Compass Points - Rest in Peace

The passing of General Gray

Compass Points - Rest in Peace

The passing of General Gray

March 20, 2024

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It is being reported that the 29th Commandant of the Marine Corps, General Alfred M. Gray, passed away peacefully at his home at 0057, today. Tributes are coming in from around the entire community of Marines.

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Although we all knew this day was coming, it has hit our Corps hard!  General Gray was, indeed, a Giant of our Corps.  His imprint is lasting!  From education to war fighting, we “sat at his knee” and are a better Corps for all the wisdom he imparted. A sad day!

Rest in Peace, Commandant.

General Krulak

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The man who said one man can’t make a difference never knew Al Gray. Rest in peace, a long life well lived. -- CW

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Very sorry to hear this. His impact on the Corps was huge, and a very special mentor to many of us. He will be missed. -- HJ

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Tragic loss of a great Marine and man. May he rest in peace. -- SF, Spider

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A gruff and plain speaking Marine whose demeanor and personality hid a brilliant mind and a deep love for the Marines he served. He was the most professional and caring Marine I ever knew. An icon for the ages.  -- PKVR

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A giant has fallen, and the vibration will be felt by all Marines all over the world. May he rest in the peace all warriors so richly deserves. -- MW

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Below, a quick sketch of General Gray by someone who knew him well.

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General Gray:

-- Never seemed to forget a name

-- I never mentioned a book that he had not already read and was eager to discuss.

-- He was known to have 7,000 or more professional books in his personal library.

-- He was a student of Sun Tzu and had read every available translation of the master’s The Art of War.

-- He carried a camouflage canteen cup every where he went.

-- He appeared happiest in the middle of a group of young enlisted Marines.

-- The only commandant who is wearing camouflage utilities in his official photo.

-- Always told you why he wanted something done and never directed how to accomplish the task.

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Early in General Gray's years as Commandant, the news program, 60 Minutes, featured him in a profile and interview. Transcript and link below.

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"Papa Bear"--a 60 Minutes interview with General Alfred M. Gray (15 minutes)

I'm Harry Reasoner and I'm Ed Bradley.

As the Commandant of the United States Marine Corps, they mostly just call him sir.

Not bad for a former enlisted man.  Not good for anyone in the Corps who doesn't think America's 200 thousand Marines should be the best and the brightest. There are those, some current and former Marines, who say they've not been that for some time. Al Gray is out to prove them wrong. If there ever was a man who believed in the axiom shape up or ship out it is Papa Bear.

1:12

Parris Island South Carolina, boot camp. Where the US Marines find out if those few good men they're looking for are hiding behind these pasty face recruits. Around here the word spreads quickly the Commandant is coming and in this service a visit from the Commandant is like a visit from the Pope himself.

1:31

[Applause]

1:36

The Commandant is General Alfred Gray jr. who as an idealistic 22 year old from the New Jersey Shore enlisted during the Korean War as a rifleman in the Marine Corps. Since then he's held virtually every field command a Marine can hold and has treated his profession as practically a religious calling.

2:06

General, I'm told that when you were commissioned as a lieutenant you vowed that you wouldn't marry for 30 years because you want to devote your life for those years to the Marine Corps. And indeed precisely 30 years later you got married.

2:20

"I don't know whether that's exactly correct. What we used to say when I joined the Marine Corps in 1950 is if the Marine Corps wanted you married, they would issue you your wife. Somewhere along the way it was said that I said I was gonna be a fighter for 30 years and then a lover for 30 years and I kept my word."

2:40

In many ways his fighting days have just begun this Commandant wants to change the Marine Corps back to what it was. Every man a rifleman, a warrior first and heaven help anyone who can't recall when they last fired a weapon or grunted their way through the mud. last

3:30

"You think that you're going to be able to make the grade? You think that we'll be able to call you a Marine in a few days? Think you'll be tough enough to be a Marine? I'm gonna make it harder."

4:13

He roams the bases trying to figure out if there are too many people with the same jobs or MOS Military Occupational Specialty.

5:06

By most accounts, Gray has inherited a Marine Corps which in the 70s had begun to move away from its traditional role as the nation's premier fighting force. As budgets went down so did recruitment and training standards. Some Marines never even learned how to throw a hand grenade. Suddenly there were too many paper pushers and not enough trigger pullers, leading some to believe that the Corps had gone soft.

5:37

Some thought Al Gray was too radical a choice to turn things around. A former enlisted men with no experience in the political trenches of Washington. Even some of his high-ranking colleagues were skeptical. You say you didn't expect to be made Commandant and indeed Secretary Webb who chose you said there was real 'blood on the floor' over your appointment. There was a brawl over your appointment within the upper echelons of the Corps.

