Congratulations to the Corps for passing their financial audit. They have been able to balance the checkbook and know where the major end items are. Companies do this regularly — and go bankrupt. Did you write the checks for the right things? Does counting every canteen assure two canteens per man? Does accounting for rounds expended translate to rounds in the V Ring?
The intangibles are hard to measure and make the difference. I am glad that the audit went well. The Corps tries very hard to excel at everything it does. In the end, Love and War are not subject to the competence of the accountants. Both are like no other human endeavor and are judged differently. I have no idea if the Corps passed an audit in 1942. I do know what they did in 1943, 44 and 45. The American people will forgive you for overspending. They will not forgive you for losing.
Congratulations to the Corps for passing their financial audit. They have been able to balance the checkbook and know where the major end items are. Companies do this regularly — and go bankrupt. Did you write the checks for the right things? Does counting every canteen assure two canteens per man? Does accounting for rounds expended translate to rounds in the V Ring?
The intangibles are hard to measure and make the difference. I am glad that the audit went well. The Corps tries very hard to excel at everything it does. In the end, Love and War are not subject to the competence of the accountants. Both are like no other human endeavor and are judged differently. I have no idea if the Corps passed an audit in 1942. I do know what they did in 1943, 44 and 45. The American people will forgive you for overspending. They will not forgive you for losing.
The Duke of Wellington had some things to say about accounting as this letter of 1812 to the National Office attests:
I wish I would have used The Duke of Wellington letter when we taught entry-level Logistics Officers at LFTCLant about signing for equipment as a Responsible Officer (RO).
USMC power is the MAGTF with an expeditionary capability other services say they can perform this capability but USMC has the integrated team that can deploy to worldwide regions and sustain the force. It’s time for the Force Design “plan” to go back to the MAGTF and stop the focus on Taiwan. PRC is global and the Corps needs to be globally focused with the necessary equipment to accomplish the mission/s.
Let me harken back to the movie the Dirty Dozen. In a scene, Donald Sutherland, impersonating a general officer, is inspecting a platoon of Army Airborne troops. After making a quick inspection he turns to the senior officer present and asks…
“very pretty Col., but can they fight?”
That question should be asked of the current Commandant. This has nothing to do with the aggressiveness or esprit de corps of the individual Marine which is bar none the best in the world, but has everything to do with the leadership of the Corps and their fantasies regarding the survivability of units isolated on tiny Pacific islands, with no “beans, bullets, or bandaids”.
FD2030 has def made it earier to "balance the books" considering the massive loss of required assets such as all tanks, 86% of all tubed artillery, all combat engineer bridging equipment, its prestigious Scout Sniper schools and STA plts, multiple heavy lift helos and support equipment, an entire infantry regiment with all weapons and assets, and more... plus the drastic reduction in amphib shipping and support for those ships should've made our USN much easier to audit as well... unfortunately, with the fiscal and accountablity getting a "passing grade", our Corps fails miserably in fulfilling its now forfeited and defunct role as our nation's "911 Force-in-Readiness" and its Title X mandated missions... and with the new emphasis - albeit more like an OBSESSION - with deterring the CHICOMs in its prepping to engage the PLA Naval forces on remote Pacific islands while neglecting the other 95% of real-world threats since the 2019 FD2030 implementation, the Corps has yet to stand up a functioning and viable missile battery "maginot line" in the Pacific to even deter the CHICOM naval threats!
While passing yet another audit is commendable, failure to fulfill our role as a Corps is a colossal failure and will prove disastrous should the CHICOMs act on their intentions to sieze Taiwan and other hostile actions to assert their posture as a regional and global power... VISION2035 is a MUST to SAVE our Corps and restore our MAGTF lethality and capabilities!
388179. IndoPacCom reported ""U.S. Marines with 12th LAAB Execute a Tactical Air Surveillance Raid on Wake Island." It states Wake is in the 1st Island Chain [?] and describes the element on Wake as the 1st Defense Battalion, a subordinate organization of the 12th Marines.
I think you took some of that out of context. Notably, 12th LAAB is claiming 1st Defense Battalion in it's unit heritage; they are not saying they are 1st Defense Bn. 12th LAAB was formed under 12th MLR. Also, the training on Wake Island was referred to as marking "...the first of many future operations and highlights the Marines’ capability and lethality within the first island chain.". There was no claim that Wake was in the first island chain. Source: https://www.pacom.mil/Media/News/News-Article-View/Article/4045360/us-marines-with-12th-laab-execute-a-tactical-air-surveillance-raid-on-wake-isla/
Congratulations to the Corps for passing their financial audit. They have been able to balance the checkbook and know where the major end items are. Companies do this regularly — and go bankrupt. Did you write the checks for the right things? Does counting every canteen assure two canteens per man? Does accounting for rounds expended translate to rounds in the V Ring?
