Compass Points - Marine to Marine

Share your leadership lessons.

Compass Points - Marine to Marine

Share your leadership lessons.

December 31, 2023

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Calling all Marines. We need your help!

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It is New Year’s Eve and at New Year’s it is common to make resolutions. People want to prepare for the year ahead and make their lives better. But Marines are taught very early to think of others first. So, this year, instead of making lists of civilian resolutions or lists of personal resolutions, perhaps Compass Points readers would be willing to share some recommendations that can help other Marines.

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Any Compass Points reader who has spent time in the Corps has been a leader. You have leadership skills.  You have thoughts and tips on leadership. Share some of what you have learned. You may have things to say about your days in combat or your days not in combat. No matter your MOS, experiences, or years of service, you have wisdom to share. Share.

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Compass Points invites readers to send in a lesson or lessons they have learned from leading Marines -- could be something simple, or practical, or philosophical, but all lessons need to be something worth passing on to the next generation of Marines.

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On this New Year’s Eve, Compass Points has received from one reader, "An Old Marine's First Ten Thoughts on Combat -- Plus One." Compass Points extends many thanks and a Happy New Year to the Old Marine.

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An Old Marines’ First Ten Thoughts on Combat -- Plus One

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1.  Pray before every battle, pray during the battle, and pray after the battle.  I never prayed harder or more earnestly than I did in combat, nor did I find anything more comforting.

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2.  Fear is the same every time you come under enemy fire.  You may become accustomed to the responses you make, but not the gut-wrenching feeling.  You can conquer fear in the sense that you are able to function effectively, however, it will always be with you.

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3.  There are two extremes in a unit’s first fight: “trigger happiness” and over caution.  If the first fight is at night the problem is even greater.  This is something you simply need to be aware of and to educate your Marines about to reduce the negative impact.  Generally, the problem is self-correcting in subsequent engagements. 

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4.  Control the impulse to ask for reports from units under fire.  At the start of every engagement the leaders are simply trying to sort things out and radio calls from higher headquarters only interfere.  My rule of thumb as a company commander in Vietnam was to wait for a minimum of five minutes before even considering picking up a handset.  The first communication should ask if the unit needs assistance; it should not request information.  Well-trained leaders in cohesive units will routinely forward details on what is happening as soon as they are on top of the situation.

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5.  Train leaders to move to the sound of gunfire; not in a reckless or foolhardy fashion, but in a deliberate and alert manner.  The idea is to get close enough to accurately assess the situation while not getting pinned down. 

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6.  Maintain awareness of adjacent units, especially other service and coalition forces.  These are the units that are most likely to mistake your unit for the enemy and vice versa.  There were many close calls during Desert Storm in this type of situation.  Officers moving with lead units are especially important at night (the most likely time for fratricide) since it places them in a position to shut off incoming friendly fire quickly.

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7.  Use the “buddy” system.  Most units forget to employ this simple technique when they go to war.  It is especially important after a firefight when you are trying to account for all-hands.  I found that in the tense minutes when casualties are being evacuated it is easy to lose track of which Marines are being sent out.  This is also the time when weapons and important items of equipment often get lost.  Set up a procedure to prevent these problems well before the action starts.  An adjunct to the buddy system with Marines is the pairing of vehicles—lone vehicles moving about are seldom a good idea in a combat zone.

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8.  Better to have those on watch wide-awake than to insist on the traditional 50 percent alert.  In Vietnam I varied between a 20 and 25 percent alert status (one out of five or one out of four).  A fifty-percent alert night after night will quickly tire out a unit.  Moreover, there is a tendency with so many Marines on watch for some to believe that if they close their eyes for a few minutes, it won’t make much difference because surely most of the rest are awake.  I have checked lines at night under these conditions and found nearly everyone dozing or half-awake.

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9.  Hand-grenades (our own) are the most dangerous weapon in combat outside of enemy fire.  In every single action that U.S. forces have been involved in since at least as far back as World War II, unintentional detonations of friendly grenades have been a major problem.  The most frequent cause is when grenades are attached to web gear and the pin gets caught on something and is pulled out.  Often this happens while a Marine is in a tight space such as a vehicle or when he takes off or picks up his gear.  Keep grenades in pockets whenever possible.  Never bend pins inward for the purpose of making them easier to pull out.

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10.  Treat all enemy prisoners and any civilians with basic decency.  This doesn’t mean lowering your guard, but simply to avoid any unnecessary roughness or demeaning behavior.  This is obviously the right thing to do as well as being a legal requirement.  More than one nation has regretted allowing or ignoring actions by its soldiers that embittered prisoners or turned a civilian population’s outlook from neutral or friendly to hostile.

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Plus One.  Focus on the basics in training and in combat actions.  These include recognizing and controlling rates of fire; directing distributed and concentrated fire as appropriate; properly siting automatic rifles and machine guns (a leader's responsibility, not the gunner or team leader’s); ensuring Marines are carrying the prescribed load of ammunition as set by company commanders; and ensuring key items of equipment are located in the same place on every Marine, so these items can be easily found when a Marine is a casualty and is being evacuated—these include compasses, binoculars, maps, code sheets, and the like. And finally, did I mention, pray?

— The Old Marine

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Happy New Year, Marines! And a special Happy New Year to the Old Marine.

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Great things will happen in 2024. As we begin the year 2024, will you take a moment to share a piece of what you have learned in your life? No matter your MOS, experiences, or years of service, you have wisdom to share. Share. Share with Compass Points your leadership lessons today. Send in one or two pieces of wisdom, or as many as you want. You can send in as a comment to this post or simply reply to the daily Compass Points email. Compass Points thanks all the Marines who because they have surmounted so many challenges in their lives, they now have wisdom to share.