General Eric Smith
Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps
Eric M. Smith was born in 1964 in Kansas City, Missouri. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M University, during which he was a member of the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps, through which he entered the Marine Corps. He attended the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College.
He was a rifle platoon commander in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. He served in the 1st Marine Division and had several deployments to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He also was deployed to Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. He served in the Pentagon as Senior Military Assistant to the Secretary of Defense. Later, Smith participated in Operation Assured Response in Liberia.
In 2021, he was promoted to four-star general and was assigned as Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps. He was confirmed to Commandant of the Marine Corps by the Senate in September 2023.
In the News…
The U.S. Marine Corps’ Talent Management 2030 plan is showing results as close to one in three Marines is reenlisting when their first contract is up.
The retention plan listed programs and initiatives to shift the branch’s focus toward developing a more mature force. The plan increases flexibility in career assignments to encourage reenlistment, including lateral moves for career development.
The overhaul of the process helped the Marine Corps reach 114 percent of its reenlistment goal in fiscal year 2024.