6:00

"Well, I don't really know firsthand hang about that because I wasn't there and it really

doesn't matter."

6:09

But a lot of people thought that you were too blunt in your opinions, too outspoken, too inexperienced in dealing with the bureaucrats in Washington.

6:16

"Well they may very well be right. I wouldn't want to second-guess that and I suppose I have many faults. You obviously have discussed quite a few of these"

6:29

I think there are people who regard those flaws as advantages, maybe you do.

6:35

"I do have a couple of things going for me. I'm a good listener. I remember what people tell me with

respect to what has to be done."

6:45

Just a week before James Webb resigned as Navy secretary in dispute over budget cuts, he explained why he led the battle for Al Gray's appointment.

6:56

Al Gray had some perceived liabilities. One was that he is the roughness of his exterior his leadership style and the other was the fact that he had not had joint duty in fact he hadn't served in Washington at all since he'd become a general officer. He'd been an operational command the whole time, which I thought was great.

7:15

The fact that he had never been a bureaucrat, you thought it was a plus.

7:18

I think at this point in the history of the Marine Corps they needed someone who was what we call a warrior, a war fighter.

7:36

In the never ending Al Gray roadshow, the Commandant hits every base and every outpost, hammering home his message: careerism is out, combat readiness is in. Rote learning is out, independent thinking and initiative are in.

7:51

" There are tough hard decisions that have to be made now and they cannot be made if your Commandant wants to run a popularity contest. One of the things that that really sticks in my craw is this zero defects mentality. I have had it up to here with organizations and people who are afraid to let their people do things. We are in the warrior profession.  That's what we're all about. The people of our great land, demand that you and I be part of the premier military organization on this planet. "

8:40

It's been a rough couple of years for the image of the Marine Corps. Some would say it's been tarnished by what happened in Beirut, by the security guards, tarnished by whatever Colonel Ollie North got up to. Do you see your job as returning the shine to the image of the Corps?

9:02

"We didn't like the front piece of Time magazine with a Marine in blues with a black eye. It did a great disservice in my judgment to the thousands of Marines who have served so honorably with the State Department in harm's way for for almost

two centuries. We served a long difficult complex mission in Lebanon with the basic idea to give the people there a chance to be free. My privates first class had a better understanding of the complexities of that mission than many of the people that I've heard describe it in Washington. They knew far more than people realize and they did the very best they knew how out there."

9:52

Beirut 1983 the scene of perhaps the blackest day in the history of the Corps. Some 241 men blown away in an instant by one man driving a truck full of explosives. The Commandant then General PX Kelly came in for savage criticism for not having better security and for allowing his troops to be placed in such a vulnerable position on such an ambiguous mission. The former Naval secretary Webb, himself a highly decorated Marine says the Beirut disaster was caused by much larger problems.

10:29

The Marines had to do one thing and they did it well, with superbly trained troops.  Then the situation changed. They were sitting there in the middle of a five sided argument. When I was there as a journalist, on the one hand the journalists were saying if they add another unit this is DaNang 1965, this is Vietnam all over again. Then, on the other hand, politicians were saying if we withdraw any body that's going to be a signal that we're not committed. So 1,200 people get paralyzed.

10:58

You're a member of the Joint Chiefs, if an operation is going on that you don't think your Marines are suited for, are you gonna have the fortitude to say. 'no not with my troops you don't' 

11:16

"I won't have any problem making that kind of statement or that kind of recommendation."

11:19

Would you say, 'include us out.'

11:22

"I would be willing to say include us out in a heartbeat. In fact I've been known to say that in exercises and things like that. I go back to my basic theme, forces should be employed based on how they're organized trained and equipped. "

11:37

One of the things that makes a lot of service heads and services want to get their troops in is because that's the way get bigger budgets.

11:48

"Well, I hear that but fortunately I've never experienced that and if I ever heard something like that that was stated in a factual way, I couldn't condone that. That's totally irresponsible."

12:07

While [Gray's] machismo goes over big among his men, but in a profession that generally rewards conformity and discourages initiative. Encourages a mindless, don't screw up mentality, Gray preachers almost the opposite.

12:24

"A warrior uses his imagination and curiosity and isn't afraid to take risks or to let others try something that isn't by the book"

12:45

What makes Gray really mad?

12:51

"Tough question. I think, for example, when people in the professional arms put themselves ahead of the people they're privileged to lead, that gets my attention. When people look at military operations, military requirements and all that work more about service input than they do the good of the overall operation, that certainly would get my attention. And above all, I don't like it when my Marines the sailors who serve with us, when they are treated with less than the dignity they deserve.  Those kind of things that will get my attention very quickly."

