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Major Jeffrey Eggers, an Elizabethton native, has retired from active service with the U.S. Marine Corps after 27 years of active duty.

Major Eggers enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve in June, 1997, serving as a rifleman with L Company 3/24 in Johnson City.

Upon his graduation from East Tennessee State University in 2002, Major Eggers was commissioned a Second Lieutenant. He completed basic school in Quantico, Va., after which he attended flight training and was designated an Attack Helicopter Pilot and assigned to fly the AH-1W Super Cobra.

First Lt. Eggers was then assigned to the “Gunrunners” of the HMLA-269 in Jacksonville, N.C., deploying as part of the 24MEU in 2006, the MEU in 2007, and as part of SPMAGTF-Afghanistan in 2008.

Captain Eggers then attended Expeditionary Warfare School in Quantico, Va., with follow-on orders to the 22nd MEU in Jacksonville, N.C., as the Assistant Air Officer, supporting operations in Libya and the Middle East. Following this deployment, Captain Eggers returned to the cockpit with the Warriors of HMLA-167 in Jacksonville, N.C., deploying in 2013 to Okinawa, Japan.

Major Eggers was then assigned to the 24th MEU and deployed to the Middle East and Europe supporting MEU-SOF interoperability. Upon completion of that tour of duty he was assigned to the Pentagon to serve as the Congressional Liaison for USAFRICOM. In June 2018, Major Eggers received orders for 1st Marine Aircraft Wing in Okinawa, Japan. His final assignment was to the Chief of Naval Operations Staff as the Expeditionary Warfare Ship Integration Lead.

Major Eggers’ personal awards include the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Air Medal with gold numeral 1 and bronze numeral 5, the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with Gold Star, the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal with Gold Star and eight Sea Service Deployment Ribbons. 

Major Eggers’s duty stations have included Camp Barrett in Quantico, Va.; NAS Pensacola, Pensacola, Fla.; NAS Whiting Field, Milton, Fla.; MCAS Camp Pendleton, Calif.; MCAS New River, Jacksonville, Fla.; MCB Quantico, Va.; MCB Camp Lejeune, Jacksonville, N.C.; the Pentagon, Washington, D.C.; and MCB Camp Foster in Okinawa, Japan.

Major Eggers is married to the former Stacy Crump and they are the parents of two sons, Charlie, nine, and Elijah, five.