Brig. Gen. Sean Hoewing, head of the Corps’ newly established Risk Management Directorate, told an audience at the Modern Day Marine exposition in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday that, while the impacts of blast exposure and overpressure across time are still being studied, training supervisors have been instructed to take steps to limit prospective damage.

“If you’re an instructor on the range today, and you’re observing a Marine using a particular weapon system, we’ve already implemented distance requirements for the observer to be away from that weapon system,” Hoewing said. “Understanding that the Marine today with weapon systems that we use, many of them, they have to be in close proximity to the weapon. But anybody else that’s assisting doesn’t necessarily need to be inside that bubble where there would be danger. So those things are already being implemented.”

In February, according to Hoewing, the Corps established a baseline evaluation in a computer-based brain function assessment known as the Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics, or ANAM, for all troops designated “high risk,” including weapons instructors, range staff and others whose routine work puts them in proximity to overpressure.

By this September, he said in a presentation, ANAM data would be incorporated into Marines’ periodic health assessments, an annual four-part screening administered by Navy medicine. September 2027 will see baseline ANAM evals complete for all troops.

The Marine Corps is set to evaluate a study on the impacts of blast overpressure at different levels and update the risk threshold — now set at 4 pounds per square inch (PSI) — by September 2029.

“We’re still debating amongst the scientists and medical health professionals, with the periodicity … how frequently we will do those tests from here on out, whether it’s a part of your annual periodic health assessment that most Marines will go through, or whether it’s something that’s, you know, every two years or every three years,” Hoewing said. “In the meantime, our mandate is to get after doing this assessment.”

The Corps has also built a working group, he said, to determine what to do with the information being gathered. Those tasked with building awareness may inform Marines, as well as makers of military equipment and protective gear, of blast risks and thresholds.

Those in the working group from Marine Corps Training and Education Command will have “the largest stake,” Hoewing said, as they’ll have to develop mitigation methods and procedures in a space where avoiding blast exposure altogether isn’t an option.

“There might be policy regarding the use of [personal protective equipment] that would be within our lane,” he said. “But under the mitigation effort, there’s lots of things, whether it’s policy, range, regulations, new weapon systems and whatnot … we are one stakeholder of many in a team effort to make that happen.”

Training aids that allow Marines to build familiarity and proficiency without firing live weapons as often may also be part of the solution, according to an official with Marine Corps Systems Command who chimed in during the briefing.

“Our goal is mitigation without reducing our warfighting capability,” Hoewing said. “I wouldn’t keep anything off the table.”

Marine Corps Commandant Eric Smith told the audience at the annual Modern Day Marine exposition Thursday that the force design decisions made over the past six years have put new capabilities in the hands of crucial formations, such as the Marine Expeditionary Unit, or MEU.

“This is about more than ships, it’s about deterrence and denial,” Smith said. “That is why the 3.0 [Amphibious Ready Group] MEU matters, it gives our leaders options.”

A 3.0 presence means a three-ship ARG-MEU, each deployed out of the East Coast, one out of the West Coast and a third on episodic deployments out of Okinawa, Japan.

An ARG includes an assault ship, a landing ship with helicopter platform and a dock landing ship. The MEU contains a battalion landing team, ground combat element, aviation combat element and combat logistics element to form a Marine Air Ground Task Force, or MAGTF.

To achieve that, the Corps needs 31 amphibious ships at a readiness level of 80%. Demand is higher from combatant commands, Smith said. The demand is more than five ARG MEUs, the most requested asset behind the Carrier Strike Group.

Readiness levels hover at around 50%, Smith said in early April at the Navy League’s annual Sea-Air-Space Exposition. That’s because following two decades of land-based wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Corps had largely not maintained its fleet. Money for maintenance and shipbuilding went to those wars instead.

And Smith wants more capabilities for those MEUs as the service battles an amphibious ship shortage.

“What I need is affordable, lethal, autonomous, light and I can fund at budget time,” Smith said.

Some of those new developments include the Marine Air Defense Integrated System, or MADIS, and its lighter version, the L-MADIS.

