Compass Points - Corral of Comments

Readers expand the discussion.

Compass Points - Corral of Comments

Readers expand the discussion.

May 18, 2024

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The US is being challenged around the world by ongoing threats and conflicts. What will happen next? No one knows. No matter what happens, however, there is no doubt Compass Points readers will have insightful analysis and comment.

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Over the last week, Compass Points readers have responded online and off with a treasure load of comments, insights, and analysis. Only a few of the comments are re-posted below. Most of the full comments are available for reading on the Compass Points site. As always, comments have been edited for length and content. Several long, thoughtful comments have been reduced to just a sentence or two. Often the real enjoyment comes, not as much from the excerpt included below but, from reading the comment in full. Compass Points appreciates the full, insightful, and professional comments of all readers. Many thanks!

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Samuel Whittemore

Fantastic Mother’s Day poem. Perhaps the USMC’s PAO who posts on X should read it.

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Polarbear

Madness. The United States Marine Corps purpose is simple and clear; it is amphibious assault.

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Ray “Skip” Polak

My take away - Ukrainians are out gunned. Are we now out gunned? We divested our tube artillery for rockets, which may not be as useful in  door-to-door, danger-close situations. Just a musing from an old gunner-proudly so -- old and gunner!

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cfrog

 I can think of a few times in urban situations where it would have been nice to dismount an 'electric Fido' to work with a rifle squad as we pushed into unknown turf.

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Alfred Karam

Let hope, should robotic dogs get fielded, that the “robotic dogs” fully understand and abide by the rules of engagement. I understand these gadgets rely on Artificial Intelligence (AI), how will AI behave?

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Jerry McAbee

The gutting of Marine Corps cannon artillery in the active force (from 21 batteries to 7 batteries) was done to help offset the cost of 14 Naval Strike Missile Batteries and 3 TLAM batteries. The misguided decision to jettison 67% of the artillery is stunning. It is arguably the biggest mistake in the history of the Marine Corps.

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Keith Holcomb

Our Nation's fine young Americans may soon be thrust into combat without adequate combat and combat service support. They and their company grade and junior field grade leaders will pay the price.

Rhetoric continues to risk wars we don't want and may not be able to win. Force providers need to use every neuron, every dollar, every minute to build credible counter-offensive capabilities. Speaking bluntly: "Stop talking (cheerleading) and start building."

Significant and immediate investments in artillery are essential if the few infantry we have are to survive their first engagements.

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Dale Robinson

Getting rid of close air support and cannon artillery is the stupidest thing I've seen in the 58 years I've been a Marine. If Marines are required ever again to make a frontal attack against fortified positions, what will be used to suppress enemy fire?????

--Cpl USMC BLT 2/4 '67-68 Battle of Dai Do, RVN

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Douglas C Rapé

Mass matters. The very notion that you do not need tube artillery is so alien to me it is incomprehensible. I believe I once read that no Marine Infantry company with a battery firing in direct support had ever been over run. I cannot verify that but it stuck. I always believed that you maneuver under the artillery umbrella or you operate at greater risk. The Marine Division did not need less artillery, it needed more.

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The Wolf

The Wolf with years of actual wartime experience, not Quantico wargame experience, knows that Marine infantrymen without cannon artillery support are far more likely to die!

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Randy Shetter

To be of value to this Nation, the Marine Corps needs to be focused on one mission: a combined arms naval expeditionary force. It cannot be both a missile force and an expeditionary force.

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Jeffrey Dinsmore

Training is, to a great extent, a zero sum game. If you man, train and equip against one thing, the other thing suffers. It might be time to admit; indeed, to proclaim, that the Corps is no longer the combined arms force, but a sea denial force with precision weapons. It is palpable that we're not doing our former thing well anymore, and not doing our future thing well yet.

I would add: the Marines that executed Operation WATCHTOWER called it Operation SHOESTRING. They did so because they were thrown into the fray with nothing. These Marines, doing more with less, are always the hope of the Corps as history rhymes.

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Charles Wemyss, Jr.

