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The morning of 11 July 2011 began uneventfully in Damascus, Syria. Sgt Stephen Rivera was standing duty as Marine Security Guard (MSG), Post 1, the principal access point to the Embassy of the United States of America, charged with the protection of classified material and personnel. A large progovernment demonstration was scheduled to protest a trip to the restive town of Hama by U.S. Ambassador Robert Ford.
Every patrol or convoy cannot have a JTAC since there are not enough JTACs to cover down on all of these requirements. Many commanders do not realize there are other means to control CAS that are as effective. As an organization, the Marine Corps needs to adjust the JTAC program and educate officers on methods of CAS employment in order to better utilize the limited JTACs available.
Even a future conflict against a near-peer competitor could be fought with a significantly smaller but more capable force than U.S. planners once envisioned due to a convergence of increased operational requirements, approaching fiscal shortfalls, and continuing advances in military technology.
December 1955
That history does repeat itself is trite-but true.
Some 30 years ago the Marine Corps started on a quest that many conventional military thinkers thought was foolhardy. The goal was the ability to successfully conduct an amphibious assault against determined opposition. The quest was crowned with success and provided the United States with the one military doctrine and supporting" techniques which, above all others, was necessary for victory in World War II.
Now we are right back where we started. As Col R. E. Cushman brought out in his Amphibious Warfare Tomorrow, (Gazette, April '55), we must again resort to creative thinking and experiment to develop the doctrines, techniques, weapons and equipment necessary to successfully conduct amphibious warfare under radically changed conditions.
February 1994
More than 50 years ago some Marine officers thought that Marine aviation had the potential to be a valuable source of fire support for the ground troops. Over the following years, these officers, ground and air, developed the doctrine, techniques, and a command and control system to give close air support (CAS) to ground opentions. While there was much thought and experiment in developing a CAS system that would work in combat, this was hampered by the austere conditions imposed on the Nation's Armed Forces in those years and the obsolete nature of much of the Fleet Marine Force's (FMF's) equipment and weapons.
February 1983
"Hey, Mike!" Dusty said as I slid over to make room for him. "You remember this morning you were recounting the latest foul-up by old "S" for nothing "N" for nothing Shufflebottom?" "That loser!" Mike growled. "There is nothing Marine-like about him." "That isn't important!" Dusty brushed him off. "Like most things he does, it was something Marines just don't do. It reminded me of a letter to all general officers and all commanding officers-active and reserve-that General Chapman put out when he was Commandant in 1971. The subject was 'Marines Don't Do That.'
November 1970
The Corps' first Medal of Honor winner, a 27-year-old corporal, received his award from President Abraham Lincoln. From the waning days of the American Revolution, when Gen George Washington awarded a decoration called the Purple Heart to a few of his soldiers, until Confederate shells screamed into Fort Sumter, S. C. to ignite the Civil War, few American fighting men received medals for valor...
May 1947
They serve as the amphibiously trained, air-ground striking force required by the Navy for the seizure and defense of advanced Naval bases and for the conduct of such limited land operations as are essential to the prosecution of a Naval campaign . . . that is the defined mission of the Fleet Marine Force.
22 May 1912: First Lieutenant Alfred A. Cunningham, the first Marine officer to be assigned to "duty in connection with aviation" by Major General Commandant William P. Biddle, reported for aviation training at the Naval Aviation Camp at Annapolis, Maryland, and Marine aviation had its official beginning.
In common with every new weapon introduced to the military service, Marine Corps aviation has travelled a rocky and uphill road. Its small size has tended to make the jolts more frequent and severe. Nothing short of the firm conviction that it would ultimately become of great service to the Corps sustained the enthusiasm of the small number of officers who have worked to make it a success. Read the full article.
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May 14, 2012:
The Air Force has a storied tradition called the "Dear Boss" letter. While there may have been previous iterations, and certainly the feeling was out there before, the "Dear Boss" letter as it is known started with a letter penned by then-Captain Ron Keys in 1973 to General Wilbur Creech, Tactical Air Command commander. The below is just a snippet of the opening of his missive.
"Dear Boss, Well, I quit. I’ve finally run out of drive or devotion or rationalizations or whatever it was that kept me in the Air Force this long.
