New Commander Takes the Reins at U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Europe and Africa

Major General Patrick J. Hermesmann , the incoming commander of Marine Forces Europe and Africa, receives the organizational colors from Maj. Gen. Russell A.C. Sanborn, the outgoing commander, during the change of command ceremony on the Devil Dog Field on Panzer Kaserne in Boeblingen, Germany, July 9, 2019. Sanborn, who commanded MARFOREUR/AF since July 2017, presided over several initiatives that grew the headquarters as a dynamic warfighting institution, to include increasing NATO capacity for allied amphibious operations; enhanced naval and amphibious integration into plans, operations and exercises; the expansion of the Marine Corps cold-weather and mountain-warfare rotational training presence in Norway's high north; and responsibility for US forces participating in Exercise Trident Juncture 2018, the largest NATO military exercise since the end of the Cold War. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Menelik Collins/Released)