Staff report
Posted : Friday Apr 9, 2010 17:28:16 EDT


President Obama has nominated a new commander of Marine Corps Forces Command, according to a Defense Department news release.
Lt. Gen. Dennis J. Hejlik, who oversees Marines in Afghanistan as the commanding general of II Marine Expeditionary Force, will relieve Lt. Gen. Richard Natonski at MarForCom. Hejlik enlisted in the Corps in 1968 and was honorably discharged as a sergeant in 1972. He was later commissioned through the Platoon Leaders Course.

Hejlik served as the first commanding general of Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command, helping to build the Corps’ first spec-ops command from the ground up.

He was in charge of MarSOC when, in 2007, the first Marine special operations company was pulled out of Afghanistan amid allegations of shooting innocent civilians.

Hejlik also has served as a tactics instructor at the Amphibious Warfare School; worked in the enlisted assignment section at Marine Manpower and Reserve Affairs, Quantico, Va.; and as the military secretary to the commandant of the Marine Corps.