The Officer's Mameluke Sword

Feb. 7, 2012:

A few days ago my beloved New England Patriots were defeated in Super Bowl XLVI. While disappointing in its own right, it did get me thinking of maneuver warfare and Carl Von Clausewitz of all people. There are certainly no shortage of analogies between football and warfare – such as speed, maneuver, and timing – but as I lay awake that night, I thought of something else. Rather, I thought of chance, luck, and fundamentals. I thought that if such things could derail a professional football team that doles out millions of dollars to win games, why couldn’t such things happen to Marines in the much more serious environment of combat?

Jan. 30, 2012:

LtGen Hejlik, the Commander of U.S. Marine Corps Forces Command, maintains a blog that I always enjoy reading.  In his latest post, he talks about leadership, and specifically some key leadership tenets from LtGen John Sattler, who retired from the Marine Corps in 2008, after 37 years of service. 

LtGen Sattler's leadership nuggets are very good, and we've all heard them, or some variation of them, before (develop and issue clear intent; praise in public, punish in private; etc.).  Reading them got me thinking about leadership, and how it's truly been the most common and profound theme pervading my ten years of service with the Marine Corps (in both active duty and civilian capacities). 

Jan. 25, 2011:

Most of us answered our nation's call after September 11, 2001.  While many went out and bought yellow ribbons to put on their bumpers, only a few went down to an office and jumped on a red pull-up bar before being sent to a foundry in San Diego, Parris Island, or Quantico.  Those who had already been forged and tempered over time mustered years of experience and military professional reading in order to impart their wisdom and leadership on the new.  Less than 1% of the U.S. population actively serve in the armed forces, and an even tinier fraction in our beloved Corps. (pause for dramatic effect...)

I make no apologies for being biased in my opinion that even though we represent a small fraction of Americans, we as Marines have proven ourselves as the preeminent schoolhouse for leadership and management training, especially when the stakes are high.

Jan. 22, 2012:

This week, representatives from Headquarters Marine Corps, Marine Corps Systems Command, Marine Corps Logistics Command and the operating forces will gather in Albany, GA, to develop a depot-maintenance plan for all of the Marine Corps' ground equipment (to include the equipment being retrograded back to the U.S. from Afghanistan for reset).  The plan that's developed will ultimately become the Marine Corps' overall depot-maintenance requirement for the budget years across the Future Years Defense Plan (FYDP).  Developing the plan is an immense effort that's chock-full of complexities and unique planning considerations.  The Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps issued guidance to the major stakeholders earlier this month, and he'll actually be in attendance for part of the week-long proceedings.  That's how important an effort this is to the Marine Corps.

Jan. 21, 2012:

Thom Shanker from the NYT reports this morning about Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta's decision to take the F-35B Lightning II off of probation. The B variant is a short take-off/vertical landing (STOVL) jet capable of taking off from short landing strips or the deck of an amphibious ship (as opposed to a catapult-assisted launch and an arrested landing on a full-sized carrier). The Marine Corps' story is that STOVL is needed for (a) use in amphibious scenarios and (b) expeditionary scenarios where landing sites are limited. Shanker alludes to this in discussing "the importance to the Marine Corps of coming up with a replacement for its Harrier jump-jet, which has proved its value in countering insurgencies and terrorists in rugged, remote areas."