Compass Points - Great Pretender
"Too real is this feeling of make believe"
Compass Points - Great Pretender
"Too real is this feeling of make believe"
January 16, 2025
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Many decades ago the singing group The Platters had a hit, "The Great Pretender." The song begins with the lyrics, "Oh-oh, yes I'm the great pretender. Pretending that I'm doing well." Another line says, "Too real is the feeling of make believe."
Marines have long had a reputation for being always blunt and often colorful truth tellers. If you do not want the unvarnished truth, do not ask Marines. Marines tell it like it is and let the chips fall where they may. And it is not just junior Marines who could be relied on for truthfulness. While the senior admirals and generals from other services testifying in front of Congress would speak diplomatically in careful bureaucratic words, Marine leaders could be counted on to pull no punches and tell the frank truth.
During the Vietnam War only one general officer boldly sat down with President Johnson and told him frankly that the war was not going well and Johnson's approach was a mistake. The officer willing to the tell the truth was Marine LtGen Victor "Brute" Krulak. President Johnson never forgot and never forgave the Brute's blunt truthfulness.
Has the Marine Corps lost this blunt truthfulness? Is the Marine Corps losing itself in make believe? Reporter Jeff Schogol writing in Task and Purpose has revealed that, "From August to December 2024, Marine recruits in San Diego had dress blue coats and covers photoshopped onto their yearbook pictures."
Pretending that new Marines have for the first time felt the white cover rest on their head, when in fact they have never been in the same room with a dress blue coat or cover? Sad.
But pretending about graduation photos is one thing, pretending about Marine Corps capabilities is much worse.
In a report from National Defense Magazine, the current Commandant of the Marine is quoted.
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“We're constantly looking at adjusting the MLRs and making sure … that they're executing what we designed them to do, which is to be low-signature, highly mobile, [aggregable], long-range, precision-strike regimes that have the ability to sense, make sense and take action before action needs to be taken,” he said.
-- CMC quoted by National Defense Magazine
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Perhaps the Commandant was not quoted correctly by the National Defense Magazine. Perhaps the Commandant was distracted and did not have the chance to review his comment. But are his words about the Marine missile units the kind of blunt truthfulness that must continue to be a hallmark of Marines?
At best the comments by the Commandant about Marine Corps missile unit capabilities are woefully incomplete.
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-- "low signature" The missile units do not have a low signature. Just one example, the units use the active Gator Radar. The AN/TPS-80 Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar is the United States Marine Corps Air Surveillance/Air Defense and Air Traffic Control Radar. Because it is an active radar it is always on and constantly broadcasting its own position.
-- "highly mobile" The missile units are nearly completely immobile. The extensive equipment is difficult to move. The Marine Corps has always depended on acquiring nearly three dozen Landing Ship Medium (LSM) to provide at least some modest transportation. But in nearly 5 years, the Navy and Marine Corps can still not agree on a final design or price for the LSM. None have been built. The RFP has been pulled. It is unlikely any LSM will ever be built. Marine missile units are ‘highly mobile’? No.
.. "long-range, precision-strike" The Marine missile units depend primarily on the NSM - Naval Strike Missile which is sub-sonic and range constrained.
-- "sense, make sense and take action" How are these missile units going to take action? The units are not combined arms MAGTFs embarked on Navy amphibious ships. The missile units do not have the infantry, equipment, or training to "locate, close with and destroy the enemy by fire and maneuver, or repel the enemy assault by fire and close combat."
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It is time for the Marine Corps to stop pretending. Time to stop photoshopping dress blues at boot camp. It is time for the Marine Corps to get back to blunt truth-telling. The truth is there are zero operational Marine missile units deployed today off China's coast. Zero. And there are zero Marine afloat MAGTFs forward deployed in the hot-spots of the world, like the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf. The truth is it will take the help of new leadership in Congress, in the Defense Department, and in the Naval Department to rebuild Marine Corps worldwide crisis response capabilities, so when US policy makers call 9-1-1, the Marines will once again be out patrolling the seas ready to respond to any crisis.
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Task and Purpose - 01/06/2025
Marine recruit uniforms were photoshopped on at boot camp
From August to December 2024, Marine recruits in San Diego had dress blue coats and covers photoshopped onto their yearbook pictures.
By Jeff Schogol
https://taskandpurpose.com/news/marines-recruits-photoshop/
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National Defense Magazine - 1/15/2025
JUST IN: Funding Biggest Challenge for Marine Corps’ Force Design Plan
By Laura Heckmann
Neither the 2018 NDAA nor the 2022 NDAA nor Congress directed the Marine in Corps to radically restructure and reorganize to confront the PLAN. Force Design and the destruction of the combined arms, expeditionary force-in-readiness are self inflicted. There is no one to blame but the 38th and 39th Commandants.
The last two CMC’s have led themselves and other of their acolytes to believe that they are making progress on a total reshaping of the Marine Corps. In a sense that might (emphasis on MIGHT) be laudable, never stand still, question and think through what the next fight might look like. But, in the past when large scale change came to the Corps it was additive and accretive to mission accomplishment. Want shore guns, why not then ask for a bigger T/O and T/E. But be in postion to carry on with the mandated missions assigned.
But both General Berger and Smith chose to flagrantly and disobediently defy the statutory Mandate of Title X. In a dictionary perfect discription of insubordination and a healthy dose of arrogance especially in front of the limited congressional oversight they were exposed to, they just carried on with their suicide of the Marine Corps. Their hubris likely left them to believe that history would look kindly on them. When the call came they could not answer and in the main the FD2030 and “divest to invest” era (if the Corps is allowed to survive) will not be looked at kindly.
When this writer served on active duty our Generals and Colonels rarely pulled a punch and if anyone doubts this, just go look at archives footage of their congressional testimony. Raw, and straight scoop as our sister services sat there in the same hearing balancing teacups on their knees as a manner of speaking.
We need tough no nonsense leadership again. Iron sharpens iron. Let’s hope we can get back to business in the coming weeks and months.