Brig. Gen. Ralph Rizzo Jr. speaks to reporters after becoming commander of Marine Corps Installations Pacific at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, Okinawa, June 12, 2026. (Ryan M. Breeden/Stars and Stripes)
MARINE CORPS AIR STATION FUTENMA, Okinawa — A general who rose through the enlisted ranks is back on Okinawa to lead Marine Corps installations across the Pacific.
Brig. Gen. Ralph Rizzo Jr. assumed command of Marine Corps Installations Pacific from Maj. Gen. Brian Wolford during a ceremony Friday on the flightline at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma.
More than 500 service members, U.S. and Japanese officials and family members attended the event.
Rizzo most recently commanded Marine Corps Installations East at Camp Lejeune, N.C. Before that, he served on Okinawa as chief of staff for III Marine Expeditionary Force from June 2021 to July 2023.
“I am ready to move out and draw fire at a full 60,” Rizzo said during brief remarks the ceremony’s conclusion. “I will step into the formation, get in step and move out smartly to draw fire.”
Lt. Gen. Roger Turner, commander of the III Marine Expeditionary Force, speaks to guests during a change-of-command ceremony for Marine Corps Installations Pacific at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, Okinawa, June 12, 2026. (Ryan M. Breeden/Stars and Stripes)
III MEF’s commander, Lt. Gen. Roger Turner, praised Wolford’s leadership during a period of growing security challenges in the region.
“We face unprecedented challenges with contested sea space, contested airspace, contested cyberspace, in ways that we maybe didn’t contemplate just a few years ago,” he said. “And Marine Corps Installations Pacific has to contend with that every single day.”
Wolford’s remarks highlighted the command’s role in supporting expeditionary advanced base operations, a key element of the Corps’ Force Design initiative that calls for small, mobile units to disperse within range of enemy missiles to seize and hold islands and sink enemy vessels.
The command manages and sustains the training areas and infrastructure III MEF uses to train in expeditionary advanced base operations.
“There are seven portfolios that every installation does, whether it’s [Marine Corps Community Services] and housing and all those other things,” Wolford said. “But there’s an eighth portfolio that we have here, and that’s the advanced base operations portfolio. I will tell you, if we could not do the eighth portfolio, all the other seven portfolios don’t mean anything.”
Maj. Gen. Brian Wolford, outgoing commander, speaks to guests during a change-of-command ceremony for Marine Corps Installations Pacific at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, Okinawa, June 12, 2026. (Ryan M. Breeden/Stars and Stripes)
During Wolford’s tenure, the command oversaw several major construction projects, including a new barracks complex at Camp Hansen that will eventually house 1,096 Marines.
Construction also continued on the replacement facility for MCAS Futenma at Camp Schwab.
MCAS Futenma is “the strongest show of force and combat power we have on the island,” Rizzo told reporters after the ceremony. The airfield’s relocation “will only occur when the replacement facility is finished and certified to be able to project that combat power in the same manner.”
Wolford will move to the Pentagon to lead Marine Corps Installations Command.
A native of Charlestown, Mass., Rizzo enlisted in the Marines in 1990 and graduated from recruit training at Parris Island, S.C. He earned his commission in 1994 through the Enlisted Commissioning Program and served as an infantry officer before transitioning to logistics and deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan.
“We need centralized leadership with decentralized control,” he said. “So, the orders and direction come from me, but the execution of those orders come from the corporal standing behind you. We empower our very junior-most leaders on the battlefield to make decisions and execute that guidance in an aggressive manner.”
Brig. Gen. Ralph Rizzo Jr., left, incoming commander of Marine Corps Installations Pacific, prepares to accept the Marine Corps flag from the outgoing leader, Maj. Gen. Brian Wolford, during a change-of-command ceremony at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, Okinawa, June 12, 2026. (Ryan M. Breeden/Stars and Stripes)
Maj. Gen. Brian Wolford, left, outgoing commander of Marine Corps Installations Pacific, and Brig. Gen. Ralph Rizzo Jr., incoming commander, salute Marines during their change-of-command ceremony at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, Okinawa, June 12, 2026. (Ryan M. Breeden/Stars and Stripes)