We are accused of fighting the last war here by the proponents of FD -- whatever the hell that means now. But the last war is the now war in Ukraine and Gaza. The Marine Corps divested and got nothing in return, and now we need to reinvest to get back to where we were.

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Coffeejoejava

Looks like the Army, not having to compete with Navy's "sacred cows" is building the Landing Craft Mechanized-8 (LCM-8) -- EXACTLY what the Corps has been dreaming of.

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Polarbear

The next time Congress grills SECNAV about delays in ship building and maintenance programs, they need to have the Secretary of Transportation and Ann C. Phillips (Rear Admiral Ret.) the MARAD Administrator seating next to SECNAV Del Toro. For good measure, they also should have the new deputy of SUPSHIP present.

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Douglas C Rapé

Marine recruiting must focus on Spartan, Stoic, Elite and Tough.

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Jeffrey Dinsmore

One of our great, currently serving, SgtMaj's, SgtMaj Wilson (currently of II MEF, I believe) said it best:

Our recruiting commercials of the 90's and 2000's were some of the most effective, because they personified why young men and women want to be Marines. They want to scale difficult heights and kill dragons. If we can continue to attract young people who want to kill dragons, we will continue to have the force that we have been accustomed to throughout history.

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Rob Barrow

A recruiting poster from the 70’s said: “I­­­f everybody could get in the Marines, it wouldn’t be the Marines.”  Now it seems, everybody can get in the Marines and they can dictate their terms. The fact is, we’ve been recruiting on borrowed time and now all the social nonsense, jammed down our throats for the past 20+ years, has reached a tipping point.  The Marine Corps continues to look outside itself, in search of why recruiting is failing.  Seriously?  It’s nothing but excuses. 

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Charles Wemyss, Jr.

We are different. Herald it; don’t run from it.

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Coffeejoejava

I can't imagine the pressure those recruiting Marines are under, how many divorces are taking place, the unbelievably long hours, the doors slammed in faces, dealing with high school kids. It is a thankless job and it has to be done.

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Alfred Karam

Spot on! Recruiting is an exceedingly difficult job, and it’s made that much more difficult when our country is polarized and our youths are indoctrinated to hate their history. I would further add, the active duty Marines are shooting themselves in the foot by dismissing veterans as “has beens” or when they throw the term “this isn’t your Corps anymore.”

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Colonel Jack D. Howell

I totally agree with the narrative of MGen Livingston and Col Vargas. Lessons learned from the Battle of Dai Do should not be lost to history. Can the Corps and its current Combined Arms configuration meet all of the dangers on the globe as currently configured?      

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Jerry McAbee

Words are cheap. Action counts. We continue to hear a lot of wishful words about Marine Corps current capabilities. One would think senior leaders were talking about 2018 or earlier.

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cfrog

Having led a Tank Company Team in combat, I would have loved a Company Team with the modern sUAS / loitering munitions, etc. Imagine maneuvering while running SEAD that included s/UAS. That's an armored drive to dream of.

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Randy Shetter

In order for infantry to be successful in closing with the enemy, it needs support. An infantry force by itself is only half the force.

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Jeffrey Dean

Honest question for the crowd: where is the line between combined arms / supporting fires vs. increasing / upgrading the infantry battalions? I’m happy to have funding and structure for a Marine Corps of 400,000+. But that’s not reality.

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cfrog

Jeff, you bring up a good point here about cost. I think the issue, as mentioned elsewhere, is over focus on fires. Joint Engineering is fan fiction in application.

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Paul Van Riper

All the retired Marine Corps officers I know who have spoken out against Force Design 2030 have also advocated that the Corps rebuild its combined arms capabilities; that means more infantry, armor, cannon artillery, combat engineers, and close air-support.

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Samuel Whittemore

No need for recrimination or divisiveness.

"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;

For he today that sheds his blood with me

Shall be my brother;"

-- St. Crispin’s Day speech from Henry V

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Compass Points salutes all readers who in their own ways are continuing to build the discussion about a stronger Marine Corps.