Compass Points - Community of Marines

Experience, insights, and ideas.

Compass Points - Community of Marines

Experience, insights, and ideas.

August 11, 2024

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Sunday is a good day to reflect.

There is a broad community of Marines and friends of the Corps including some Marines on active duty, many who were once on active duty, and others in business, academia, and government service, including Congress.

All of them want the best for the Marine Corps. All of them are using their experience, insights, and ideas to help move the Marine Corps toward a better future.

Just one example of the range of experiences of so many Compass Points readers is a recent comment from Douglas C. Rapé. Compass Points salutes Douglas C. Rapé for his ongoing contributions to Corps and Country and thanks all those across the broad Marine community who are working to make sure the Marine Corps remains strong today and stronger tomorrow.

Included below the comment by Doug Rapé is Compass Points Mission and Values.

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Douglas C Rapé

My actual experience with tank and infantry teams is long standing from my days as an Infantry Officer in 8th Marines with the Maj Van Riper at the Regt S-3, then Maj Sutton as BLT 3-1’s S-3, and then BGen Gray as the MAB Cmdr. The culminating exercise was in a tank and mech heavy environment after a few years of lead up training and exercises in Norway and Denmark. As the XO and S-3 for BLTs 3/1 and 2/1 with similar lead up training but vastly different environments from Adak Alaska, the dense jungles in Thailand to Korea, open spaces of Australia and mountainous terrain in S Korea.

One of those deployments included RPVs. As the Marine LNO to the Army’s 9th Infantry Div (MTZ), I spent three years deeply involved in the coordination of motorized, armored, aviation and artillery operations with the added benefit of the constant integration of commercial, off the shelf technology like ground and air RPVs, advanced communications, experimental ammunition, advanced logistical concepts and air defense technology.

As CO 25th Marines, I led two exercises as a Regimental MAGTF Cmdr with attached Tank Companies at 29 Palms and the standard aviation elements, logistics, and a Naval Expeditionary Hospital. Years later, I was the PEO-STRI rep at Ft Bliss responsible for simulators, simulations, digitized ranges, and training devices for the 1st Armored Division from 2011-2014. During this time, we built the largest, most complicated range on earth. The DAGIR, a vast range that allowed for live fire and maneuver of Armor, Mechanized, Artillery (rocket and tube), attack helicopter and fixed wing air craft in combined arms scenarios. The TACAir was provided by various USAF aircraft and German Tornados out of Alamagordo, NM.

Over that 40-year period it was obvious to me that Combined Arms, when orchestrated properly is far greater than the sum of its component parts. It is an irresistible combat force. Watching lesser forces with poor coordination, poor training, or missing pieces makes it easy for the amateur to conclude some things are obsolete. Infantry, tanks, tube artillery, and combat engineers are not obsolete.

For those who have been engaged in insurgencies with forces that do not have armor or air or artillery, the drawing of the wrong conclusions is possible. Add to that the reading of near peer enemy capabilities (propaganda) can be equally misleading. While the German V-1 and V-2 rockets were revolutionary in their time, their impact on the outcome of WWII were inconsequential. The most advanced piloted aircraft of the Pacific (Kamikaze) did not change the outcome.

While some deep thinkers might declare the bayonet obsolete, the infantryman knows its value even if he never had to use one.

Revolution is an overused word. Evolution is the winner across history when professionals do the educated analysis. Change is important. The right change being the key. The wrong change is catastrophic.

-- Douglas C. Rapé

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- - - - - Compass Points Mission & Values - - - - -

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Compass Points Mission

Provide an independent source of broader thinking, deeper understanding, and better decisions, for a stronger Marine Corps.

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Compass Points Values

We believe the Marine Corps must be responsive, relevant, and ready today, and more so tomorrow.

We believe the Marine Corps is never owned by any small group of people, but is always held in sacred trust by every Marine and friend of the Corps, past, present, and future.

We believe Marine Corps success in garrison, in the field, and in operations is a complex ecology of the physical, the intellectual, and the spiritual.

We believe in the complexity of combat.

We believe good data is good, but waiting for more and more data is not necessarily better.

We believe no information system can or will sweep away the fog of war.

We believe nothing is more uncertain than certainty.

We believe planning is good, but first plans rarely survive first contact.

We believe Marines must prepare to battle skilled, devious, and unpredictable adversaries.

We believe Marines must be always ready to locate, close with, and destroy the enemy by fire and maneuver, or repel enemy assault by fire and close combat.

We believe in combined-arms, multi-mission capable Marine Corps units that can quickly arrive anywhere, and address any conflict or crisis.

We believe the Marine Corps must experiment with new technology constantly and adopt it prudently.

We believe in practicing and perfecting proven methods, while also experimenting with and adopting new methods.

We believe in the Marine Corps culture of teamwork, trust, creativity, and courage.

We believe in candid culture among Marines, never cancel culture.

We believe the strength of the Marine Corps comes from the valor at the heart of each Marine. Each Marine draws strength from the entire Corps of Marines. Together, all Marines are joined across time and geography by the unbreakable red stripe of service.