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   October 1983, just two years into his career: Operation Urgent Fury in   
   Grenada, where Marine and joint forces stormed the Caribbean island   
   following a coup, losing 19 American service members but quickly occupying   
   the island; and the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon,   
   that killed 241 American service members, including 220 Marines.   
      
   “Lieutenants who were in my [The Basic School] class were killed. And I   
   was on the West Coast, and the unit was from the East Coast, but it   
   shocked the whole Marine Corps. And you could understand why, when you   
   lose 240 like that. It’s just not something anyone was expecting. So that   
   definitely shaped things,” he said, looking back at foundational moments   
   in his career.   
      
   Berger described the operation in Grenada as a high point for inspiring   
   young Marines, but said the loss in Beirut “made everything real.”   
      
   The start of the Gulf War in 1990 and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were   
   other “real” moments for him — reminders of the seriousness of his   
   business.   
      
   But Berger said the experiences that shaped him as a leader were the   
   losses of Marines directly under his command.   
      
   Asked by Defense News what stands out as defining moments in building who   
   he is today, he said, “almost all of them were not necessarily moments,   
   but when you lost Marines, because your immediate thought, most Marine   
   leaders’ immediate thought is, you missed something. You overlooked   
   something. You skipped a step. You immediately take responsibility   
   yourself and go, there’s something we didn’t see. There are a lot of them,   
   a lot of them.”   
      
   Berger recounted losing 10 Marines to one improvised explosive device   
   attack in Iraq, and losing a Marine to an accidental grenade explosion   
   inside their own camp in Kuwait. Each time, he said, he scoured Marine   
   Corps procedures for missed or forgotten steps that could have saved   
   lives.   
      
   “Those stay with you forever,” Berger said.   
      
   A changing Pacific   
   Berger showed up at Marine Corps Forces Pacific headquarters in Hawaii in   
   2016, having read about China’s rise and the changing landscape in the   
   region, but with questions about the pace of that change.   
      
   Swift and then-U.S. Pacific Command chief Adm. Harry Harris assured him   
   the change was happening faster than most understood, Berger recalled.   
      
   Though much of China’s rising military power and its aggressive behavior   
   toward its neighbors was out of his control as the top Marine in the   
   Pacific, Berger could take steps to strengthen relationships with local   
   partners and allies — another theme he brought to Force Design 2030.   
      
   “Our relationship at the Marine Corps level with Japan, with Korea, with   
   the Philippines, with Australia, was still strong and growing — and in   
   some cases, growing much faster than I was aware of,” he said.   
      
   The ability to entrust allies and partners to share targeting data,   
   protect and resupply small formations of Marines, and otherwise operate   
   intertwined with the Corps and the U.S. joint force is key to Force Design   
   2030. Berger said he’s seen allies in the Pacific repeatedly prove their   
   trustworthiness throughout his career, and particularly while commanding   
   Marine Corps Forces Pacific.   
      
   In 2012, while commanding 1st Marine Division (Forward) in Afghanistan,   
   Berger said one of his reconnaissance teams in northern Helmand province   
   got stuck in their position one night, with bad weather and no American   
   forces nearby to extract them.   
      
   An Australian special operations force liaison officer overheard Berger   
   talking to Maj. Gen. Charles Gurganus, the I Marine Expeditionary Force   
   (Forward) commander in Afghanistan.   
      
   The Australian Army major chimed in: “ ‘We can do that.’ And, I mean,   
   couldn’t have been 30, 45 minutes later, they take off in MV-22s,” Berger   
   recalled. “I’m sure they had just returned from some other mission and   
   all, but it didn’t matter. He knew the U.S. unit was in a pickle, in a   
   tough spot: ‘We got this. We’ve got aircraft, we’re going.’ No rehearsals,   
   no six hours of prep — just get on the aircraft and go.”   
      
   Berger said the power of the “mateship” between the U.S. and Australia was   
   even more evident while he commanded Marine Forces Pacific.   
      
   In August 2017, a Marine Corps MV-22 was flying back to the amphibious   
   transport dock Green Bay, which was operating off the coast of Queensland,   
   Australia. As it approached the ship to land, the aircraft suddenly   
   dropped, slammed into the side of the vessel and quickly sank, injuring 23   
   and killing three.   
      
   “I called a couple people in Australia directly, immediately,” Berger   
   said, as the U.S. did not have the right divers on hand to recover the   
   wreckage and the bodies of the missing Marines.   
      
   His Australian contacts made a few calls, and then called back Berger to   
   promise a ship with deep-sea divers within 12 hours.   
      
   “No paperwork, no messages, no money, no anything — on a phone call,”   
   Berger said.   
      
   Though the three Marines who went down with the aircraft could not be   
   rescued, Berger said the Australian divers spent at least three days in   
   the water, exceeding the time limits for how long they should be   
   underwater at those depths, all to assure they recovered the fallen   
   Marines’ bodies.   
      
   Berger and his team flew to Australia in January 2018 to award the divers   
   and other supporting units with a Meritorious Unit Commendation.   
      
   Berger has experienced opposition to the reliance on allies and partners   
   in the Force Design 2030 and Stand-In Forces strategies. The two main   
   criticisms are that partner forces aren’t skilled enough, and that the   
   U.S. couldn’t rely on them to show up in the event of a conflict.   
      
   “They’re just excuses,” he said, referring to the criticism and noting   
   that he “absolutely” believes allies will be there for the Marine Corps   
   and the rest of the U.S. military if called upon for a fight.   
      
   Swift said people often talk about a Chinese invasion of Taiwan by 2027 as   
   a fait accompli, a given.   
      
   “That doesn’t have to be the case if they do more thoughtful things like   
   Gen. Berger’s doing — the biggest thing that he’s doing is deterrence,”   
   Swift said, highlighting Berger’s work to deepen Marines’ ties to allies   
   and partners in the Pacific.   
      
   Creating a lasting change   
   In 2018, Neller — the commandant at the time — tapped Berger to come to   
   Washington to serve as the deputy commandant for combat development and   
   integration. In this position, Berger would take his knowledge of the   
   Pacific and his four years of reforming regional Marine forces, and apply   
   it to the entire Corps.   
      
   “It was very clear to everyone the rising prominence of China in terms of   
   the National Defense Strategy, so I think he brought me to CD&I because   
   that’s where combat development happens. And if China is central to our   
   security, then you need to understand the Pacific,” Berger said.   
      
   Berger said he didn’t have a force-wide reform plan going into the job,   
   but it “gave me time to observe, to think of, if we needed to accelerate   
   [the reforms Neller was starting], what would that take? What kind of hard   
   decisions would we have to make?”   
      
   That forethought caught the eye of Spencer, who served as secretary of the   
   Navy from August 2017 to November 2019. Spencer interviewed several   
   candidates during the search for the 38th commandant, and he said his   
   initial conversation with Berger started slowly.   
      
   “It just progressed so comfortably and so logically, and so data-informed.   
   I remember the data-informed nature,” he said, noting that Berger didn’t   
      
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