Besides all the latest fanfare about the reactivation of VMM-264, don't forget that HMLA-269 was reactivated just 18 months after casing their colors. I seem to recall similar with HMLA-367 and a HMH in 2d MAW. I'm sure there are others. You don't simply turn off the spicket, then turn it back on again and expect things to be as they were. Not only are the number of shadows on the flight line affected, but more importantly personnel are too. This is not an example of being flexible, it is truly an example of Ready, Fire, Aim!
It also shows the dangers of not using an integrated and disciplined combat development process and unbiased wargames. FD divested 7 squadrons and 200 aircraft in the active force. Five of these squadrons and 100 of the aircraft have been reactivated or will be reactivated per the new Aviation Plan. Of the 100 aircraft still lost, some are in the two squadrons still deactivated and the rest are in reduced PAA for some squadrons. The same people that created this mess gave us FD, MLR, and SIF.
Since the combat development process was not followed, you could possibly say that FD was implemented on a whim. They couldn't figure out how to operate in the "WEZ" so FD was concocted. Instead of taking the battle to the enemy, they gave up and relied on a defensive concept. I wonder if the anti-ship mission was ever thought of within the context of the pre-Fd MEF?
BZ to Marine Corps for reactivation . Now do 8th Marines!
This isn't only about aircraft. It is a stark reminder that the combat development process was completely overlooked. The manpower and force structure planning process now has to do the hard work of determining how to man this "reactivated" structure. I am sure that the structure was eliminated and the manpower planning process - which MOSs to assess, how many, etc - will have to now determine the right mix. The Marine Corps cut real aircraft, real people, and real capabilities outside the combat development process and will pay a price to reclaim those a/c, people and capabilities.
History of 9th Marine Regiment, Grok:The 9th Marine Regiment, known as the "Striking Ninth," was an infantry regiment of the United States Marine Corps with a storied but intermittent history, activated only during major conflicts.
First formed in 1917 at Quantico, Virginia, for World War I, it trained but saw no overseas combat before deactivation in 1919. Reactivated in 1925 as a reserve unit, it remained dormant until World War II. In 1942, assigned to the 3rd Marine Division, the regiment fought in brutal Pacific campaigns: Bougainville (1943–1944), Guam (1944), and Iwo Jima (1945), earning high honors before deactivation at war's end.
Reformed in 1952 at Camp Pendleton, it rotated through Japan and Okinawa during the Cold War. In March 1965, elements of the 9th Marines landed at Da Nang, marking the first conventional U.S. ground combat unit deployment to Vietnam. Operating mainly in northern I Corps, the regiment conducted numerous operations, including the acclaimed 1969 Operation Dewey Canyon in the A Shau Valley. Its 1st Battalion (1/9) suffered devastating casualties, earning the grim nickname "The Walking Dead." The regiment withdrew from Vietnam in 1969–1970.
After post-Vietnam service in California and Okinawa, it was deactivated in 1994 amid force restructuring. For the Global War on Terror, its battalions were independently reactivated between 2007 and 2008, deploying multiple times to Iraq and Afghanistan before final deactivation by 2015.”……It is time to reactivate more Artillery, Infantry and rapidly acquire suitable Marine Armor/Tanks.
As of December 2025, the 9th Marine Regiment remains inactive. Its legacy includes multiple Presidential Unit Citations and campaign streamers from three major wars, reflecting extraordinary sacrifice and valor across generations of Marines.
The entire last seven years almost feels like an insult. An insult to the Marine Corps to be sure, subtext an insult to the active duty and reserves that have had to continue to operate in uncertain environments as “divest to invest” ran its course. (Not yet fully wrung out either) an insult more importantly to the Marine Corps ethos. The 38th CMC kicked our intellectual and spiritual souls to the curb if we disagreed, with he and his merry pranksters, Ken Kesey and his bus, had nothing on this group flogging FD2030. The blind arrogance baffles the mind.
But more importantly this effort of FD2030/force design/now “modernization” is an insult to the millions of innocent Americans that believe the Corps will be “ready” and able to take up arms to defend fheir lives and their right to disagree. Think on it, the very people that should want open and meaningful discourse and would die to defend that ability shut down any opposing voices. From personal experience this writer can tell you that the Smartest Guys in the room at Enron were exactly the same as the people and acolytes that brought us FD2030. They, like this cohort could never be wrong. Until they were wrong. So now we are heralding the return of the Black Knights. Great! We shouldn’t be doing so in the first place. But welcome back VMM 264! You were indeed missed!
