Compass Points - Rumble with Russia

Russia is a continuing problem.

Compass Points - Rumble with Russia

Russia is a continuing problem.

October 27, 2024

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The 49th Marine Corps marathon is today. Congrats to all those running, helping, and celebrating.

Sunday is a good day for reflection. Sunday is also a good day for prayer.

Many people wonder if prayers are ever answered. Almost exactly 62 years ago millions of people around the world believed that prayers for peace had been answered.

The nation of Russia is much in the news today. Russia is still fighting in Ukraine. Russia's President Putin has hinted that troops from North Korea have joined in the fighting on Russia's side. In news from the Middle East, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Russia has been the culprit providing the targeting data so the Houthis can attack ships in the Red Sea. 

Causing problems is nothing new. Back in the spring of 1962 when Russia was known as the Soviet Union, it began to secretly install medium and long-range missile launchers in Cuba. The US said it would not allow Soviet ballistic missiles in Cuba. The Soviet Union put missiles onboard ships and sailed them toward Cuba. The US imposed a blockade around Cuba to prevent the missiles from arriving. For days the world was on the brink.

How serious was the confrontation between the US and the Soviet Union? Early in the Cuban Missile Crisis all of the 189,000 Marines in the Marine Corps were put on alert. The entire Marine Corps! Units from 1st and 2nd Marine Divisions along with aviation units were sent to Guantanamo Bay and to Key West, Florida. Then as the crisis got worse, on the morning of October 28, 1962 the 5th Marine Amphibious Brigade left Camp Pendleton by sea in preparation for a full scale invasion of Cuba.

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. . . departed southern California on board 20 amphibious ships, including the Navy's newest purpose-built amphibious assault carrier USS Iwo Jima (LPH-2). Embarked were 1st Marines and its two remaining battalions; 1st and 3rd Battalions, 7th Marines; Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 361; and a logistics support group. Marine Aircraft Squadron 121 Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 352, and 3rd Light Anti-Aircraft Missile Battalion on board, flew ahead of the ships to assume firing positions at Key West, Florida, and Guantanamo naval stations.

-- Leatherneck, "U.S. Marines, Cuba, and the Invasion that Never Was: Part 2"

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Was it the news that the Marine invasion force was steaming toward Cuba that caused the Soviet Premier Khrushchev to reconsider? We will never know for sure. But on the evening of October 28, 1962, Khrushchev unexpectedly changed his mind and agreed to halt all work on the launch sites and to return all Soviet missiles in or near Cuba back to the USSR. World war had been averted. The peaceful conclusion of the Cuban Missile Crisis created an outpouring of thanksgiving.

Students as many levels today still study the many diplomatic and military lessons from the Cuban Missile Crisis. One lesson for Marines is that back in 1962 when the Cuban Missile Crisis came out of nowhere, not a single US officials asked the Marines if they were ready to go and fight the enemies of the United Staes. No-one asked Marines if they were ready to steam to Cuba and deter, assist, and fight. The Nation simply assumed the Marines are always ready for anything.

Compass Points salutes the Marines of the Cuban Missile Crisis who were ready when the call came. The Marine Corps today must understand that a crisis just as critical and just as unexpected as the Cuban Missile Crisis is just over the next horizon. It is critical to use the time remaining to prepare, not for one narrow regional mission, but prepare for some unexpected crisis in any clime and place. Trouble in Cuba? Trouble anywhere else? Send in the Marines!