The system still needs more autonomous solutions to get after a major threat – drone swarms.

“The big thing that really keeps me up at night is swarms,” Col. Andrew Konicki, head of ground-based air defense for Marine Corps Systems Command, said Wednesday.

Striking those threats from aboard ship or on shore is vital to keeping Marines alive.

“That is how we’re going to say ahead of the adversary, with autonomy,” Smith said.

Thirteen of 21 Light Marine Air Defense Integrated Systems, or L-MADIS, have been fielded over the past three years.

That light system was fielded to the 3rd Littoral Anti-Air Battalion, 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment in 2024. It handles group I and II drone threats.

Marine Expeditionary Units have used the system when crossing various maritime chokepoints, and it has proved effective in the maritime environment, despite the system being built mainly as a ground-based air defense system, Konicki said.

Seven more of the larger MADIS system will be fielded by September, bringing the Corps total to 20, with full fielding expected by 2033.

That’s for air defense. For a more offensive approach, the Corps expects to receive four-dozen mobile fires platforms, dubbed the Navy-Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System, or NMESIS.

The NMESIS is made up of a Naval Strike Missile mounted on a Joint Light Tactical Vehicle platform with semi-autonomous and autonomous capabilities to launch remotely.

The 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment, a newly created unit for fighting in the littorals, or waters near land, received the first six NMESIS in November.

The Hawaii-based unit formed in 2021. The service then established the 12th MLR on Okinawa, Japan, with plans for a third rotational MLR on Guam.

Six of the NMESIS systems are set to field with 12th MLR beginning March 2026.

All these moves and the push for new, better equipment have a singular aim, he said.

“Modernization with a clear purpose – to keep Marines lethal and survivable,” Smith said.

“The big thing that really keeps me up at night is swarms,” Col. Andrew Konicki, head of ground-based air defense for Marine Corps Systems Command, said at the Modern Day Marine military exposition in Washington on Wednesday.

Konicki set the scene with two anecdotes, one from the Ohio State University football game against the University of Maryland in 2023, which was delayed due to a drone over the field.

The other was the 2020 Beijing Olympics drone demonstration in which a coordinated drone swarm presented a light show to millions of spectators.

Both presented frightening prospects. The football game could have been a single drone dropping baby powder, which some might worry could be a biological threat, and the Olympics scenario raised questions about how a small Marine unit, or even a lone Marine, would counter hundreds or potentially thousands of drones targeting their position.

On the small-drone level, the Marines have deployed 13 of 21 Light Marine Air Defense Integrated Systems, or L-MADIS, over the past three years.

That tailored system was fielded to the 3rd Littoral Anti-Air Battalion with the 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment in 2024. It handles group I and II drone threats.

Recent fielding of the L-MADIS system with the Marine Expeditionary Units proved effective in maritime environment despite the system being built mainly as a ground-based air defense system, Konicki said.

For larger threats, the MADIS, a more powerful version of its light brother, will see seven more systems deployed by September in addition to the 13 already in the inventory, Konicki said.

“The rapid rise of [unmanned aerial systems], used for surveillance, targeting and attacks, has made advanced air defense systems like MADIS critical to protecting our Marines and preserving our combat effectiveness,” Lt. Col. Craig Warner, future weapons systems product manager, said in December 2024. “MADIS not only detects, tracks and defeats aerial threats but also serves as a powerful deterrent, signaling to adversaries that their aerial assets will not succeed against U.S. forces.”

On the even larger end of the spectrum, the Corps expects to field its first platoon with the Medium Range Intercept Capability, or MRIC, an anti-cruise missile system that’s proven “highly effective” in operational testing, the colonel said.

Over recent experimentation and operational testing, the Marines have identified key areas to improve.

A top priority is defeating swarms, Konicki said. Quickly following are munition-agnostic launch systems, enhanced passive sensing, a dismounted sensing and defeat capability and training support both in virtual and live spaces, he said.

The colonel would especially like to see passive sensing capability for the MRIC, he said.

