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thedrifter
06-20-06, 01:45 PM
June 26, 2006
2nd MarDiv gets new commander
Gaskin returns to the grunts

By John Hoellwarth
Times staff writer

When Maj. Gen. Richard Huck handed the reins of the 2nd Marine Division to Maj. Gen. Walter Gaskin at a Camp Lejeune, N.C., ceremony June 16, he was entrusting the unit to a Marine he’d known for decades.

Gaskin was his executive officer when Huck commanded Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines, in 1974.

Huck’s retirement after 35 years in the Corps comes as no surprise although some had questioned whether his command of the subordinate 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, during the Nov. 19 Hadithah, Iraq, incident might put his retirement plans on hold. Huck took command Nov. 10, 2004, with plans to do one more tour in order to “take the division to war, come home and retire,” said 2nd Lt. Shawn Mercer, a 2nd Marine Division spokesman.


He did just that.

The division deployed to Iraq under Huck’s command and relieved the 1st Marine Division in Anbar province, Iraq, on March 17, 2005. Until its return to Camp Lejeune in February, Huck’s division helped to secure Anbar by battling the insurgency there and encouraging voter turnout at the constitutional referendum in Iraq last October — when Gaskin was pinning on his second star — and the national election in December, according to a June 12 Corps release.

No firm date has yet been set for Huck’s retirement, but the release said he intended to retire “shortly after” the change of command.

Gaskin is taking command of the division after completing a tour of what many say is the toughest duty outside of combat: recruiting. Gaskin commanded the Marine Corps Recruiting Command in Quantico, Va., during a period when the Corps struggled and missed its contracting mission for the first time in decades.

Shortly after the Corps shared the news of its failed contracting efforts in early 2005, the Defense Department rescinded each service’s authority to release contracting data to the press.

But contracting numbers obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show Gaskin’s recruiters came to within 3,100 contracts of the 38,103 goal in fiscal 2005, and shipping goals have been met or exceeded consistently under his leadership.

Senior recruiting officials throughout the Corps credit the recruiting effort’s recent effectiveness to a controversial initiative hatched under Gaskin’s direction to hold recruiters in place at their stations in an effort to increase manpower over the months that are most difficult for recruiters each year.

Maj. Eric Roth, enlisted recruiting assistant for the 4th Marine Corps District, said holding recruiters at their stations was an unpopular, gutsy move that is directly responsible for 4th District’s overachievement during the current fiscal year.

Before taking on the Corps’ recruiting mission, Gaskin served as commanding general of Marine Corps Training and Education Command at Quantico. That assignment led to duty in Naples, Italy, as the deputy commanding general of Fleet Marine Forces Europe.

With his new position, Gaskin returns to Camp Lejeune for the fourth time and becomes the second black Marine to command an infantry division in the Marine Corps.

Reserve Maj. Gen. Jerome Cooper commanded the 4th Marine Division from 1990 to 1991, before his retirement and appointment as U.S. ambassador to Jamaica.

Ellie