1st Marine Division to get interim boss - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

1st Marine Division to get interim boss

OCEANSIDE, Calif. – After less than a year on the job, the commanding general of the 1st Marine Division is handing over command Tuesday to take a staff position in Iraq, Marine Corps officials said.

Maj. Gen. John Paxton, who took the reins of the Camp Pendleton, Calif.-based ground combat division on Aug. 8, 2006, will relinquish the command and become chief of staff for Multi-National Force-Iraq, said 1st Lt. Lawton King, a division spokesman.

Replacing Paxton during a Tuesday afternoon ceremony will be his deputy, Brig. Gen. Richard P. Mills, who will serve as the interim division commander until a permanent replacement is named, possibly later in the year, King said.

Mills, who last month became the assistant division commander, most recently served as director of the Manpower Management Division in Quantico, Va., at Marine Corps headquarters. From 2000 to 2003, he commanded the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) at Camp Lejeune, N.C., where he also commanded 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment.

Paxton, whose command tours include commanding the Camp Pendleton-based 1st Marine Regiment from 1998 to 2000, served as the commanding general of Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego and Western Recruiting Region before he took command of the division.