I applaud all the written efforts to question the obvious disaster of Force 2030 but my real question based on my HQMC experience is who is carrying the message face to face with the White House, SecDef, SecNav and Congress? We have less than 4 years before the next Presidential election and less than two for the House of Representatives. Like many as distasteful as it sounds I looked forward to a house cleaning of defective Leadership in the Corps which hasn’t occurred. IMHO we don’t have a lot of time to turn this around, change is inevitable but needs to be properly vetted by traditional open war gaming evaluations not closed door secrecy.
Members of Chowder Society II are talking with the right people in the administration and on the Hill. We have made more headway since late February than in the previous four years. Hang in there!
One of the things that I loved about the Marine Corps was our ability for self reflection after each combat operation or field exercise…What we did right…And more importantly, what we did wrong. Corrections began immediately. Phonies and B. S. artists couldn’t survive very long in that environment. I don’t see it in this new generation. Semper Fi
What I find appalling is the continuous folly that Force Design 2030 is a "righteous journey" ( LtGen M.G. Carter). Unfortunately, careerism rears it's ugly head by subordinate flag officers who are hesitant in telling the Commandant that Force Design 2030 is totally the wrong path for the Corps to be taking. Of course there is always higher leadership that can demand course changes but, I have zero faith in the leadership capabilities of SecDef and his inner circle of inept advisors. Most of Congress is afraid of their own shadows so I don't foresee any help unless both sides of the House has an epiphany. The question I have today is if the Paper Tiger Marine Corps can meet it's force in readiness obligations? The Naval ship capability is lagging so the question looms "can we get there from here? My fear is that the Marine Corps may become irrelevant to our national defense. Just a thought!
Your fears are more than justified. Without major changes our Corps is bound to become irrelevant in the coming years. Members of Chowder Society II are working hard everyday to ensure this does not happen. We are making progress. Hang tough with us!
I would ask one of the FD(2030) proponents who I know shadow Compass Points to weigh in. A substantive update as to why CP et al are still wrong would be an important contribution. I'd imagine that, at the least, any good die hard FD proponent would admit that the 'revolution' hasn't made as much progress as planned, and a lack of practical capability exists.
To date no active duty Marine has agreed to an open debate with members of Chowder Society II. Several years ago the Marine Corps University Foundation arranged for such a debate. Originally the Corps was to send a general officer. At the last minute leadership designated a colonel. No one showed up! Our representative, General Zinni, briefed the audience on the retired community's concerns, and his comments were generally well received. CSIS tried to have a debate shortly afterwards but again no active duty Marines were allowed to participate. My personal opinion is that the 38th and 39th CMCs were unsure their representatives could offer a convincing rebuttal to our case. In short, they were and are afraid.
And that’s telling. When leadership, at any level, stifles policy debate on what the Marine Corps should look like and to what extent new weapons are to be folded in, that should sound alarm bells to every Marine, past and present.
And it’s also telling that to date there’s not a Marine, officer or enlisted who have the professionalism and integrity to step forward and honestly debate the issues.
Generals Zinni & Conway, once again, hit the nail on the head. Can there be any sensible questions regarding the validity of what they - and, many others - have said in their CP postings? I think the matter now rests in the hands of our public & elected officials. Always in the back of my memory, I recall General Robert Barrow’s testimony before the SASC when he said, “you can do away with the Marine Corps, but, when you need it, you’ll have to rebuild it”. That should sober all the detractors. No bended knee! Semper Fidelis!
Glad the Generals have been involved from the beginning of this fiasco. The Congress (those who matter), don’t pay much attention to we Captains, only our vote. Stay with it. Semper Fi
It seems that all of that which Compass Points highlights in today’s post is so. Further, can the attention of two of more brilliant senior (retired sadly) General Officers be more clear when outlining the issue of readiness any more clearly than they and Chowder Society II have already done up to this point. The road block seems to be in two critical places.
First the Pentagon. They can’t get out of their own way. Would anyone trust the puzzle palace to do a jigsaw puzzle with the little puzzle piece set? No. It is easy to blame a Navy and its senior leadership for the lack of amphibious lift but our leadership moved that right along in lock step as well. If a ship has rust on the outside, it is indicative of rust and rot on the inside. Now years past the Fat Leonard scandal has anything changed? Doesn’t seem so. Yes, we all saw Secretary Phelan say he doesn’t like getting calls from his Boss about rust on our ships, but it is a bigger problem than sand blasting proprietary coatings of “paint” on a war ship. Perhaps starting off with the failing leadership and work backward, would yield some immediate results. Just firing an incompetent CNO doesn’t really get it. The young Marines see with clarity the failures of the senior leaders around them. If you can’t fight black mold in the barracks how can you be trusted to go to war. Well, you can’t. Other than a direct order from the current CMC this Marine wouldn’t follow him to the head out of idle curiosity. That is a problem. It shouldn’t take a lawful order to get something done.
