By Jeanette Steele–Sign On San Diego

At Marine Corp Recruit Depot, Molly (left) and Belleau Wood

After seven years of faithful service, Cpl. Molly’s camouflage is a tad tight.

Her big brown eyes aren’t as bright as they were during her Hollywood days. And let’s face it, her breathing sounds like a diesel engine.

So, Molly the bulldog will retire today at Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, where she has served as mascot and the jowly face of the boot camp to legions of freshly minted Marines.

There’s a 7-month-old puppy ready to take her place, and the handover will take place during today’s canine change-of-command ceremony.

Meet Pvt. Belleau Wood, a brindled bundle of bounce whose name is an homage to a World War I battle in France. The puppy, from Texas, already has a little of the Marine Corps grit.

“She’s really hardheaded on certain stuff,” said Cpl. Shawn Dickens, her Marine handler. For instance, “sit” is solid. “Stay,” well, that’s another tale.

The recruit depot’s tradition of keeping a canine mascot goes back to 1939 with an English bulldog named James Jolly Plum Duff. One of the most celebrated San Diego “devil dogs” was Sgt. Soochow, a muttly terrier who deployed to Korea in 1941 and fought alongside his troops, snarling and snapping at the enemy, according to Marine Corps lore.

Pvt. Mac, a handsome white bulldog, had to be discharged in 2002 after he nipped at a child. Molly became a celebrity when she sank her teeth into a role on the military-themed television show “Mail Call.” In retirement, she will live with a Marine officer in Texas.

Other Marine canine mascots reside in Parris Island, S.C., the service’s East Coast boot camp, and at the Marine Barracks in Washington, D.C.

Dickens, a lanky 26-year-old from Florida whose primary job is public affairs, keeps “Belleau” — as he calls her — in his barracks room at night. And, yes, she gets to share the bed.