Compass Points - Never Asleep
The Mid Watch is the darkest.
January 28, 2024
.
Compass Points readers are wide awake.
The Marines' 11th General Order begins with,
.
===============
.
11. Be especially watchful at night and during the time for challenging . . . .
.
===============
.
In the Navy, it is the Mid Watch, from midnight to 0400, when things are at the darkest. Even when all is dark and an entire military unit seems to be asleep, there are always some who are awake.
.
Compass Points readers are wide awake. Because Compass Points readers are awake, they see the problems facing the Marine Corps, and they want more done immediately to correct the obvious problems. Before we can get the problems solved, however, we must get more people to wake up.
.
Whenever a reader reads Compass Points, comments on or likes a post, shares it with a friend, contacts a representative, or in any way keeps pressing the issues, that is helping to get another person to wake up. Compass Points is only one part of a much larger effort to wake up the senior leadership in the Marine Corps, the Department of the Navy, the Defense Department, and in Congress. This larger, coordinated campaign is working. One by one people are waking up.
.
Back in 2019 when the Commandant said the Marine Corps did not need so many large deck amphibious ships, that was crazy talk. But organizations rarely jump up and say, "that's crazy talk!" Instead, organizations go along, try to make the best of things, and slowly go through four stages.
.
1. There is no problem.
2. There is no serious problem.
3. We are studying the problem.
4. Mistakes were made.
.
As the years have gone by, the official Marine Corps position on the lack of large deck amphibs has slowly moved from, we do not need as many amphibs, "there is no problem" to "there is no serious problem" to "we are studying the problem." People are waking up. It can no longer be ignored or papered over. The Marine Corps has a serious amphibious lift problem, and the day is coming soon when the official position, at last, will become, "mistakes were made."
.
The amphibious lift issue is the foundation of the plan to put Marines on defense outposts on islands in the Pacific. The reason less large deck amphibious lift would be needed in the future -- it was claimed -- was because the Marine Corps would no longer focus on being out on worldwide patrol, but instead would focus on being tucked away on remote Pacific islands.
.
Worldwide events of the last several years have made it clear that a global Marine crisis response force is needed now more than ever. How could the Marine Corps ever have decided to focus less on crisis response and more on defensive missile units? There is only one answer, mistakes were made.
.
People are waking up. While we are still in the Mid Watch, still in the darkest hours, it is also true that the nighttime is the time for challenging. We need to continue to challenge loudly and frequently. It will not always be night. Hour by hour those already awake are joined by more and more others just now waking up.
.
Some of the people who are already awake and standing watch have written articles which can be found at the link:
.
https://mega.nz/file/BzpznbpR#nDXCu5fPGXdJvGrllwwFQz1ZxXIYMEMKxFYVw7lMf2Y
.
The entire Marine community working together will get the Marine Corps back on track. Compass Points salutes all those who are awake now and still standing watch, and salutes all those just waking up.
I don’t know who writes this but you mostly make great points. Here is one from my personal experience. While attached to the U.S. Navy Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV) headed by the President VADM John D. Bulkeley, he ordered a special review of Amphibious ships. What we found was Naval Sea Systems Command had covered up the actual cost of maintaining including overhauling the Amphibs by only showing the Navy crew and purposely
not showing the embarked Marines in the equation to calculate future maintenance and overhaul costs. Richard McPherson, LCDR US Navy (Ret)’
My congratulations to whoever put together the list of documents in the listed link. Superb reading material that should be on the Commandant's Reading List.