Compass Points - Shrewd Comments
Readers expand the discussion.
March 16, 2024
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Compass Points readers have responded online and off with a treasure load of comments, insights, and analysis. Only a few of the comments are included below. To share in all the comments, readers need to go the Compass Points site and join in the full discussion. As always comments have been edited for length and content. Long, thoughtful comments by Jeffrey Dinsmore, Coffeejoejava, Travis Hord, and others have been reduced to just a few sentences. But the full comments are still available on Compass Points. Compass Points appreciates the full, insightful, and professional comments of all readers.
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Douglas C Rapé commented on "Duty, Honor, Country"
It is one of the greatest speeches in the English Language. It is simply timeless. I have read it at least 100 times and listened to it 30-40 times. Not one word needs to be changed. It should be required reading for every officer annually. The midgets running the service academies today are shallow little people without a spine, heart or soul. They are in the process of destroying institutions better men than they built. They should be ashamed.
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Jerry McAbee commented on "Duty, Honor, Country"
In 1950, my father was rushed to Pusan with the Provisional Brigade. He left my mom and 3 small children, ages 6 months to 4 years, behind. My mother could not drive. My uncle flew from Alabama to Camp Pendleton and drove us all back to Alabama. She never complained. My father participated in the defense of Pusan, the Inchon landing, the liberation of Seoul, and the Chosin Reservoir. When the Marines were surrounded at Yu Dam Ni, the folks back home came to console us. My mother politely said we didn't need their sympathy that her husband was a Marine and the Marines would get back home. My dad was a section chief in 1/11. He killed a lot of Chinese and North Koreans. I am glad he is not here today to see what Berger and Smith have done to the Marine Corps he loved.
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Charles Wemyss, Jr. commented on "Duty, Honor, Country"
The worst part of FD2030 is that the former CMC and his NDA proof acolytes didn’t just attack the Corps through “Divest to Invest” and bring on diminished capabilities, but they have gone after the very “Ethos” of the Marine Corps. Something as basic as decent living quarters for the Marines on active duty couldn’t be managed. How can we expect this kind of failed leadership to contemplate, understand and live with terms like Honor, Duty, Country and Semper Fidelis? Well we know this bunch can’t. House cleaning doesn’t begin to describe the major overhaul needed to return to a fighting military. But start with removing the words “managers” and “management” from the military lexicon. You want to be a CEO? Good resign and retire and swing your tail. You want to be a leader of Marines? Well then, to quote Louis Wilson “Get in step behind me and do so smartly.”
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Travis Hord commented on "Battlespace"
. . . I would submit that at least a part of where the Marine Corps is going is back to what we have always done -be the landward element of the fleet. The US and Allies achieved victory during WW2 exceedingly well -and that allowed how we operated hence forth to take on new forms and conduct crisis and contingency missions in dominant ways, but it would be folly to believe those conditions would last forever. The current operating environment challenges the assumptions the US has been able to enjoy for decades and conditions of sea control and air superiority are increasingly being challenged in all areas of the globe . . . .
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P.K. Van Riper commented on "Battlespace"
Thanks for remaining engaged and offering your considered thoughts. The defense battalions were not drawn from the operating forces but were a Congressional "plus up" of 9,000 Marines requested by CMC. The MLRs will pretty much emasculate the rest of the Marine Corps, particularly the ability to conduct combined arms operations. 2nd MarDiv has already been drawn down to two-thirds of its former strength and, as we know, with full implementation of FD 2030 3rd MarDiv will have no infantry regimental maneuver headquarters, which begs the question what does the division headquarters do -- other than allocate forces? An additional and important point. Wake Island fell because US forces were unable to support it logistically or operationally. Midway would have likely fallen also if the fleet had not been nearby. The Corps learned a hard lesson and made the necessary changes to the remaining seven defense battalions. To date our Corps has not presented a solution to how the SIFs will fare any better than the defense battalions if they are not operationally and logistically supported.
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Rob Barrow commented on "Perilous Pier"
1. There will be attacks on US vessels and citizens.
2. There will be a “bum rush” of people seeking food at the pier and those running it will be overwhelmed.
3. NGOs picking up and distributing meals, there will be attacks on NGO vehicles and these vehicles will be “bum rushed.”
4. Hamas wants a bad situation to get worse. They do not care about meals. These are the people who build tunnels under mosques, hospitals, and schools.
5. 2,000,000 per days equals 83,333 meals per hour. 1,388 meals per minute.
6. When the pier operation is finished, Palestinians will “bum rush” the vessels seeking asylum like we saw in Kabul.
7. And more…
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L.F. Picotte commented on "Perilous Pier"
I was commander of Amphibious Group Two. Your article "Perilous Pier" was spot on. The first requirement before we laid the head of the pier down or began construction was to establish security ashore. This was generally accomplished by a company of Marines from the embarked MEU . The exact size and composition of that force depended on the conditions ashore. However as pointed out in your article that was the first requirement…
The question remains if not the Marines then who and how? It is a combat zone and a hot fire zone.
Remember the old saying,” If you want it bad you get it bad."