One is reminded of infamous Three Stooges skit wherein Curly says “Niagara Falls! Moe angrily replies “Niagara Fall! Slowly I turned! And step by step, inch by inch….”
I have noticed that end strength of the Marine Corps only has dropped by about 15,000 since 2020 despite the major divestment of equipment and the troops that serve these tools of war. What specifically were these unassigned Marines re-tasked to do? Has there been a back channel increase in command staffs, marching bands, political indoctrination specialists, and others?
I concur with the writer's observations here!!! VISION2035 is the only option to save our beloved Corps and restore our MAGTF lethality and capabilities!!!
I thought this was going to be an article about getting munitions headed downrange faster with the confidence the final targeting can happen in flight.
When FD2030 was announced I had a lot of concerns. Tanks gone, along with tube artillery and engineer equipment. I was especially surprised by the cuts in Marine aircraft. If you don’t have tanks the best anti-tank weapon is either a fast mover or a hover aircraft. If you are going to make the MLRs work, you are going to need aircraft to protect (fast movers) and resupply (rotter blades) their deployments.
Forgetting about that idea for a moment, if we get into a peer-on-peer war with the CCP, IMHO the first equipment shortage we will experience will be aircraft. I was glad to see aircraft cuts suspended but I would have preferred increasing the number of aircraft. Another idea to increase the number of aircraft was to standup additional squadrons. In WW2, Russia came up to a very effective ground attack fighter IL-2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilyushin_Il-2 .
The Russians purposely kept the squadrons small to make them easier to move around. I am thinking more aircraft (F-35Bs for example) with smaller squadrons make for better distributed operations. S/F
Besides all the latest fanfare about the reactivation of VMM-264, don't forget that HMLA-269 was reactivated just 18 months after casing their colors. I seem to recall similar with HMLA-367 and a HMH in 2d MAW. I'm sure there are others. You don't simply turn off the spicket, then turn it back on again and expect things to be as they were. Not only are the number of shadows on the flight line affected, but more importantly personnel are too. This is not an example of being flexible, it is truly an example of Ready, Fire, Aim!
It also shows the dangers of not using an integrated and disciplined combat development process and unbiased wargames. FD divested 7 squadrons and 200 aircraft in the active force. Five of these squadrons and 100 of the aircraft have been reactivated or will be reactivated per the new Aviation Plan. Of the 100 aircraft still lost, some are in the two squadrons still deactivated and the rest are in reduced PAA for some squadrons. The same people that created this mess gave us FD, MLR, and SIF.
Since the combat development process was not followed, you could possibly say that FD was implemented on a whim. They couldn't figure out how to operate in the "WEZ" so FD was concocted. Instead of taking the battle to the enemy, they gave up and relied on a defensive concept. I wonder if the anti-ship mission was ever thought of within the context of the pre-Fd MEF?
BZ to Marine Corps for reactivation . Now do 8th Marines!
This isn't only about aircraft. It is a stark reminder that the combat development process was completely overlooked. The manpower and force structure planning process now has to do the hard work of determining how to man this "reactivated" structure. I am sure that the structure was eliminated and the manpower planning process - which MOSs to assess, how many, etc - will have to now determine the right mix. The Marine Corps cut real aircraft, real people, and real capabilities outside the combat development process and will pay a price to reclaim those a/c, people and capabilities.
Exactly 💯
History of 9th Marine Regiment, Grok:The 9th Marine Regiment, known as the "Striking Ninth," was an infantry regiment of the United States Marine Corps with a storied but intermittent history, activated only during major conflicts.
First formed in 1917 at Quantico, Virginia, for World War I, it trained but saw no overseas combat before deactivation in 1919. Reactivated in 1925 as a reserve unit, it remained dormant until World War II. In 1942, assigned to the 3rd Marine Division, the regiment fought in brutal Pacific campaigns: Bougainville (1943–1944), Guam (1944), and Iwo Jima (1945), earning high honors before deactivation at war's end.