That’s an area Marine aviation leaders such as Lt. Gen. Bradford Gering, deputy commandant for aviation, and Col. Derek Brannon, director of the Cunningham Group, are looking to industry for help.

“We are killers, at the root, we are Marines,” Brannon told the audience at the Modern Day Marine military exposition in Washington on Wednesday.

Alongside upgraded weapons and munitions options for the Corps’ growing fleet of F-35B and F-35C fighter jets, the two aviation leaders also noted recent lessons learned for distributed air operations.

A West Coast-based exercise called upon entities across the Marine Corps to work out how distributed aviation operations would work in that theater.

The next tabletop exercise is slated for Europe in the coming year.

Some of the key lessons learned are a need for more virtual and live training options, decision-centric aviation operations driven by data using large language models to work out scenarios, better plans for communication and power generation and timing and controlling the tempo of the need for camouflage, cover and concealment.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning will play a crucial role in those next steps.

“We’re pursuing those really hard right now because it’s all about data,” Gering said.

The three-star provided an example of using such tools for predicting aircraft component failures and adjusting supplies to fit accordingly.

“What you can do then is make decisions with that aircraft,” Gering said of employing various platforms.

The same moves are key for what aviation units will take with them. By understanding the full picture of maintenance and supplies, units can know what to pack and potentially take less, leaving a smaller footprint, he said.

On the jet side of aviation, the Marines expect to complete purchasing 95 of the KC-130J cargo planes over the next five years.

Eleven squadrons — two training and nine operational — now fly the F-35 Lightning II jet, a fifth-generation fighter. The Corps will build another seven active-duty squadrons over the next five years, which will be supplemented by two Marine Reserve squadrons.

Once completed, there will be 18 active squadrons, a dozen flying the F-35B and six flying the F-35C. The two Reserve squadrons will fly the C variant, which is built for aircraft carrier takeoff and landing. The B variant can conduct vertical takeoff and landing.

The AV-8 Harrier jet will sunset this year, Bannon said. The F/A-18 Hornet will sunset in the next five years.

So far, Northrop Grumman has delivered 35 of the AN/TPS-80 Ground/Air Task-Oriented Radar, or G/ATOR, systems to the service.

A total of 60 are expected in the inventory by 2029, Katherine Rezniceck, product manager for the G/ATOR for Marine Corps Systems Command, told Marine Corps Times ahead of the annual Modern Day Marine military exposition.

Of those 60 systems, five will go to the Air Force and one is being kept by the Navy for developmental testing, she said.

Artillery regiments, the new Marine Littoral Regiments and a host of aviation units are prioritized to receive them.

The G/ATOR replaces five legacy radar systems, doubling the radar range. This year, the service will begin work on an extended-range mode, part of a software update that will give the system farther reach.

The system provides “enhanced situational awareness and additional capabilities to conduct short- to medium-range radar surveillance and air defense, and air traffic control missions,” according to a Marine release.

The three-vehicle set includes a communications equipment group on a Humvee or similar platform, a trailer-mounted radar array and a power equipment group on a larger truck.

“In the past, artillery — the Marines — had a separate radar. We — the Marines — had our own separate radar for air-breathing and missile targets,” Chief Warrant Officer 3 Jack Linke said in a 2021 release. “G/ATOR lets us accomplish both those missions with far better accuracy than either of us had before with our legacy systems.”

On the ground side, G/ATOR also gives ground weapons a locating capability “for conduct of counter-battery/counter-fire missions,” according to the release.

Marines with the 12th Marine Littoral Regiment used a Japanese Self-Defense Force C-2 cargo plane to transport the TPS-80 Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar, or G/ATOR, to the island of Yonaguni on July 29, 2024.

Yonaguni is the final island in a string of islands that are part of Okinawa, which is home to 18,000 residents and another 7,000 U.S. Air Force personnel, according to the Marine Corps.

Marines deployed the radar as part of training with enhanced sensing and targeting data between 12th MLR and the Japanese military during Exercise Resolute Dragon, the Marines said.

Though each G/ATOR will be able to run each of the various missions, one system cannot run those missions simultaneously, Rezniceck said.

