On a picture-perfect Friday morning (June 4), as the Commanding General of the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center and Marine Air-Ground Task Force Training Command relinquished command, three Generals each gave their personal assessment of the Twentynine Palms base. At the hour-long, invitation only ceremony, (to comply with COVID-19 mitigation) Major General William Jurney, Commanding General since September 2020, formally passed the banner to Major General Austin Renforth. Jurney will move on to become the commanding general of Second Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp LeJeune. In attendance was Lieutenant General Lewis Craparotta, a former base commanding general who serves as the commanding general of United States Marine Corps Training and Education Command. The three generals were refreshingly candid in their off-the-cuff remarks, showing the high degree of respect they hold for our local base. Crapparotta led off the brief but heartfelt speeches calling attention to quote – “The many lives saved because of the training done in Twentynine Palms.” In his remarks General Jurney said the training provided here is, “Nothing like what is accomplished in a Zoom Call”. Finally, in accepting command, General Renforth said, “This is where I want to be, this is where Marines come to get better.”
