I was afraid this would happen. As a Marine I'd say we needhim more as Commandant than as CJCS. There was a lot of repair needed in the wake of his predecessor and Gen Dunford is definitely the man to do it. Gen Dunford will be a very good CJCS.
I'm only considering that there are two real contenders to succeed him as Commandant and those are Glueck and Toolan. I'm ambivalent about Glueck but Toolan would be outstanding. Both Dunford and Toolan were regimental commanders in 1st MarDiv under Gen Mattis during the invasion of Iraq.
Toolan took command of 1st Marines halfway to Baghdad when
Mattis relieved Col Dowdy. That was an unfortunate way to take command but
he was really loved by the time he turned over command to Col Nicholson. Nine hours later
another very unfortunately event happened and Col Schupp was in command of 1st Marines, Col Nicholson was critically wounded and being evacuated for treatment, and Col Toolan was escorting the remains of his regimental CommO, Maj Kevin Shea back to CONUS.
Gen John Kelly is another potential contender for Commandant but I don't believe he's really in the running. He was Gen Mattis' ADC at 1st MarDiv in 2003 and lost his son who was with 3/5 in Afghanistan in 2010 the day before the Marine Corps Birthday. Gen Kelly was already committed to be the guest of honor for the Marine Corps Birthday Ball four days later and he did not cancel.
He gave an address at the Ball that was one the attendees from 23rd Marines will never forget.