The system entered production in June 2019, according to Northrop Grumman. It provides 360-degree coverage for air defense and other missions.

While air defense has been the primary mission for the G/ATOR, the radar can also run medium-range air traffic control. This gives Marines the ability to build an expeditionary airport and run it organically with the G/ATOR and a precision navigation radar to land aircraft.

At the same time, an ongoing effort is training Marines to conduct intermediate maintenance at their level, instead of pushing repairs to depot-level work that might not need that level of expertise.

The move shortens maintenance time and allows the Corps to keep more systems operational for longer periods between detailed maintenance needs.

Decades of lecturers “foot stomping” material for Marines to learn, recall and regurgitate on a test before forgetting most of what they heard is being replaced by “outcomes-based” learning, a method that’s been in use in other fields but only recently brought into military training.

“Instead of teaching them what to think, we’re teaching them how to think,” said Col. Karl Arbogast, director of the policy and standards division at training and education command.

Arbogast laid out some of the new methods that the command is using at the center for learning and faculty development while speaking at the Modern Day Marine Expo.

“No more death by PowerPoint,” Arbogast said. “No more ‘sage on the stage’ anymore, it’s the ‘guide on the side.’”

To do that, Lt. Col. Chris Devries, director of the learning and faculty center, is a multiyear process in which the Marines have developed two new military occupational specialties, 0951 and 0952.

The exceptional MOS is in addition to their primary MOS but allows the Marines to quickly identify who among their ranks is qualified to teach using the new methods.

Training for those jobs gives instructors, now called facilitators, an entry-level understanding of how to teach in an outcomes-based learning model.

Devries said the long-term goal is to create two more levels of instructor/facilitator that a Marine could return to in their career, a journeyman level and a master level. Those curricula are still under development.

The new method helps facilitators first learn the technology they’ll need to share material with and guide students. It also teaches them more formal assessment tools so they can gauge how well students are performing.

For the students, they can learn at their own pace. If they grasp the material the group is covering, they’re encouraged to advance in their study, rather than wait for the entire group to master the introductory material.

More responsibility is placed on the students. For example, in a land navigation class, a facilitator might share materials for students to review before class on their own and then immediately jump into working with maps, compasses and protractors on land navigation projects in the next class period, said John deForest, learning and development officer at the center.

That creates more time in the field for those Marines to practice the skills in a realistic setting.

For the infantry Marine course, the school split up the large classroom into squad-sized groups led by a sergeant or staff sergeant, allowing for more individual focus and participation among the students, Arbogast said.

“They have to now prepare activities for the learner to be directly involved in their own learning and then they have to steer and guide the learners correct outcome,” said Timothy Heck, director of the center’s West Coast detachment.

The students are creating products and portfolios of activities in their training instead of simply taking a written test, said Justina Kirkland, a facilitator at the West Coast detachment.

Students are also pushed to discuss problems among themselves and troubleshoot scenarios. The role of the facilitator then is to monitor the conversation and ask probing questions to redirect the group if they get off course, Heck said.

That involves more decision games, decision forcing cases and even wargaming, deForest said.

We “put the student in an active learning experience where they have to grapple with uncertainty, where they have to grapple with the technical skills and the knowledge they need,” deForest said.

That makes the learning more about application than recall, he said.

As the Marines continue Force Design ― their manpower, equipment and operational shift to fight peer competitors such as China ― pieces of those changes already in the operating force are proving their combat-worthiness, two senior generals said Thursday at the Modern Day Marine Expo.

Lt. Gen. Karsten Heckl, deputy commandant of combat development and integration, pointed to a recent exercise and the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine as examples.

During exercise Nordic Response in February, Marines teamed with NATO allies, serving as the stand-in force in Norway, operating a ground/air task–oriented radar, tracking airborne threats near the Russian border, Heckl said.

The G/ATOR is a key piece of equipment added to the Marine inventory as it shifts part of its focus to how it can provide unique capabilities to the other military services in joint operations.

