John M. Paxton Jr.

John M. Paxton (2013)

John M. Paxton Jr. (born June 25, 1951 in Chester , Pennsylvania ) is a retired general in the United States Marine Corps . Between December 2012 and August 2016 he was its deputy in command .

Military career

Training and first years of service

After graduating from Cornell University in Ithaca , New York in 1974 with a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degree in civil engineering, Paxton entered the service of the US Marine Corps and went through the officer candidate program of the Officer Candidate School and was second that year Lieutenant promoted. After the completion of the Basic School at Marine Corps Base Quantico , he was to airborne training at the Airborne School of the US Army to Fort Benning , Georgia , was added and then in 1975 as a platoon commander of a platoon of Bravo Company , 1st Battalion , 3rd US marines regiment of the 1st US - marines brigade in Kaneohe , Hawaii , used. He served in Bravo Company for two years, ending up as its Executive Officer . In 1977 he was transferred to the 4th Marine Regiment of the 3rd US Marine Division in Okinawa , Japan , and served there as a regimental training officer and then as the first officer of the Gulf and Headquarters Company of the 2nd Battalion.

In October 1978, Paxton returned to the United States as First Lieutenant and served in the Marine Barracks Washington as platoon leader of the Alpha Company and then as a barrack officer in the headquarters company. 1979 Paxton was promoted to captain and took over the post of company commander of Bravo Company until 1981 . In 1981 he was transferred to Fort Benning again, where he completed the US Army's extended infantry officer course . He was then transferred to the 1st US Marine Division at Camp Pendleton , California , where he served as a company commander of the Lima Company and then as an operations officer (S-3) of the 3rd Battalion, 5th US Marine Regiment. During this employment, he completed another foreign assignment with the 3rd U.S. Marine Division.

Service as a staff officer

After he was promoted to major , he took over the US Marine Corps recruiting position in New York City from July 1985 to 1988 . In July 1988 he was transferred to the US Marine Corps Command and Staff College in Quantico , Virginia . Another foreign use followed from 1989 to 1991. Paxton served two years as amphibious operations and executive officer of the Rapid Reaction Team of Combined Forces Command Korea of the US Forces Korea in South Korea .

In 1991, Paxton was transferred to Camp Lejeune , North Carolina , where he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel , the post of Operations Staff Officer ( G3 ) for the Second Marine Expeditionary Force .

From April 1992 to June 1994, also at Camp Lejeune, he commanded the 1st Battalion, 8th US Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division , which served as the Battalion Landing Team of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit . His battalion was along with the aircraft carrier battle group of the USS America as a landing force of the US 6th Fleet (LF6F 2-93) and Joint Adaptive Task Force 93-2 in support of operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina and later as a rapid reaction force ( Quick Reaction Force; QRF ) of the United Nations in Mogadishu , Somalia .

Back in the United States, Paxton was a Federal Executive Fellow in Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution from 1994 to 1995 .

From June 1995 he headed the department for strategic planning in the department of planning, strategy and operations at the headquarters of the US Marine Corps and from June 1996 served as executive assistant and Marine Corps advisor to the Under Secretary of the Navy . . In this role he served until 1997 and was promoted to colonel during this time .

Paxton then served for three years in the 1st Marine Division at Camp Pendleton. From June 1997 to June 1998 he was the division's assistant chief of staff, responsible for operations (G3). In June 1998 he then took command of the 1st US Marine Regiment until June 2000.

After this troop command, he studied for a year as a US Marine Corps Fellow for National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations . In July 2001, he then assumed the post of Director of the Programs Division in the Deputy Commandant of the Marine Corps Office for Programs and Resources at the US Marine Corps Headquarters in the Department of Defense , which he held until August 2003.

Service in the rank of general

Transfer of command of the U.S. 1st Marine Division - Paxton and Mills , May 22, 2007.

In August 2003, he took over as Commanding General of the Western Recruiting Region and the Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego , responsible for the basic training of all Marines recruited west of the Mississippi .

On August 8, 2006, Paxton then took over the post of Commanding General of the 1st Marine Division at Camp Pendleton. On May 22, 2007, he surprisingly handed this command over to his deputy Brigadier General Richard P. Mills to take up the post of Chief of Staff of the Multi-National Force Iraq (MNF-I) under General David H. Petraeus in Iraq .

On March 13, 2008, Paxton was nominated for the post of Director of Strategic Planning and Policies ( J-5 ) on the Joint Staff and will replace General John F. Sattler in that post after promotion to Lieutenant . He gave the post of Chief of Staff of the MNF-I a little later to Major General Kenneth J. Glueck, Jr. from. In July 2008 he finally took over the new post from Sattler. Shortly after taking office as Director J-5, however, he was nominated for Director J-3 (Operations) as the post was vacated by the promotion of Carter F. Ham . In September / October 2008 he handed over his post to Vice Admiral James A. Winnefeld, Jr. , previously the Allied Joint Command Lisbon the NATO had commanded, and then took over the post of director of operations. He will hand over this post to Major General Robert B. Neller in autumn 2010 .

Paxton is supposed to take command of the II. Marine Expeditionary Force and at the same time act as the commander of the US Marine Corps Forces Africa .

His awards include a. the Legion of Merit with a gold star, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal , the Meritorious Service Medal with a gold star, the Navy & Marine Corps Commendation Medal with a gold star, the Navy Unit Commendation with a bronze star , the Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation with a bronze star , the National Defense Service Medal with bronze star. He was also a Marine Corps Fellow at Seminar XXI at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology .

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1. ↑ 1st Marine Division to get interim boss ( Memento of the original from May 25, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (MarineCorpsTimes.com of May 21, 2007; English)  
2. ↑ General Officer Announcements (DefenseLink.mil, March 13, 2008; English)
3. ↑ General Officer Announcement (DefenseLink.mil, July 17, 2008; English)

Web links

Commons : John M. Paxton, Jr.  album of pictures, videos, and audio files

• Official Biography (English)
• Other official biography (English)