May 13, 2012:
Although the final form of the concept is still in draft form and thus unavailable to the public at large, AirSea Battle is already a juggernaut of a military concept. The planned shift in DoD focus to Pacific Command certainly demands a reassessment of naval and aerial operations, but the major impetus for the development of a Navy and Air Force concept of operations is the proliferation of Anti-Access/Area Denial (A2AD) capabilities among our possible enemies.
A2/AD may have a fancy acronym, but it is not much more than a well planned, large scale defensive position. It seems new because missiles can pack enough of a punch and are accurate enough to destroy a ship at sea.
April 27, 2012:
Over the past few months the Corps has been hit with a number of instances that can be directly traced to a lack of Leadership and continuous reinforcement of what is now called "Core Values". For those of us whom are "Long in the Tooth", we've seen these problems surface before and the way we've always dealt with them is via honest, aggressive, clear-headed and pragmatic Leadership that emphasized the implementation of the time-tested 11 USMC Leadership Principles and strict adherence to the 14 USMC Leadership Traits.
April 26, 2012:
The recent decision by the L.A. Times to publish the photographs of American soldiers posing with Talib body parts re-ignited the firestorm raised by the Marine urination photographs: is the American media anti-military and putting our troops at risk, are, were the newspapers standing up to Pentagon pressure and to be commended for demonstrating the value of a free press, or are these acts excusable due to the stress the Marines and soldiers are experiencing?
April 26, 2012:
Judging the book, “The Snake Eaters” (Free Press, May 1, 2012) by Owen West by its cover, I would never have picked it up. I would have been wrong. I would have assumed that this was another first-person “there I was” tale from Iraq. After hearing far too many contractors and retirees try to slyly slur that they “have a bit of a SOF background” in a conspiratorially lowered voice, I would have assumed that the title referred to another attempt to anoint some unit or experience as “special.”
April 24, 2012:
Moments after I posted my sympathies about the loss of two Marines in Afghanistan on their unit's Facebook page, it was gone. Deleted. Removed as a violation by their public affairs office.
The Department of Defense had published a release about them, but the unit rarely mentioned the casualties of war on their page.
One of the public affairs Marines with Regional Command Southwest scolded me in a private message and said he took it down. What were the reasons? Did it violate any of the official terms of use of military social media sites?
Apr. 15, 2012:
Ink Spots - The Real Threat of Hybrid Conflict
Defense Tech - Navy Grounds Firescout Drone Choppers
AOL Defense - Osprey Crash In Morocco Kills Two
Marine Corps Times - Corps IDs Morocco Osprey Crash Victims
Dakota Meyer - Thank a Veteran
The Diplomat - U.S. Airpower Plans In Flux
The Long War Journal - Taliban Launch Coordinated Attacks in Kabul and Three Provinces
Foreign Policy - This Week at War: Iran's North Korea Scenario
Apr. 13, 2012:
Over at Small Wars Journal, I wade into the disruptive thinkers debate and drop a little Marine Corps history. Read it here.
Also, catch up on Disruptive Thinkers pieces by Jonathan Jeckell, David Wise, and Mark Mazarr.
Apr. 9, 2012:
There is an important debate going on at the Small Wars Journal. Navy LT Benjamin Kohlmann (and instructor pilot at VMFAT-101) offered an essay the other day on why "The Military Needs More Disruptive Thinkers." The interest and debate was overwhelming. I followed up today with an essay entitled "Disruptive Thinkers: Defining the Problem." There are more essays pending for what has become quite a hot-button topic. Weigh in here or at SWJ.
Apr. 9, 2012:
Bing West - The Last US Field Commander in Afghanistan
The Diplomat - Taking the Piracy Fight Ashore
Fast Transients - Real OODA Loop and IWCKI
Marine Corps Times - Marine General Faces Battle with Cancer
Foreign Policy - Trained in the U.S.A.
New York Times At War blog - A Short History of Blood Chits
Foreign Policy- This Week at War - The Navy's Pacific Problem
Abu Muqawama - America in Australia
Rethinking Security - Why Operational Access is No Revolution
Paradigm Cure - The Truth That Refuses to be Spoken
O'Brien on Leadership - Why Your Staff is Growing
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