Lt. Gen. John Toolan Jr. is one of the few Marine officers who beams broadly in one of his official portraits.
Toolan doesn’t have to try to look tough. The new commanding general of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force headquartered at Camp Pendleton speaks in a low, gravelly voice. He stands well over six feet tall, with a sinewy build and teeth-baring grimace that should be on a Marine Corps recruiting poster.
Retired Marine Col. Earl Wederbrook, president of the military council, introduced Toolan by saying that the three-star general had taken up surfing with wounded troops at Camp Pendleton during their monthly “wave therapy” sessions.