But moves such as these were happening back in 2022 when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Speaking with reporters following his panel appearance Thursday, Heckl stopped short of providing operational details, but said that Marines at the time with Task Force 61/2, part of a Marine expeditionary brigade, responded almost immediately, “with equipment we fielded directly because of force design that would not have otherwise been there and we did quite a bit of stuff with that, G/ATOR’s one of them but I’ll leave it at that.”

That new Marine focus, sensing threats and passing data, has been part of how force design has evolved, Heckl said.

“As we went on this force design journey, we started out we initially thought of blowing stuff up, very kinetically oriented, now we realize through the stand in force it’s really the capability of sensing and making sense,” Heckl said.

Lt. Gen. James Bierman, deputy commandant of plans, policies and operations, widened the scope of what the service has seen as it implements force design changes within units.

Bierman pointed to Houthi rebel strikes on maritime vessels in the Red Sea as evidence of how adversaries can create choke points and countering such attacks, “is going to be the business of the Marine Corps.”

In 2023, when Bierman commanded III Marine Expeditionary Force, the unit conducted exercise Azure Dragon. The focus was on the force’s ability to operate as a stand-in force in the first and second island chains.

The force is headquartered in Okinawa, Japan, within the first island chain that rings China. At the same time, the Marines have purpose built the 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment in Hawaii and recently stood up the 12th Marine Littoral Regiment, also in Okinawa, centered around force design concepts of sensing and striking within range of enemy forces.

“There’s been a lot of focus on the MLR, very appropriately so, what we were trying to do in Azure Dragon is validate our ability to stand in as a MEF, as a (Marine Air Ground Task Force),” Bierman said.

But having the force, a unit with 25,000 Marines, running as the stand in force sets up units such as the regiments to better exploit enemy weaknesses, Bierman said.

“When we geared up for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, we focused on weapons systems, training and technology,” Commandant Gen. Eric Smith said Thursday at the Modern Day Marine conference in Washington. “And that focus kept a lot of Marines alive in Helmand province, kept a lot of Marines alive in Iraq, in the Sunni Triangle.”

“So, again, I can’t apologize for previous generations of Marines to prioritize training and equipping over quality of life,” he continued. “But now the tide has to turn, and we have to get back to quality of life.”

Smith’s comments came the day after the Corps’ budget chief also attributed barracks issues to investments in weapons systems over quality of life.

“We didn’t have the data to say, ‘How are we tracking the facilities’ condition in detail to defend more than $200 million a year for that?’” Lt. Gen. James Adams, the deputy Marine commandant for programs and resources, said Wednesday at the conference. “But we did have the data to say, ‘We need this Force Design weapons system or this modernized vehicle or this modernized weapon platform.’”

Adams said in response to a Marine Corps Times question about who was at fault for the previous underinvestment in the barracks that he didn’t see it as a fault.

A Government Accountability Office report published in September 2023 found widespread problems — including mold, dysfunctional plumbing, and poor heating and cooling — in barracks across the military services, including the Marine Corps.

A recent Corps-wide inspection found approximately half of barracks rooms were only “partially mission-capable,” meaning they were deficient in at least one aspect of living standards, Maj. Gen. David Maxwell, commander of Marine Corps Installations Command, said Wednesday at the Modern Day Marine conference.

Smith has served as the commandant since September 2023, although he became the acting commandant in July 2023 following the retirement of Commandant Gen. David Berger. For the two years before that, he was the assistant commandant, serving as the Corps’ No. 2 leader.

Quality of life, especially barracks improvements, has been central to Smith’s stated agenda during his time as commandant. Under the leadership of Smith and Assistant Commandant Gen. Christopher Mahoney, who served as acting commandant during Smith’s monthslong recovery from a cardiac arrest, the Corps has rolled out a barracks overhaul initiative.

That Barracks 2030 initiative entails consolidating Marines in the best barracks, professionalizing barracks management and speeding up maintenance. It also means making barracks restoration a priority in the service’s budget.

The Marine Corps has asked in its official fiscal year 2025 budget request for $274 million for barracks restoration, a $65 million increase from previous year. It signaled in its unfunded priorities list it would like an additional $230 million for that purpose if there were room in the budget.

