Compass Points - Reflection on Discussion
Better discussion for a better Corps
Compass Points - Reflection on Discussion
Better discussion for a better Corps
September 29, 2024
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Happy Sunday!
Sunday is a good day to look back at the week. This week, it is worth reflecting on what the discussions on Compass Points are for. Compass Points is a discussion site about the Marine Corps and National security. Compass Points advocates for a stronger Marine Corps and a stronger National defense.
We live in momentous times and the challenges facing us today are worthy of robust discussion, discourse, and debate. This is not a petty discussion of personalities or persons. Rather, we are at a critical time, facing critical topics. The urgency of the issues dictates the frankness of the debate.
All discussion should be conducted as a professional, patient, and polite exchange among Marines and friends of the Corps from all backgrounds and experience. Humor and wit are fine but not comments that are insulting or degrading. While Compass Points is not a forum for politics or religion or many other topics, neither is Compass Points a place for the timid, timorous or tepid. If a topic is of serious importance to the future of the Marine Corps, then it is a topic that not only should be discussed but one that must be discussed. Compass Points will strive to always stimulate robust discussion on important issues.
Those Marines on active duty years ago and those on active duty today are bound together on the same journey. We all share the same goal: to ensure the Marine Corps is strong today and stronger tomorrow.
If the Marine Corps grows stronger in the future, then all of us — on all sides of any issue — will win. If the Marine Corps grows weaker, then we all lose.
Are there guidelines for professional discussions? Yes. Writing some time ago in the Marine Times, General Charles Krulak, the 31st Commandant of the Marine Corps, reflected on professional discussion among Marines and some "bedrock principles."
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First off, it is not a commandant’s Marine Corps; the Marine Corps belongs to all Marines past and present, living and dead. It is all of our Marine Corps.
It became our Marine Corps the moment we earned our eagle, globe and anchor. It will remain our Marine Corps for the rest of our lives.
On a moral/ethos level, we, all of us, love and care for the Marine Corps. That commitment, that ethos, can sometimes be underappreciated or misunderstood. Yet it is our touchstone. We must never lose that commitment, that sense of ownership.
While some few of us at any one time may have some legal authority over elements of the Marine Corps, we, all of us, have moral authority; it is our Corps; we care about it; we should not allow anyone to make us feel that caring for our Corps and sometimes questioning its path is somehow “not our job.”
And, although some few may see this keen sense of belonging as a problem, it is truly one of the Corps’ strengths. Consider how many corporate executives would give much to have their employees think, work, and act with our sense of commitment.
Second, positions held are not career steppingstones; they are temporary occasions for serious, self-sacrificing stewardship.
Stewards live with an unrelenting sense of what came from the self-sacrifices of the past. The respect, the power, the lives and the capabilities that they hold in the present all came from the physical and intellectual efforts, and in some cases the heroic self-sacrifices, made by others: Marines, parents, teachers, coaches, pastors and priests and patriots of every occupation.
Our ethos must continue to develop Marine leaders and commanders who not only understand but, by every action, manifest that they live with deep awareness of that legacy. The veterans that made us U.S. Marines and mentored us throughout our lives provided living, consistent examples of respect for our legacy.
We learned that if Marines of their caliber spent time developing a capability, then we had a sacred duty to understand why that capability, that training, that character, that skill set was needed. We learned to seek the experience, counsel and wisdom of those of all ranks who went before us. And it was not hard for us to do. We wanted to learn from those who went before us. We wanted to be good stewards.
Number three, our legacy and heritage include hosting rigorous and professional discussions about our Marine Corps, writ large and inclusive of all Marines, all those who have served with Marines, and all who love and care for Marines.
-- General Charles Krulak, "Whose Marine Corps?" Marine Times 05/27/2022
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Compass Points thanks General Charles Krulak for his wise counsel and thanks also all our readers who served as seminar leaders this week by providing topics, articles, and comments. Many thanks!
It is OUR Corps and oddly some within the Corps, starting with the current resident of the oldest standing structure in Washington, DC, believes it is his exclusively. His predecessor trained him well, listen but don’t hear, especially if it is thoughtful comment from former senior leaders of the Corps who “have fought in ev’ey clime and place that we can take a gun.” Surround yourself with acolytes and “Yes sir! No sir” careerists who worry if their next decision will be good or bad for THEIR career rather than that which is good their/our Marines, the Corps and Country. One would not be surprised to see them heading to the front of the chow line in the field, after all they are busy people.
Thus it is indeed the duty, the order of the day to be curious, to ask hard questions and make prudent and wise comment on the current and future path of the Corps. It’s that or we don’t have a Marine Corps. That Eagle, Globe and Anchor are hard fought to earn. One gives his soul to his maker, because as it turns out the Corps has your backside firmly and FOREVER in its talons. The writer has been asked from time to time by colleagues and counterparts “why do you care, why so upset at this Force Design thing, there’s nothing you can do.” To which the reply is so simple, because OUR Marines serving today are owed that service and commitment. The Marines serving today are as important today to the writer as his Marines when on active duty. Maybe more so. “So yeah I’m gonna clime in and besides I was tortured by professionals at OCS/TBS and IOC.” Not to mention it’s easier now to be insubordinate, and say exactly what is on one’s mind. Note to self remain inside the lines of the general decorum as defined by CP! Fair to say that the author of the Cruxible knows something about our Ethos, we are different, we need to remain different and further to put a fine point on it, we can see that something as critical to our warfighting capability as the MAGTF, is a major part of that defining difference. No one has it, no one else can do it and even if they wanted to do so, they can’t because they are NOT United States Marines.
Gen Krulak's eloquence is spot-on! Lord how I miss those leaders of pre-2010s and their respect for our history and their willingness to change as needed without compromising our MAGTF capabilities and increasing our lethality as a Corps! Semper Fi, sir!