Compass Points - Easy & Free
Some people are different.
May 26, 2023
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In the world of advertising two of the most powerful words are "easy" and "free." Those words are powerful because that is what most people want most of the time. Offer someone a little more "easy" and a little more "free" and it is likely they will say, yes.
On the other hand, in the world of the Marine Corps, some of the most powerful words are,
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Locate, close with, and destroy the enemy by fire and maneuver.
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The vast majority of people, the vast majority of the time, if offered the opportunity to "locate close with and destroy the enemy by fire and maneuver" will say, no.
But a few, a very few, are attracted by the challenge. They do not turn away from difficulty. They do not seek easy & free. They seek something different. They seek the challenge.
Over many decades, the military services have provided to all their service members approximately the same benefits. Pay and housing? Similar. Bases and stations? Pretty much the same. Re-enlistment bonuses and retirement? The same.
The Army, Navy, and Air Force have for years sold these benefits. Join with us, they say, and here is the list of good things you will get.
One service has stood alone. One service has never featured the benefits. Just the opposite. One service has featured the challenge.
Marines come in all sizes, sexes, faiths, and political beliefs. They come from different backgrounds, different homes, schools, and situations. How can all these different people be united? Why do Marines feel a kinship with each other? The answer is all Marines have chosen the challenge. All Marines said no to the easy path and sought out the difficult path. Marines are crazy like that. Marines are different.
Over the last four years, official Marine Corps documents and doctrine have not talked much about, "locate, close with, and destroy the enemy by fire and maneuver." One recent PowerPoint brief from Combat Development & Integration at Quantico has the title, "Marine Corps Modernization - The Value Proposition."
The phrase "Value Proposition" is a business phrase, it focuses on benefits. "Value Proposition" is a cousin to "easy" and "free." The words, "Value Proposition" are not Marine Corps words. Perhaps those words, "The Value Proposition" are a symbol for where the last four years have gone wrong.
A PowerPoint brief about modernizing the Marine Corps should be called, "Marine Corps Modernization - Locate, Close with and Destroy the Enemy by Fire and Maneuver."
Now or one-hundred years from now, there must never be any Marine Corps policy, doctrine, plan, or philosophy that does not grow, deep in its roots, from the words, "locate, close with, and destroy the enemy by fire and maneuver."
Author, Robert A. Heinlein decades ago wrote a famous science fiction novel, Starship Troopers, about space Marines in the distant future. He should have subtitled the novel, "Locate, close with, and destroy the enemy by fire and maneuver."
As we begin the next four years, Compass Points hopes the Marine Corps will say goodbye to words like, "Value Proposition" and once again focus on,
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Locate, close with, and destroy the enemy by fire and maneuver.
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In every military service, there is work to be done. Not all the work is glamorous. There are many different tasks that need completing each day. There are cubicles and computer screens in every service. There are passageways that need sweeping.
But in the Marine Corps, even the most mundane tasks are different. The most junior Marine sweeping the passageway in the most remote corner of the Corps must always hear with every heartbeat, "locate, close with and destroy the enemy." If he is not able to do that great task right then, he must be confident that he is part of an epic, worldwide organization obsessively dedicated to one thing:
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Locate, close with, and destroy the enemy by fire and maneuver.
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In the world of advertising, two of the most powerful words are "easy" and "free." Those words are powerful because that is what most people want most of the time. Offer someone a little more "easy" and a little more "free" and it is likely they will say, yes.
On the other hand, in the world of the Marine Corps, some of the most powerful words are . . .
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. . . but the words do not need to be quoted again, because, if you are a Marine, you know what the words are. You chose the challenge.
J. Walter Thompson said many years ago that "Somewhere in your business or organization there's a 'difference,' an idea that can be developed into a story so big, so vital and so compelling it isolates you from your competitors and makes your audience think of you as something distinctly different and superior." We Marines know that JWT, now known as Wunderman-Thompson, has had the Marine Corps' account since 1947 (75 years). We don't sell ourselves as a means to something better, we sell ourselves as the destination! We don't promise jackshit other than a set of Blues and the right to call yourself a Marine. It's been extremely successful in the past as JWT points out - we should never walk away from it!
Over my short period of active duty (26 years) a number of phrases crept into the Corps that were corrosive to Esprit de Corps and the chivalry of a warrior ethos that is 2000 years old. The Corps would do well to stop using words like: career, job, benefits, pay, diversity, return on investment, duty hours, private life, retirement, stress, op tempo, etc. The language has morphed into the language of business, social policy, media speak and lawyer dialog.