Training Command

by Staff, Training Command

We need every Marine and Sailor to seek creative solutions to today’s and tomorrow’s complex problems. We need your ideas and your critical thinking. We need to change where it makes sense; adapt as quickly as possible, and constantly innovate to stay ahead of our adversaries.

-The Marine Corps Operating Concept1

Training Command touches the entire Marine Corps, both officer and enlisted. Its 19 major subordinate elements (see Figure 1 below) commanded by Marine colonels and Navy captains, and 90 formal learning centers (see Figure 2 on next page) responsible for 618 POI (programs of instruction), provide numerous touchpoints to instill the values, knowledge, and skills required of Marines and Sailors to tackle the complex problems the Commandant addresses in the MOC (Marine Corps Operating Concept). Training Command’s mission is to consistently produce officer and enlisted entry-level MOS, career progression, and career enhancement skills trained Marines and Sailors to meet force generation requirements. The command’s over 6,000 permanent personnel achieve this by training over 102,000 Marines and Sailors every year. As such, Training Command is in a unique position to influence the culture and future of the Corps. It is a mechanism for change.

Training Requirements

Training Command does not unilaterally determine the subject matter and capabilities in which it trains Marines and Sailors. The command develops its programs of instruction from the strategic guidance found in the MOC and the Commandant’s FRAGOs 1 and 2.2 It receives further operational guidance from the Marine Corps Combat Development Command/Combat Development & Integration Force Development’s, and Training and Education Command’s strategic plans. These documents provide broad guidelines on the topics that must be covered, but the manner in which the knowledge and skills are taught is determined by Training Command.

Additional input on generating talent for the Marine Corps is provided by Training Command’s customers and occupational field advocates. The Operating Forces and Supporting Establishment are Training Command’s primary customers. Their tactical requirements are derived from their missions, operational experiences, exercises, and experiments, all of which inform the development of the classes and skills taught at Training Command school houses. The occupation field sponsors, advocates, and proponents further provide Service-level input into production standards, quantity, and timing. Train- ing Command translates this guidance into force generation plans that sustain the transformation of entry-level and career Marines and Sailors (see Figure 3 below).

Mechanism for Change

Training Command’s diverse portfolio and wide span of control enable it to impact change in many different ways. The command constantly seeks improvement in its instructors, subject matter, training methodologies, and efficiencies in training the best force available within resource constraints. It is currently pursuing a number of initiatives to “gain inches” in improving the Marine Corps. The following three examples provide a small sampling of its efforts.

MCT (Marine Combat Training) Enhancement

Commanding the SOIs (Schools of Infantry) allows Training Command to reinforce the Marine Corps’ warfighting ethos while better developing basic riflemen. It intends to do this by adjusting the existing MCT (Marine Combat Training) POI to reinforce five themes: core values, leadership development, basic tenets of maneuver warfare, resiliency, and fitness. The SOIs will build on the core values learned by all enlisted Marines at recruit training to garner further inclusiveness and understanding of the contribution of all Marines to assist in the cultural change the Commandant seeks. The lock-step approach to training currently conducted by the SOIs during MCT will be replaced with a progressive tactical scenario in which students are organized into fireteams and squads with every Marine serving a minimum of one week as a fireteam leader under the coaching and mentoring of their 0913 combat instructors. The SOIs will introduce MCT Marines to the basic tenets of maneuver warfare at the junior Marine level. They will gain an understanding and appreciation of how their application of these tenets will assist their units in succeeding on the fluid battlefields of the 21st century. Although the Operating Forces train their Marines and Sailors to withstand the rigors of combat, the SOIs will train Marines in the coping skills necessary to overcome the stressors of life to improve unit readiness and assist Marines in successfully completing their terms of enlistment. The SOIs will also leverage the Marine Corps’ new physical fitness program and force fitness instructors to improve the overall fitness of their Marines while instilling the personal ownership of one’s fitness into every Marine. These MCT enhancements are expected to be implemented in fall 2017. Training Command intends to reinforce these five themes at its MOS producing schools as part of the transformation process and training continuum.

Force 2025: 06XX Communications FMP (Force Modernization Plan)

Understanding the need to adjust capabilities to compete on the modern battlefield, Training Commands MCCES (Marine Corps Communications-Electronics School) in Twentynine Palms developed a FMP (force modernization plan) under the cognizance of Marine Corps C4I (command, control, communications, computer, and intelligence). The MCCES reorganized legacy stove-piped communications fields into mu.jpgaceted network capabilities. This transformational change makes every 06XX Marine a “networked Marine,” professionalizes the 06XX force, and strengthens the Marine Corps’ overall cyber security. The FMP supports the generation of Force 2025 and consist of four paths: 062X-Transmissions, ОбЗХ-Network, 067X-Data Systems, and 068X-Cyber Security. Training Command, MCCES, C4I, and Marine Forces Cyberspace Command are also working together to develop a future 17XX Cyber Marine training program. Full implementation of the FMP is scheduled for spring 2018.

MAT (Marines Awaiting Training) Enhancement Program/Modernizing the Classroom

Training Command is leveraging technology and new training methodologies to enhance learning and achieve greater efficiencies. It is experimenting with and employing government and commercial off-the-shelf applications, WiFi, learning management systems, elearning systems, bring-your-own device technologies, simulations, and other tools to facilitate individually paced learning, provide more repetitions and sets, and assist Marines in more rapidly mastering skills. This will translate to reducing T2P2 (transfers, transients, patients, and prisoners) across the Corps, more rapidly getting Marines to the Operating Forces, keeping leaders in front of their units longer, and increasing overall unit readiness. The applications and opportunities offered by technology are endless, but they do require investment.

Investing in the Future

Training Command optimizes finite resources to support a complex and dynamic training continuum. It partners with many advocates and stakeholders to generate the individual talent that comprise successful units. It accomplishes this by investing in the quality and quantity of its professional instructor core-its center of gravity. Continued investment in the 0911 drill instructors needed at Officer Candidates School, 0913 combat instructors needed to train officers at TBS and enlisted Marines at the SOIs, and numerous other quality instructors across all occupational fields needed at Training Command’s many other schools will ensure its sustained ability to be a mechanism of change for the Marine Corps. The investment in sending the right number and quality of Marines and Sailors to be instructors at the school houses will pay dividends on their return to the Operating Forces. The increased knowledge, skills, and expertise they gained as instructors will manifest itself in the new leadership roles they fill in the Operating Forces.

The Partnership

Training Command is committed to implementing the changes needed to better develop and field the Marines and Sailors who will operationalize the MOC and sustain the Marine Corps’ success in the 21st century. However, it cannot do this alone. It will only accomplish this through a close partnership with and shared visions and support of the occupational field advocates, sponsors, and customers. Together we will generate and train an unbeatable force.

Notes

1. Headquarters Marine Corps, The Marine Corps Operating Concept: How an Expeditionary Force Operates in the21st Century, (Washington, DC: September 2016).

2. Commandant of the Marine Corps, FRAGO 1/2016: Advance to Contact, (Washington, DC: 2016) and Message to the Force: Seize the Initiative, (Washington, DC: 2017).