This said, the real culprits are the members of Congress, House of Representatives and Senate who have simply allowed the normalization of failure to be so acceptable that when someone does fail, like a CVN collides with a merchant vessel, no one is really held accountable. They speak of the dangers of “zero defect” performance. Like some sort of CEO of a widget company. But they don’t ask hard questions or if they do there is no follow up. We are heading into the 4th year after the Senator Cotton report on the status of the USN Surface Fleet laid bare the problems affecting morale and readiness and so forth and nothing seems to have changed. No doubt Chowder Society II is all over the Congress. But we need to do our part to help them. Calling and writing and badgering our senators and reps is a pain in the backside, but they need to hear we are unhappy. This Marine when he was ten years was instructed by his grandfather that when he was unhappy he ought make every single “SOB within 200 feet of him miserable.” This applied to owning and running a large paper mill in the day, but no doubt the point is made here, perhaps a bit tongue in cheek, but made none the less. Let’s get the word out to our elected officials in a professional and polite manner but be relentless in the effort until we are at the point the Marine Corps and its bell weather of the MAGTF is capable of answering that 9-1-1 call before the phone has stopped buzzing on the first ring.
Unfortunately, the current crop of Marine Corps generals were chosen for compliance, not competence. Fortunately, they and the retired generals who selected them can still be held accountable. The current administration needs to do so.
After the Tailhook Scandal of 91 Flag Officer selections became even more Political. Previously BG and MajGen selections were pretty much internal to the Corps. After THook the Female Mafia ie Senator Pat Schroeder of Colorado who had an axe to grind especially with the Navy took the micro management of Flag selections to a whole new political level. Unfortunately today you see Political blowhards using the Promotion approval process as a misguided method to achieve petty goals.
I agree with your assessment. I saw this starting when I was at HQMC DCS Air from 1988-1990. I was in acquisition and we were forced to procure the MV22 when the R&D proof of concept results showed below normal acceptance criteria.
FD2030 rendered our Corps' MAGTF capabilities impotent and relegated the Corps to an unproven remote Pacific island missile asset to deter Chinese naval threats... after 5 yrs ongoing, the Corps still has yet to stand up a single functioning missile battery onsite anywhere in that AO... all the while, we have failed to respond to several crisis in the other 95% of the world because there's no MEU deployed in any AOs when needed...
VISION2035 is a MUST to save our Corps and restore our status as being the nation's "9-1-1 Force in Readiness", and to restore our Corps' MAGTF lethality and capabilities!
I applaud all the written efforts to question the obvious disaster of Force 2030 but my real question based on my HQMC experience is who is carrying the message face to face with the White House, SecDef, SecNav and Congress? We have less than 4 years before the next Presidential election and less than two for the House of Representatives. Like many as distasteful as it sounds I looked forward to a house cleaning of defective Leadership in the Corps which hasn’t occurred. IMHO we don’t have a lot of time to turn this around, change is inevitable but needs to be properly vetted by traditional open war gaming evaluations not closed door secrecy.
Members of Chowder Society II are talking with the right people in the administration and on the Hill. We have made more headway since late February than in the previous four years. Hang in there!
One of the things that I loved about the Marine Corps was our ability for self reflection after each combat operation or field exercise…What we did right…And more importantly, what we did wrong. Corrections began immediately. Phonies and B. S. artists couldn’t survive very long in that environment. I don’t see it in this new generation. Semper Fi
What I find appalling is the continuous folly that Force Design 2030 is a "righteous journey" ( LtGen M.G. Carter). Unfortunately, careerism rears it's ugly head by subordinate flag officers who are hesitant in telling the Commandant that Force Design 2030 is totally the wrong path for the Corps to be taking. Of course there is always higher leadership that can demand course changes but, I have zero faith in the leadership capabilities of SecDef and his inner circle of inept advisors. Most of Congress is afraid of their own shadows so I don't foresee any help unless both sides of the House has an epiphany. The question I have today is if the Paper Tiger Marine Corps can meet it's force in readiness obligations? The Naval ship capability is lagging so the question looms "can we get there from here? My fear is that the Marine Corps may become irrelevant to our national defense. Just a thought!
Your fears are more than justified. Without major changes our Corps is bound to become irrelevant in the coming years. Members of Chowder Society II are working hard everyday to ensure this does not happen. We are making progress. Hang tough with us!
General,
I sure would like to get involved with the Chowder Society II.
I would ask one of the FD(2030) proponents who I know shadow Compass Points to weigh in. A substantive update as to why CP et al are still wrong would be an important contribution. I'd imagine that, at the least, any good die hard FD proponent would admit that the 'revolution' hasn't made as much progress as planned, and a lack of practical capability exists.
To date no active duty Marine has agreed to an open debate with members of Chowder Society II. Several years ago the Marine Corps University Foundation arranged for such a debate. Originally the Corps was to send a general officer. At the last minute leadership designated a colonel. No one showed up! Our representative, General Zinni, briefed the audience on the retired community's concerns, and his comments were generally well received. CSIS tried to have a debate shortly afterwards but again no active duty Marines were allowed to participate. My personal opinion is that the 38th and 39th CMCs were unsure their representatives could offer a convincing rebuttal to our case. In short, they were and are afraid.