Reformed in 1952 at Camp Pendleton, it rotated through Japan and Okinawa during the Cold War. In March 1965, elements of the 9th Marines landed at Da Nang, marking the first conventional U.S. ground combat unit deployment to Vietnam. Operating mainly in northern I Corps, the regiment conducted numerous operations, including the acclaimed 1969 Operation Dewey Canyon in the A Shau Valley. Its 1st Battalion (1/9) suffered devastating casualties, earning the grim nickname "The Walking Dead." The regiment withdrew from Vietnam in 1969–1970.
After post-Vietnam service in California and Okinawa, it was deactivated in 1994 amid force restructuring. For the Global War on Terror, its battalions were independently reactivated between 2007 and 2008, deploying multiple times to Iraq and Afghanistan before final deactivation by 2015.”……It is time to reactivate more Artillery, Infantry and rapidly acquire suitable Marine Armor/Tanks.
As of December 2025, the 9th Marine Regiment remains inactive. Its legacy includes multiple Presidential Unit Citations and campaign streamers from three major wars, reflecting extraordinary sacrifice and valor across generations of Marines.
(278 words)
The entire last seven years almost feels like an insult. An insult to the Marine Corps to be sure, subtext an insult to the active duty and reserves that have had to continue to operate in uncertain environments as “divest to invest” ran its course. (Not yet fully wrung out either) an insult more importantly to the Marine Corps ethos. The 38th CMC kicked our intellectual and spiritual souls to the curb if we disagreed, with he and his merry pranksters, Ken Kesey and his bus, had nothing on this group flogging FD2030. The blind arrogance baffles the mind.
But more importantly this effort of FD2030/force design/now “modernization” is an insult to the millions of innocent Americans that believe the Corps will be “ready” and able to take up arms to defend fheir lives and their right to disagree. Think on it, the very people that should want open and meaningful discourse and would die to defend that ability shut down any opposing voices. From personal experience this writer can tell you that the Smartest Guys in the room at Enron were exactly the same as the people and acolytes that brought us FD2030. They, like this cohort could never be wrong. Until they were wrong. So now we are heralding the return of the Black Knights. Great! We shouldn’t be doing so in the first place. But welcome back VMM 264! You were indeed missed!
One is reminded of infamous Three Stooges skit wherein Curly says “Niagara Falls! Moe angrily replies “Niagara Fall! Slowly I turned! And step by step, inch by inch….”
It's indecent. Just because somebody says "Niagara Falls".........
I have noticed that end strength of the Marine Corps only has dropped by about 15,000 since 2020 despite the major divestment of equipment and the troops that serve these tools of war. What specifically were these unassigned Marines re-tasked to do? Has there been a back channel increase in command staffs, marching bands, political indoctrination specialists, and others?
That's about a small division's worth of Marines.
It's almost like the last Commandant and the current Commandant have no real insight as to what the Marine Corps does or is about.
Exactly 💯... their conduct in the way FD2030 was implemented is borderline criminal... Semper Fi sir
I concur with the writer's observations here!!! VISION2035 is the only option to save our beloved Corps and restore our MAGTF lethality and capabilities!!!
I thought this was going to be an article about getting munitions headed downrange faster with the confidence the final targeting can happen in flight.
Ok, you get a green star. That was moderately funny ;)
When FD2030 was announced I had a lot of concerns. Tanks gone, along with tube artillery and engineer equipment. I was especially surprised by the cuts in Marine aircraft. If you don’t have tanks the best anti-tank weapon is either a fast mover or a hover aircraft. If you are going to make the MLRs work, you are going to need aircraft to protect (fast movers) and resupply (rotter blades) their deployments.
Forgetting about that idea for a moment, if we get into a peer-on-peer war with the CCP, IMHO the first equipment shortage we will experience will be aircraft. I was glad to see aircraft cuts suspended but I would have preferred increasing the number of aircraft. Another idea to increase the number of aircraft was to standup additional squadrons. In WW2, Russia came up to a very effective ground attack fighter IL-2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilyushin_Il-2 .
The Russians purposely kept the squadrons small to make them easier to move around. I am thinking more aircraft (F-35Bs for example) with smaller squadrons make for better distributed operations. S/F