13:33

[Music]

13:37

Last night at the US Naval Academy, where several hundred soon to graduate Midshipmen and women who've chosen the Marines, meet their new boss for the first time.  Tonight he addresses the commanders of tomorrow. The message is blunt.

13:58

"Respect those you are about to lead. If you ever are inclined to put anything except your mission above those magnificent people who ask for so little and yet who give so much, if you ever change that from your number-one priority, you have got to leave our Corps. And if you cannot make a dedicated commitment to that idea tonight and when you join us, then you should not."

14:47

Whether his back to the basics campaign succeeds probably won't be known for another decade, but in the three years he has left as Commandant, the Corps will hear plenty from Al Gray and they've already begun to listen.

-- "Papa Bear"--a 60 Minutes interview with General Alfred M. Gray (15 minutes)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxgUqP_BVoY

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Compass Points salutes General Al Gray for his massive contributions to Country and Corps. He was a tremendous Commandant and an even greater human being. Al Gray did not have children of his own. But he had a large family of Marines. And his entire family is grieving today.

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Al Gray had a special love and devotion for enlisted Marines. See just a few comments below.

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-- I served under General Gray at Camp Lejeune…never met a Marine who didn’t LOVE him.  Semper Fi.

-- He punched me in the shoulder once to thank me...still feel it.

-- I met General Gray at NAS Glenview now closed . Myself and some other Marines greeted him as his plane arrived. He punched me hard in the shoulder and asked if my mom had made anymore like me. Then he said I should be prompted to Sargent. I remember telling my gunny  but he wanted some kind of documentation needless to say it didn't happen. It was an honor to have met him.

-- Big Al was the best Commandant during my 20 years.

-- As a Navy Chief Warrant Officer I was invited to the sunset retreat at 8th and I.  Afterward I had the honor of meeting and conversing with the then Commandant, General Al Gray.  He was a warrior's warrior!

-- When I was with 3rd LAI in 1990 we did a dog and pony show for General Gray. I was a FMF Corpsman, my Gunny told me before he showed up that the General likes to hit people in the shoulder. Gunny told me doc don't hit the Commandant. I laughed and said what are you trying to say Gunny? He said doc I've seen your reflexes, don't hit the Commandant. General Gray never hit me, but we did talk for a few minutes.

-- Gen. Gray was the Commandant when I joined in 1988. He was the real deal, he had the right idea about getting the Corps back to it's roots. I think he'd be disgusted with some of the officers in the Corps now. They act more like politicians than Marines. The Marines needs a leader like him again.

-- I love this General exactly the Marine Corp needed at that time.

-- We need more officers like him.

-- He was a brigadier general when I was in Camp Lejuene, a tough straight forward leader; the troops loved him was bringing us back to being grunts cross training etc. loved the man wish I stayed in, but ai got hurt  Semper Fidelis sir.

-- This is my Commandant. SEMPER FI‼️🍻

-- Former enlisted, now Officer - that concept in the Armed Forces is known as - MUSTANG 🇺🇸😎

-- Al  said every marine is a rifleman , no bullshit he brought that back in the time

-- He was my CG of my Division in the 1980's.Definitely an inspiration to us enlisted pukes.

-- I served from 1973 to 1994. I was privileged to have had General Gray as our CMC for part of it.

-- General Gray was one of my Commandants. He was an enlisted mans Commandant. I remember his required reading list. I still have books from that list

-- Keep going General Gray.  As a former US Marine go make these young marine war fighters, gut wrenchers and ground takers.

-- I served with then Maj Gray I was at at the ASA phi bai and Gray had detachment from first radio at khe shan Vietnam. I provided secure comms for his detachment as they were trying to collect some north Vietnam+ comms.

-- Too blunt!?! Is that what Washington calls telling the truth as you see it.We needed someone like him. He cleaned house real well!

-- The best Commandant since Commandant Lejeune....nuff said.

-- I had the honor and privilege to serve under him as a US Marine... met him 4 times total... 1985-91... Semper Fi!

-- I'll bet Chesty Puller would like this guy. Bottom line, EVERY MARINE A RIFLEMAN, and the BEST  RIFLEMAN  they can be.!

-- I met him quickly after my unit came back from Operation Sharp Edge. He was hanging out by himself, walking around talking to the grunts. He is real Marine, and connected with non-rate 0311's like he was still one of them.

-- Gotta love a general who smokes a cigar!

-- What I've seen is a competition between Battalion commanders in the fleet Marine Force. Who push their Marines to be the best. However, you must have a clear mission objectives.

-- RESPECT.