Brig. Gen. Adam Chalkley, outgoing commander of the 3rd Marine Logistics Group, embraces his successor, Brig. Gen. Kevin Collins, during a ceremony at Camp Kinser, Okinawa, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. (Brian McElhiney/Stars and Stripes)
CAMP KINSER, Okinawa — Command of the support arm for the Marine Corps’ rapid response force in the Indo-Pacific is now in the hands of a general on his third Okinawa tour.
Brig. Gen. Kevin Collins assumed command of the 3rd Marine Logistics Group from Brig. Gen. Adam Chalkley during a ceremony Thursday at the consolidated club on Camp Kinser, the group’s headquarters. About 220 Marines, family, Japanese troops and other guests packed the club.
The group provides combat logistics support to the III Marine Expeditionary Force and other Marines in the region. This includes supply, maintenance, transportation, engineering, health services and other services for Marines during exercises and other operations.
Lt. Gen. Roger Turner, III MEF commander, highlighted Chalkley’s leadership through the latest phase of the Corps’ Force Design plan.
“I think everybody knows that this MLG has really been one of the centerpieces of the Marine Corps’ Force Design as we started to morph what we were doing as a service to what we’re going to do going forward,” he said at the ceremony. “And this is really the centerpiece of that, and your leadership of that change has been difficult and hard, and I just appreciate the way you’ve approached it.”
Brig. Gen. Kevin Collins, the 3rd Marine Logistics Group's new commander, speaks during his change-of-command ceremony at Camp Kinser, Okinawa, Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. (Brian McElhiney/Stars and Stripes)
During Chalkley’s tenure, the logistic group’s Marines began testing a 3D-printing unit in shipping containers made to drop into austere locations like jungles to fill supply line gaps. The testing is part of the Force Design plan for rapid movement and reduced demand on supply lines.
Collins said he plans to lead the group through continuing changes in the security situation on Okinawa and in the Pacific. He was last stationed on the island six years ago, he said at the ceremony.
“I think III MEF has evolved fairly rapidly, fairly significantly, not just in the capability that we possess, but how we apply that capability, how we fight as a MEF,” he said. “And I look forward to continuing that work that Adam started with Force Design, [the Defense Policy Review Initiative] and all those things to evolve the [logistics combat element] of the MEF.”
The Defense Policy Review Initiative, an agreement by the U.S. and Japan to relocate some Marine assets from Okinawa to Guam, includes Japan paying $3 billion of the estimated $8.6 billion cost to build Camp Blaz and its surrounding infrastructure on Guam.
Collins most recently served as deputy director for operations at the National Joint Operations Intelligence Center, Operations Team Three, J-3, Joint Staff at the Pentagon. He’s also served as deputy commander of Marine Corps Forces South.
He enlisted in 1990 and commissioned in 1995. He is a combat veteran of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, according to his official biography. His previous Okinawa experience includes assistant chief of staff with the 3rd Marine Division, and as a company grade officer with 3rd Force Service Support Group.
Chalkley heads to Washington, D.C., to serve as inspector general of the Marine Corps.
