Marine Gen. Joseph “Fighting Joe” Dunford has been nominated as the next commandant of the Marine Corps. The Defense Department announced Thursday that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel had nominated Dunford, who currently commands coalition troops in Afghanistan as head of the International Security Assistance Force, to be the 36th commandant. “I’m humbled to be nominated as the 36th Commandant of the Marine Corps,” Dunford said in an emailed statement from ISAF headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan. Dunford, 58, previously served as the 32nd assistant commandant of the Marine Corps under Gen. Jim Amos from 2010 to 2012. During his 37-year Marine Corps career as an infantry officer, Dunford has spent considerable time in both post-9/11 combat theaters.
