John F . Kelly ( Marine ) John Francis Kelly ( born 1950 ) is an United States Marine Corps general , who served as the commanding general of the Multi - National Force — West in Iraq from February 2008 to February 2009 . He was promoted to lieutenant general and assumed command of Marine Forces Reserve and Marine Forces North in October 2009 . He has been promoted to a four star , and succeeded General Douglas M . Fraser as commander of U . S . Southern Command ( USSOUTHCOM ) on November 19 , 2012 . Early life and education . Kelly was born May 11 , 1950 and raised in Boston , Massachusetts . He enlisted in the U . S . Marine Corps in 1970 , and was discharged as a sergeant in 1972 , after serving in an infantry company with the 2nd Marine Division , Camp Lejeune , North Carolina . Following graduation from the University of Massachusetts Boston in 1976 , he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps . Career . Kelly returned to the Second Marine Division where he served as a rifle and weapons platoon commander , company executive officer , assistant operations officer , and infantry company commander . Sea duty in Mayport , Florida , followed , at which time he served aboard aircraft carriers and . In 1980 , then - Captain Kelly attended the U . S . Army ' s Infantry Officer Advanced Course at Fort Benning , Georgia . After graduation , he was assigned to Headquarters Marine Corps in Washington , D . C . , serving there from 1981 through 1984 , as an assignment monitor . Kelly returned to the Second Marine Division in 1984 , to command a rifle and weapons company . Promoted to major in 1987 , he served as the battalion ' s operations officer . In 1987 , Kelly transferred to the Basic School in Quantico , Virginia , serving first as the head of the Offensive Tactics Section , Tactics Group , and later assuming the duties of the Director of the Infantry Officer Course . After three years of instructing young officers , he attended the Marine Corps Command and Staff College , and the School for Advanced Warfare , both located at Quantico . Completing duty under instruction and selected for lieutenant colonel , he was assigned as commanding officer , 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion , 1st Marine Division , Camp Pendleton , California . Holding this command position for two years , Kelly returned to the East Coast in 1994 , to attend the National War College in Washington , D . C . He graduated in 1995 and was selected to serve as the Commandant ' s Liaison Officer to the U . S . House of Representatives , Capitol Hill , where he was promoted to colonel . In 1999 Kelly transferred to joint duty and served as the special assistant to the Supreme Allied Commander , Europe , in Mons , Belgium . He returned to the United States in 2001 and was assigned to a third tour of duty at Camp Lejeune , now as the assistant chief of staff G - 3 with the Second Marine Division . In 2002 , Kelly again served with the 1st Marine Division , this time as the assistant division commander . Much of Kelly ' s two - year assignment was spent deployed in Iraq . In March 2003 , while in Iraq , Kelly was promoted to brigadier general , which was the first known promotion of a Marine Corps colonel in an active combat zone since that of another First Marine Division assistant division commander , Chesty Puller in January 1951 . In mid - April he took command of the newly formed Task Force Tripoli and drove it north from Baghdad into Samarra and Tikrit . During the initial assault on Baghdad , Kelly was asked by a reporter of the Los Angeles Times if ( considering the size of the Iraqi Army and the vast supplies of tanks , artillery and chemical weapons available to Saddam ' s forces ) he would ever consider defeat . Kelly ' s archetypal response was , " Hell these are Marines . Men like them held Guadalcanal and took Iwo Jima . Baghdad ain ' t shit . " His next assignment was as legislative assistant to the Commandant of the Marine Corps , Michael Hagee In January 2007 Kelly was nominated for major general , and confirmed by the U . S . Senate on September 11 , 2007 . Kelly ' s next assignment , in July 2007 , was as commanding general , I Marine Expeditionary Force ( Forward ) . On February 9 , 2008 Kelly assumed command of the Multi - National Force – West in Iraq , replacing Major General Walter E . Gaskin . After a year in Iraq Kelly returned to the States in February 2009 . His son , 1st Lieutenant Robert Michael Kelly , was killed in action in Sangin , Afghanistan on November 9 , 2010 . He was on his third combat tour , but his first as a U . S . Marine Corps infantry officer with Lima Company , 3rd Battalion , 5th Marines . Robert ' s brother , John ' s eldest child , is a Marine Corps major . Kelly was the senior military assistant to the Secretary of Defense and personally greeted Secretary Panetta at the entrance to the Pentagon on July 1 , 2011 , Panetta ' s first day as secretary . Awards and decorations . Kelly holds several expert rifle badges as well as the sharpshooter pistol badge . Personal life . Kelly is married to his wife , Karen whose father in turn was a marine during World War II . Karen helps lead the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation , spending 35 years as a supporter of the army and its families . In 2010 , Karen and John ' s son , Robert , tragically passed away . Karen helped establish a scholarship in his memory .