coleman acknowledged that he was inheriting serious challenges, such as aging infrastructure and a $400 million maintenance backlog.

The most pressing problem he inherited was the recent detection of elevated levels of lead and copper throughout Camp Pendleton's water system, which could plague the base for years and cost untold millions to fix once the source is found.

"I've got a lot to learn," Coleman said, agreeing that his responsibilities will not be easy.

He said his experience in Iraq working across cultures and across agencies to kick-start reconstruction in Iraq gives him confidence that he can make things happen on Camp Pendleton.

"I've had a little practice and practical application, and I'm going to turn all of that into this assignment here," he said. "My heart and soul is in this job."