SAN DIEGO -- With a ceremonial passing of the organizational colors, Brig. Gen. Angela Salinas, the highest-ranking Latino woman in the Marines, accepted command of the Marine Corps Recruiting Depot in San Diego on Friday.

Salinas will oversee the training of more than 18,000 Marine recruits each year. She will direct more than 1,600 Marine recruiters west of the Mississippi River as commander of the Western Recruiting Region. She will be responsible for more than 3,000 Marines, sailors, civilians and Coast Guardsmen on the base.

The diminutive Salinas -- just over 5 feet tall -- accepted command of the Marine Corps' West Coast recruit induction center on the parade grounds in front of Pendleton Hall in a 90-minute ceremony.

She replaces Maj. Gen. John M. Paxton Jr., who will soon take command of Camp Pendleton and the Ist Marine Expeditionary Force.

Paxton lauded Salinas as an able leader as he congratulated her on her new post.

"The Marine Corps has the foresight to put round pegs in round holes and give the awesome mantle of responsibility for leadership to the right person, and they have done so in Angie Salinas," Paxton told the audience.

Michael W. Hagee, commandant of the Marine Corps, sent Salinas a message that was read by an announcer over the loud speaker.

"Your wealth of experience makes you ideally suited to take the helm as commanding general," he said.

Salinas, 53, was the Marine Corps' first Latino woman selected to the rank of brigadier general, according to military officials.

Salinas thanked her superiors for their trust, saying that she looked forward to assuming the helm of the base.

"We will continue to attack the mission," she vowed.

Salinas punctuated her acceptance speech with humor as she thanked her "unusual family" for their continued support.

Paxton, Salinas said, is a tall man with big shoes -- shoes she will endeavor to fill as she assumes his post.

"I'd like to think that someday I could stand as tall as you," she told Paxton.

"The guys up the road are getting a great man."

A 32-year Marine, Salinas remembered the day in 1974 when she enlisted in the Marine Corps at a post office in San Rafael. She wondered aloud if the recruiter had any inkling then that he was enlisting a future commander of the Marine Corps Recruit Depot.

She wondered the same of the "nice drill instructor" at Parris Island, S.C., where she took her basic training.

A graduate of Dominican College in San Rafael, Salinas majored in history. She earned a master's degree from the Navy War College in 1992 and is a graduate of the Amphibious Warfare School, the Navy War College's Command and Staff College and the Army War College.

Her decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit with a gold star and the Meritorious Service Medal with two gold stars.

In June 1989, Salinas assumed command of the recruiting station in Charleston, S.C., and became the first woman in the Marine Corps to command a recruiting station, according to the Marine Corps.

In June 1992, she became the first woman assigned as a combat service support ground monitor responsible for the assignments of more than 1,000 senior officers. She was the first female assigned as a plans and policy officer for a major combatant command in 1999, and in May 2001 when she assumed command of the 12th Marine Corps District. She has been named one of the top 100 most influential Latinos in the country, and one of 80 most elite women, according to the Marine Corps.

Contact staff writer Philip K. Ireland at (760) 901-4043 or pireland@nctimes.com.