Col. Jeremy Beaven, outgoing commander of Marine Corps Base Hawaii, right, transfers the colors to Col. Stephen DeTrinis at Marine Corps Base Hawaii on May 21, 2026. (Wyatt Olson/Stars and Stripes)
MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAII — About a half-year after Col. Jeremy Beaven took command of Marine Corps Base Hawaii in 2023, a lesson arrived from above.
“That lesson came on the Monday before Thanksgiving in 2023 when the Navy was kind enough to crash a P-8 off the end of my runway into the bay,” he told an audience gathered here Thursday to see him transfer command to Col. Stephen DeTrinis.
“Now, the Navy hates when I tell this story, but I don’t care because I’m a Marine,” Beaven quipped. “We don’t like the Navy any more than you do.”
The P-8A Poseidon reconnaissance plane from Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Wash., overshot the base runway and ended up in the shallow water of Kaneohe Bay.
None of the nine crew members were injured, but the accident turned into an opportunity for Beaven and those he commanded, he said.
“What I learned from that mishap was the power of collaboration, because for 14 straight days — to include Thanksgiving and the weekend — my team was working to solve a problem that hadn’t happened before,” he said. “How do you defuel a 737 underwater? How do you make sure that we’re protecting the [environment], that nothing spills, that we’re doing business the way we need to?”
Collaboration at the local, state, federal and congressional level could not have been more rewarding, he added.
A major milestone under Beaven’s tenure was the completion and opening of the new Mokapu Elementary School, which replaced a facility built in 1960.
Beaven told the audience that he was particularly proud of his interactions with the native Hawaiian community.
Shortly after he and his family settled into their on-base home, they hosted Leialoha Kaluhiwa — known by most as Aunty Rocky — a native Hawaiian practitioner and community leader, for a Saturday afternoon of swapping stories and eating snacks.
Beaven said he was surprised to learn it was the first time that she had ever been invited to the base commander’s house.
“That moment was seminal for me, and it would inform the way I approached my duties and what I felt about the community, and what I thought my job was here at Marine Corps Base Hawaii,” he said.
Beaven’s next assignment has not been announced.
DeTrinis has been on Oahu since August 2023 when he joined U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s Strategic Planning and Policy Directorate, according to his official biography.
He was promoted to colonel in June 2024, and in July 2025 he joined Marine Corps Forces Pacific as director of operations, plans and training.
DeTrinis holds a pair of master’s degrees — one in military and operational studies from Marine Corps University, the other in strategic studies from the Naval War College.