The intangibles are hard to measure and make the difference. I am glad that the audit went well. The Corps tries very hard to excel at everything it does. In the end, Love and War are not subject to the competence of the accountants. Both are like no other human endeavor and are judged differently. I have no idea if the Corps passed an audit in 1942. I do know what they did in 1943, 44 and 45. The American people will forgive you for overspending. They will not forgive you for losing.
Congratulations to the Corps for passing their financial audit. They have been able to balance the checkbook and know where the major end items are. Companies do this regularly — and go bankrupt. Did you write the checks for the right things? Does counting every canteen assure two canteens per man? Does accounting for rounds expended translate to rounds in the V Ring?
The intangibles are hard to measure and make the difference. I am glad that the audit went well. The Corps tries very hard to excel at everything it does. In the end, Love and War are not subject to the competence of the accountants. Both are like no other human endeavor and are judged differently. I have no idea if the Corps passed an audit in 1942. I do know what they did in 1943, 44 and 45. The American people will forgive you for overspending. They will not forgive you for losing.
The Duke of Wellington had some things to say about accounting as this letter of 1812 to the National Office attests:
https://search.app/R9Zrj15jMmz96ZN98
Col Rape’. On target.
I wish I would have used The Duke of Wellington letter when we taught entry-level Logistics Officers at LFTCLant about signing for equipment as a Responsible Officer (RO).
USMC power is the MAGTF with an expeditionary capability other services say they can perform this capability but USMC has the integrated team that can deploy to worldwide regions and sustain the force. It’s time for the Force Design “plan” to go back to the MAGTF and stop the focus on Taiwan. PRC is global and the Corps needs to be globally focused with the necessary equipment to accomplish the mission/s.
Let me harken back to the movie the Dirty Dozen. In a scene, Donald Sutherland, impersonating a general officer, is inspecting a platoon of Army Airborne troops. After making a quick inspection he turns to the senior officer present and asks…
“very pretty Col., but can they fight?”
That question should be asked of the current Commandant. This has nothing to do with the aggressiveness or esprit de corps of the individual Marine which is bar none the best in the world, but has everything to do with the leadership of the Corps and their fantasies regarding the survivability of units isolated on tiny Pacific islands, with no “beans, bullets, or bandaids”.
FD2030 has def made it earier to "balance the books" considering the massive loss of required assets such as all tanks, 86% of all tubed artillery, all combat engineer bridging equipment, its prestigious Scout Sniper schools and STA plts, multiple heavy lift helos and support equipment, an entire infantry regiment with all weapons and assets, and more... plus the drastic reduction in amphib shipping and support for those ships should've made our USN much easier to audit as well... unfortunately, with the fiscal and accountablity getting a "passing grade", our Corps fails miserably in fulfilling its now forfeited and defunct role as our nation's "911 Force-in-Readiness" and its Title X mandated missions... and with the new emphasis - albeit more like an OBSESSION - with deterring the CHICOMs in its prepping to engage the PLA Naval forces on remote Pacific islands while neglecting the other 95% of real-world threats since the 2019 FD2030 implementation, the Corps has yet to stand up a functioning and viable missile battery "maginot line" in the Pacific to even deter the CHICOM naval threats!
While passing yet another audit is commendable, failure to fulfill our role as a Corps is a colossal failure and will prove disastrous should the CHICOMs act on their intentions to sieze Taiwan and other hostile actions to assert their posture as a regional and global power... VISION2035 is a MUST to SAVE our Corps and restore our MAGTF lethality and capabilities!
388179. IndoPacCom reported ""U.S. Marines with 12th LAAB Execute a Tactical Air Surveillance Raid on Wake Island." It states Wake is in the 1st Island Chain [?] and describes the element on Wake as the 1st Defense Battalion, a subordinate organization of the 12th Marines.
I think you took some of that out of context. Notably, 12th LAAB is claiming 1st Defense Battalion in it's unit heritage; they are not saying they are 1st Defense Bn. 12th LAAB was formed under 12th MLR. Also, the training on Wake Island was referred to as marking "...the first of many future operations and highlights the Marines’ capability and lethality within the first island chain.". There was no claim that Wake was in the first island chain. Source: https://www.pacom.mil/Media/News/News-Article-View/Article/4045360/us-marines-with-12th-laab-execute-a-tactical-air-surveillance-raid-on-wake-isla/
https://prospect.org/politics/2025-02-05-pete-hegseths-venmo-defense-contractors-unitedhealth/
Although laudable, a tactical victory in Wash DC may be pyric in the real world. Ditto what Doug R. said.