Twelve amphibious combat vehicles will arrive at the Okinawa, Japan-based 4th Marine Regiment in July, Col. Tim Hough, the Corps’ program manager for advanced amphibious assault, said on Wednesday at the Modern Day Marine conference in Washington.

“That’s important because now we’ll be in distinct geographical locations,” Hough said, adding that the Corps was ready to handle the challenges that would arise from having the amphibious combat vehicles spread out for the first time.

The update about the movement of vehicles to Japan was one of several the Corps and manufacturer BAE Systems unveiled at the Modern Day Marine conference.

BAE Systems already has fielded 184 amphibious combat vehicles to the Marine Corps, but only to the 3rd Assault Amphibian Battalion and the Assault Amphibian School, both located at Camp Pendleton, California, according to Hough.

The amphibious combat vehicle allows Marines to travel from the Navy’s amphibious ships to shore and then roll onto land. It is replacing the amphibious assault vehicle, which had been in service since the 1970s.

After the amphibious combat vehicles were involved in multiple rollovers in 2022, in which no injuries were reported, the Marine Corps temporarily pulled them from operations in the surf zone. The service determined the mishaps happened because Marines hadn’t gotten sufficient training on how the amphibious combat vehicle differed from its predecessor vehicle, which has tracks rather than wheels, a flatter hull and a smaller size, among other design differences.

In 2023, the Marine Corps started recertifying vehicle operators and maintainers based on a new training curriculum.

The amphibious combat vehicle program is set to hit a few other milestones in the coming years.

The command-and-control-focused variant is scheduled to reach initial operating capability in fiscal year 2024′s third quarter, which ends July 1, according to Hough. The Corps expects the variant with a 30-mm cannon will reach initial operational capability in 2026, Hough said.

The assistant Marine commandant, Gen. Christopher Mahoney, said in January that amphibious combat vehicles would deploy with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit from California in the spring.

Outfitting vehicles with new tech

At the same Modern Day Marine trade show where Hough delivered his update, the company showed off the amphibious combat vehicle variant with the 30-mm cannon — this time equipped with an integrated combat system, which takes in information from sensors linked to other platforms and gathers it all on one interface.

The idea is to assemble information instantaneously through a network rather than relying on radio communication, said Garrett Lacaillade, vice president of amphibious vehicles at BAE Systems.

When BAE Systems demonstrated the system from within the vehicle on Monday, the sensors were filming from drones and other platforms at locations around the trade show. The sensor arrayed the live feeds of exhibitors’ booths and unsuspecting attendees on one screen, as in a Zoom call.

After BAE Systems’ Jesse Swangnete selected a target on the screen, the cannon moved to the appropriate angle.

Lacaillade said the Marine Corps seems “interested” in the system but has not yet issued any contract.

Junior Marines have tested out the system, though, and they have been able to figure out how to operate it with a few hours of training, according to Swangnete.

“They’ve grown up with the Xbox mentality,” he said.

In unveiling the name, Carlos Del Toro called back to his late 2022 announcement that the America-class amphibious assault ship LHA-9 would be named the USS Fallujah, after the Marines who fought in the first and second battles of Fallujah and more broadly who served in Iraq.

Naming a ship for Helmand province will recognize “the bravery and sacrifice of our Marines and our sailors who fought for almost 20 years in the mountains of Afghanistan,” Del Toro said in his remarks at the Modern Day Marine conference in Washington.

Trish Smith, the wife of Marine Commandant Gen. Eric Smith, will serve as the ship’s sponsor. She will see the ship through all its construction-related milestones and support the ship and its crew once it joins the fleet and begins operating around the world.

The Navy awarded HII’s Ingalls Shipbuilding a $130 million contract in November 2023 to begin buying long-lead materials for the ship.

Smith gave an emotional accounting of the meaning of the ship’s name on Thursday, following the secretary’s announcement.

