Mundy takes over as commander of Marine Raiders, Osterman heads to SOCOM

The son of a Marine Corps commandant took the helm of the service's special operations command on Tuesday. Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command received a new commander Tuesday in a ceremony aboard Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

Maj. Gen. Carl E. Mundy III became , who is now the sixth general officer to lead Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command during a ceremony at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Mundy, a career infantry officer who previously served as deputy commander of Marine Corps Forces Central Command, replaced  officer to hold the position, replaces Maj. Gen. Joseph L. Osterman, who led MARSOC for two years. . Mundy comes from 5th Marine Expeditionary Brigade and Task Force 51, which is responsible for amphibious operations in the Middle East.

The two generals According to MARSOC's Twitter account, Osterman and Mundy have more in common than just their MARSOC roles. Their fathers attended Officer Candidate School together. 

Assistant Commandant Gen. John M. Paxton, the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, presided over the change of command ceremony where MARSOC authority and responsibility was transferred from Osterman to Mundy. Mundy told the Marine Raiders there that he considers it an honor to command them. 

Osterman, who led MARSOC through a host of changes and challenges, will serve as the new deputy commander of U.S. Special Operations Command in Tampa as its deputy commander. He Osterman, who served as MARSOC’s commander for the past two years, was at the helm of MARSOC as the command reclaimed its Raider heritage and redesignated the battalions as Raider battalions.  

"Being able to tie ourselves back to the [World War WWII] Raiders, and as you work your way through [history] … it allows us to have that view back on who we should be and who we are," Osterman he said. "It’s really important to have legacy and roots so that you can affiliate yourself with values associated with those kind of things."

It was important to restore ties to that heritage as the original Raiders get older, he added. It’s been important timing-wise, Osterman said, since the World War II Raiders are passing away.

"They’re all late 80s, early 90s now, and we’re losing a lot of them every year," Osterman he said. "So it’s great we’ve had the opportunity to meet with them, talk to them and be with them."

Osterman said today's generation of Raiders share a strong bond and have formed a close-knit family. That was especially evident, he said, during the hard times.  which is emphasized when they band together to handle tough times.MARSOC suffered one of those hardships during Osterman’s time there, when seven Raiders were lost a March 2015 in the Black Hawk helicopter crash in Florida.

He said The resiliency of not only the Marines but their families really struck him, Osterman said.

When he moves into his new role at SOCOM, Osterman said he hopes to continue strengthening the partnership between special operations forces and Marine crisis response units. He said it will be important to strengthen the bridging initiative between Special Operations Forces and crisis response forces.

"In order to fight the nation’s adversaries, it’s really going to require that kind of holistic effort," he said. "As the SOF truths say, ‘We can’t do it all ourselves,’ so it’s a case where we have that blended approach." he said.