CAMP LEJEUNE (AP) -- A Marine Corps colonel who commanded the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit will be promoted to general this week.
Colonel Ron Johnson has commanded the unit for the past four years but will turn over command to Colonel Peter Petronzio on Thursday. The promotion will move Johnson to Washington, DC.
The unit helped invade Iraq and evacuate Americans from Lebanon.
Johnson has spent most of his 28-year Marine career at Camp Lejeune, a base on the central North Carolina coast. He was nominated to become a brigadier general and the corps' director of operations.
Marine expeditionary units have 22-hundred personnel and are based aboard ships that carry aircraft and amphibious ground vehicles for landings by sea or air.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