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Cfrog commented on "Ship Manufacturing"
Cfrog replied to a long, thoughtful comment from Coffeejoejava who wrote from his own considerable experience about the lack of major ship repair capability, "If you build them....ya gotta be able to repair them. And right now? We can't do it."
Cfrog:
We need tradesmen and we need facilities. I bet we could source enough tradesmen if we prioritized it. Would it scale without limit for optimum shipbuilding, maintenance, and repair cycles? Not sustainably...finite money and resources. But that said, there are solutions to both the 'not enough skilled hands' dilemma and NAVSEA's management. They aren't easy or cheap...but neither is the status quo in the long run. Frankly, if a backwards communist peasant nation managed to build a fleet and become a peer competitor to the US in the Pacific, I am sure the US can rebuild its Ship Building industry.
[Can the Department of Defense and the Navy be reformed? In their new book, American Defense Reform: Lessons from Failure and Success, Admiral Dave Oliver (ret.) and Dr. Anand Toprani make a powerful argument that, yes, they can. -- CP]
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Keith Holcomb commented in "Vive la France!"
Even if the Army were programming to support the Marine Corps (it is not!), Marine commanders and their staffs no longer know how to conduct offensive, combined arms operations. Rather than arrogantly assuming that the Army will reinforce the Marine Corps with assets, it is much more operationally sound that the Marine Corps will be forced to detach its infantry to work under Army commanders who do know how to conduct offensive combined arms operations. All wars quickly result in a shortage of infantry. There will be uses for Marine infantry companies, under Army command. In the same way, it is likely Marine Air will be commanded and managed by a Navy or Air Force JFACC. Marine ground and ground logistics to the Army. Marine air and air logistics to the Navy. End of story for the Marine Corps MAGTF.
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Red Eye Patriot 1775 commented on "Vive la France!"
-Marine infantry under Army command?
-Marine Air under Navy/USAF command?
-Marine ground to US Army?
-Marine Air and Logistics to the US Navy?
There are a LOT of historical “firsts” on that list. Just not the kind of “firsts” you want to have!
If Marines aren’t leading other Marines, then I guess there is no point in having a “Marine” Corps at all! But maybe that is the whole point of this. I don’t know, but maybe that was in one of the lady studies classes I missed. SEMPER FIDELIS
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Jeffrey Dinsmore commenting on "War Games 2"
LtGen Van Riper: "The whole process was corrupt and anathema to Marines who live by a different set of standards."
This is a profound "quotable quote" that defines the current age of information ops-driven combat development.
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Keith Holcomb commenting on "War Games 2"
In support of Jeffrey Dinsmore's thoughtful, comprehensive analysis:
From time to time Officers may need to be assigned to NCR [National Capital Region] to learn how it functions, but never so often and so much that in their selfish quest for promotion, awards, applause, and money that they become the worst of the NCR culture.
In Robert Bolt's play "A Man for All Seasons" Sir Thomas More about to be condemned for the perjury of his former employee Richard admonishes: "Why Richard, it profit a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world ... but for Wales!" If one substitutes "FD-2030" for "Wales" we have a most apt and relevant admonishment for some senior Marines!
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Charles Wemyss, Jr. commenting on "War Games 2"
. . . That said, one has to believe we can change it, make a difference and set the example and force this current group to come to terms and make change happen. Now, it’s Sunday, and I have to find my loyal trusty steed and jousting lance. I see some bad dudes in the distance. They resemble windmills, but the hell with that, there is work to do.
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Compass Points salutes all readers who in their own ways are building the discussion about a stronger Marine Corps. And Compass Points salutes all readers taking time to comment. Charles Wemyss Jr. ends with an allusion to Don Quixote from the great stage musical, Man of La Mancha. Perhaps the famous song, "The Impossible Dream" from Man of La Mancha, in its own strange way, gives answer to the question, can the damage done to the Marine Corps in recent years be repaired? No matter how difficult the challenge may seem, the answer is, it can!
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To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
And to run where the brave dare not go
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To right the unrightable wrong
And to love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star
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This is my quest
To follow that star
No matter how hopeless
No matter how far
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To fight for the right
Without question or pause
To be willing to march into hell
For that heavenly cause
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And I know if I'll only be true
To this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm
When I'm laid to my rest . . . .
-- Man of La Mancha, 'The Impossible Dream'
From the Halls of Montezuma
To the shores of Tripoli;
We fight our country’s battles
In the air, on land, and sea;
First to fight for right and freedom
And to keep our honor clean;
We are proud to claim the title
Of United States Marine.
Our flag’s unfurled to every breeze
From dawn to setting sun;
We have fought in ev’ry clime and place
Where we could take a gun;
In the snow of far-off Northern lands
And in sunny tropic scenes;
You will find us always on the job
The United States Marines
Here’s health to you and to our Corps
Which we are proud to serve;
In many a strife we’ve fought for life
And never lost our nerve;
If the Army and the Navy
Ever look on Heaven’s scenes;
They will find the streets are guarded
By United States Marines.”
Afraid I have Men of Harlech on my mind today as I watch Wales down 7-18 versus a hardworking Italy