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 Commandant, General Eric Smith, said that the service does not have enough amphibious warships.
“I have the Marines, and I have the squadrons, and I have the battalions and the batteries … I just don’t have the amphibs,” General Smith said. “Amphibs are vital to us. They are an existential part of who we are as Marines.“
The amphibious warships are vital to the Marine Corps’ rapid reaction forces, or Marine Expeditionary Units. The ships move equipment and troops from sea to shore during an assault. General Smith said, “Your readiness rate is down in the 50-percentile range, and it needs to be 80%, then I would say that’s a crisis.”