He called the region — which was the focus of Marines’ operations that at its height involved a full Marine expeditionary force forward, and more than 19,000 Marines and sailors — “the heart of the opium trade, a Taliban stronghold, and a terrain as rugged and formidable as any on earth.”

“And yet, it was there that our Marines and sailors and allies and partners showed what it means to be at the tip of the spear,” Smith said. “It was there that another generation of warriors added to the storied history of our Marine Corps.”

Smith spoke of Medal of Honor recipient Cpl. Kyle Carpenter, who used his body to shield others from a grenade explosion in Marjah, Afghanistan, on Nov. 21, 2010.

He spoke of Sgt. Christopher Farias, who refused treatment for his wounds when his patrol base was ambushed in 2010 in Kajaki, Afghanistan. With fragmentation from a 73 mm recoilless rifle in his neck and shoulder, Farias climbed to a rooftop to coordinate his Marines’ fire and maneuver to repel the assault, in “true Marine fashion,” Smith said.

And the commandant spoke of Lance Cpl. Donald Hogan, who was patrolling a road on Aug. 26, 2009, when he spotted an insurgent preparing to detonate a roadside bomb. He protected a nearby Marine from the blast and remained in the blast zone to warn fellow Marines. Hogan died in the explosion, but he saved the rest of his squad.

“Three hundred and sixty-six Marines would lose their lives to hostile action in Afghanistan during the years of the Helmand campaign, and almost 5,000 more were wounded,” Smith said.

But beyond fights on the battlefield, the commandant said they trained Afghan counterparts, supported local governance and helped develop infrastructure.

“As we reflect on these years of hard-fought victories and painful losses, it is crucial to remember why we fought,” Smith said. “Our mission was to deny a safe haven to terrorists who would harm the United States, and support the Afghan people in their quest for peace and stability. It was about what they might one day become.”

Smith did not directly address the fall of Kabul in 2021 or the emotional reaction by many Marines who had served there and families of those who died there.

But the commandant told the audience, “The legacy of our Marines in Helmand is not defined merely by the ground that was gained or lost, but by the spirit they embodied and the lives they touched. They fought with honor, they served with compassion, they led by example, and they made a difference in this world.”

To the families of the fallen, Smith said, “Through the naming of LHA-10 as the USS Helmand Province, your sacrifices will never be forgotten and their legacy will endure through the generation of Marines that follow.”

Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Carlos Ruiz said in a video posted to Instagram on Thursday, “This name not only honors the battles won and the successes of our units in the Helmand province, but it also honors the names of those who left blood, sweat, tears and even their lives on the battlefield. The stories of what Marines did in combat are epic and more often today are not shared enough.”

The legacy of the fighting in Helmand, Afghanistan, is personal for Ruiz, the senior enlisted Marine.

On Oct. 28, 2009, he was the first sergeant for Lima Company within 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines, in the province, he said in the video.

That day, he was the vehicle commander of a shock trauma platoon. While he was on his way to recover Marines who had been wounded by improvised explosive device attacks, the vehicle that was supposed to clear his way to the landing zone also was hit.

A Marine kicked open the hatch of the vehicle and pointed at Ruiz with his minesweeper. Undaunted by whatever injuries he may have sustained in the recent blast, the Marine told Ruiz to follow him to the landing zone, and he cleared the way.

There were 11 casualties from the explosions that day, ranging from routine injuries to deaths, the sergeant major said.

“It’s a story for me that I’ll never forget,” Ruiz said, adding, “Thousands of you have your own stories to tell.”

Marine veteran Cole Lyle, who served in Helmand province as a diesel mechanic and wrecker operator and volunteered at Camp Bastion’s trauma hospital, said in a statement to Marine Corps Times on Thursday, “Today’s announcement gives those Marines and partners that served in Helmand an ironclad symbol of our victories; a permanent memorial honoring our collective losses; and a commemoration of the individual experiences and unbreakable personal bonds we forged in fire.”

“I’ll be proud to point at the U.S.S. Helmand one day and tell my son about the Corps’ role in Afghanistan and some of my personal heroes who served there,” he added.

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday with comment from Lyle.