General:
And that’s telling. When leadership, at any level, stifles policy debate on what the Marine Corps should look like and to what extent new weapons are to be folded in, that should sound alarm bells to every Marine, past and present.
And it’s also telling that to date there’s not a Marine, officer or enlisted who have the professionalism and integrity to step forward and honestly debate the issues.
Generals Zinni & Conway, once again, hit the nail on the head. Can there be any sensible questions regarding the validity of what they - and, many others - have said in their CP postings? I think the matter now rests in the hands of our public & elected officials. Always in the back of my memory, I recall General Robert Barrow’s testimony before the SASC when he said, “you can do away with the Marine Corps, but, when you need it, you’ll have to rebuild it”. That should sober all the detractors. No bended knee! Semper Fidelis!
Glad the Generals have been involved from the beginning of this fiasco. The Congress (those who matter), don’t pay much attention to we Captains, only our vote. Stay with it. Semper Fi
In this fight every Marine--active, former, and retired--counts regardless of rank. Just by participating on Compass Points you and they contribute.
It seems that all of that which Compass Points highlights in today’s post is so. Further, can the attention of two of more brilliant senior (retired sadly) General Officers be more clear when outlining the issue of readiness any more clearly than they and Chowder Society II have already done up to this point. The road block seems to be in two critical places.
First the Pentagon. They can’t get out of their own way. Would anyone trust the puzzle palace to do a jigsaw puzzle with the little puzzle piece set? No. It is easy to blame a Navy and its senior leadership for the lack of amphibious lift but our leadership moved that right along in lock step as well. If a ship has rust on the outside, it is indicative of rust and rot on the inside. Now years past the Fat Leonard scandal has anything changed? Doesn’t seem so. Yes, we all saw Secretary Phelan say he doesn’t like getting calls from his Boss about rust on our ships, but it is a bigger problem than sand blasting proprietary coatings of “paint” on a war ship. Perhaps starting off with the failing leadership and work backward, would yield some immediate results. Just firing an incompetent CNO doesn’t really get it. The young Marines see with clarity the failures of the senior leaders around them. If you can’t fight black mold in the barracks how can you be trusted to go to war. Well, you can’t. Other than a direct order from the current CMC this Marine wouldn’t follow him to the head out of idle curiosity. That is a problem. It shouldn’t take a lawful order to get something done.
This said, the real culprits are the members of Congress, House of Representatives and Senate who have simply allowed the normalization of failure to be so acceptable that when someone does fail, like a CVN collides with a merchant vessel, no one is really held accountable. They speak of the dangers of “zero defect” performance. Like some sort of CEO of a widget company. But they don’t ask hard questions or if they do there is no follow up. We are heading into the 4th year after the Senator Cotton report on the status of the USN Surface Fleet laid bare the problems affecting morale and readiness and so forth and nothing seems to have changed. No doubt Chowder Society II is all over the Congress. But we need to do our part to help them. Calling and writing and badgering our senators and reps is a pain in the backside, but they need to hear we are unhappy. This Marine when he was ten years was instructed by his grandfather that when he was unhappy he ought make every single “SOB within 200 feet of him miserable.” This applied to owning and running a large paper mill in the day, but no doubt the point is made here, perhaps a bit tongue in cheek, but made none the less. Let’s get the word out to our elected officials in a professional and polite manner but be relentless in the effort until we are at the point the Marine Corps and its bell weather of the MAGTF is capable of answering that 9-1-1 call before the phone has stopped buzzing on the first ring.
Unfortunately, the current crop of Marine Corps generals were chosen for compliance, not competence. Fortunately, they and the retired generals who selected them can still be held accountable. The current administration needs to do so.
After the Tailhook Scandal of 91 Flag Officer selections became even more Political. Previously BG and MajGen selections were pretty much internal to the Corps. After THook the Female Mafia ie Senator Pat Schroeder of Colorado who had an axe to grind especially with the Navy took the micro management of Flag selections to a whole new political level. Unfortunately today you see Political blowhards using the Promotion approval process as a misguided method to achieve petty goals.
I agree with your assessment. I saw this starting when I was at HQMC DCS Air from 1988-1990. I was in acquisition and we were forced to procure the MV22 when the R&D proof of concept results showed below normal acceptance criteria.
FD2030 rendered our Corps' MAGTF capabilities impotent and relegated the Corps to an unproven remote Pacific island missile asset to deter Chinese naval threats... after 5 yrs ongoing, the Corps still has yet to stand up a single functioning missile battery onsite anywhere in that AO... all the while, we have failed to respond to several crisis in the other 95% of the world because there's no MEU deployed in any AOs when needed...
VISION2035 is a MUST to save our Corps and restore our status as being the nation's "9-1-1 Force in Readiness", and to restore our Corps' MAGTF lethality and capabilities!
This computer simulation, requested by Colonel Rapé shows how bleak the picture is
https://open.substack.com/pub/cpldanusmcret764175/p/colonel-rapes-request?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=ohc7t
God help us all