Compass Points - Somber Pier
Rebuild before it is too late.
Compass Points - Somber Pier
Rebuild before it is too late.
May 19, 2025
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Each US military service has a different mission set, but each service must be ready to respond when the Nation calls.
Back in 2024, the US established a logistics pier in Gaza to deliver food and other humanitarian aid. While the pier did deliver some aid, it accomplished far less than expected.
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In March 2024, then-President Joe Biden announced the U.S. would create a new pathway for international aid into war-torn Gaza: a floating pier system operated by the Army and Navy known as Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore, or JLOTS. Later that month, construction was underway on the pier; but it was unceremoniously shut down for good in July, having spent only 20 days active amid equipment failures and insurmountable sea conditions.
Now, a new report from the Defense Department’s independent watchdog reveals just how ill-prepared the military services were to build the floating pier to Gaza. It found, among other things, mission planners failed to identify environmental factors, such as beach conditions and sea states, likely to affect the success of JLOTS; Army and Navy equipment was not interoperable and caused damage when combined; and cuts to training and resources further challenged the operation’s success.
-- Military Times
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What caused the pier to under-perform? A recent Inspector General report found the causes were lack of staffing, lack of training, and lack of equipment -- particularly lack of equipment.
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Between 2018 and 2023, the Army and Navy had completed major divestments of equipment the JLOTS system required, it found, including roughly half the Army’s watercraft, or 64 out of 134, and one of the Navy’s two JLOTS-capable units, Amphibious Construction Battalion 2. Officials in units involved with the deployment to Gaza “expressed concern at the Services’ divestment of JLOTS capabilities and stated their belief that the DoD’s current JLOTS capabilities were not sufficient to meet projected needs,” the report found.
-- Military Times
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The IG report found, "major divestments of equipment" led to lack of capabilities and and inability to perform up to expectations when world events required rapid performance.
For the Marine Corps, the saga of the Gaza pier should be a wake-up call. Over the last several years, the Marine Corps has voluntarily reduced or eliminated crucial combined arms units, equipment, and capabilities. When real world events require rapid performance, the Marine Corps will be without some or all of its armor, air, artillery, infantry, engineering, snipers and more.
In the past, when a Marine MEU was fully supported and augmented by prepositioning ships, the Marine Corps had the full range of capabilities that humanitarian assistance requires. It is not only about pallets of supplies. A humanitarian mission in a war zone requires constant security at the shoreline, inland, and overhead. The Marine MAGTF always brings warfighting capabilities, as well as other capabilities specifically tailored for a particular mission. That means a Gaza bound Marine MAGTF would be ready for the full humanitarian mission. The Marine MAGTF was not called on to provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza.
The day is coming when the the US will call 9-1-1 and the Marine Corps will need to send out immediately a combined arms air, ground, logistics task force to some crisis in a remote corner of the globe. The Marine Corps will have to assemble the combined force that it can and send in Marines without all the combined arms units, equipment, and capabilities the emergency requires.
Before "major divestments of equipment" make it impossible for the Marine Corps to do what the next crisis demands, the Marine Corps must begin now to rebuild. Author and Marine Gary Anderson in his article, “A Three Step Solution To Rebuild the Marine Corps” provides one perspective on what the Marine Corps should do now.
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First, conduct a real operational and tactical field test of FD. Most critics argue that it is a flawed concept at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels of war . . . .
The second step is a logical follow-on to the first. The commandant should form two more experimental units, one of tanks and one of heavy engineers to include an assault bridging capability. If FD shows itself to be the fraud that I think it is, the next commandant will at least have something to build from . . . .
A final step would be to insist that the Navy commit to a thirty-eight big deck amphibious ship fleet.
— Gary Anderson, Real Clear Defense
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Small steps, perhaps, but every long journey begins with small steps. It is time for the Marine Corps to take a few small steps in the long journey of rebuilding.
When the Commander-in-Chief promised a pier in Gaza, it was time for the US military to respond in a big way. Sadly, the lack of staffing, training, and equipment made the military’s response unsatisfactory. The next crisis is on the way. The Marine Corps must have the staffing, training, and equipment to meet any challenge and fight any foe. Is the Marine Corps’ combined arms units, equipment, and capabilities as strong today as they were just a few years ago? Absolutely not. Compass Points thanks Gary Anderson for his article on what the Marine Corps could do now to begin the rebuilding. Time is short and the dangers grow each day. Before the next 9-1-1 call, the Marine Corps must rebuild.
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Military Times - 05/06/2025
Ill-fated Gaza pier mission lacked sufficient training, equipment: IG
By Hope Hodge Seck
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Real Clear Defense - 05/19/2025
A Three Step Solution To Rebuild the Marine Corps
By Gary Anderson
The IG report on the Gaza pier fiasco is the “canary in the mineshaft.” Divesting capabilities needed to fight and win today before replacement systems are in the inventory is a recipe for disaster. The IG report simply validates what we already knew or should have known. But the senior leadership of the Marine Corps is seemingly oblivious to the obvious. In case you think I’m wrong, please refer to the Commandant’s Posture Statement for testimony before Congressional Defense Committees dated 14 May 2025 - - https://www.cmc.marines.mil/Speeches-and-Transcripts/Transcripts/Article/4186803/statement-of-general-eric-m-smith-commandant-of-the-marine-corps-on-the-posture/
The statement is full of assertions with which many of us disagree. The lead sentence in the Conclusion really stuck out at me: “The Marine Corps will be ready to respond to any crisis or contingency in the future, just as we have in the past.” How is this possible given the divestment of capabilities needed to fight and win today that have yet to be offset by equal or better capabilities? Losses include all armor, bridging, in-stride breaching, and school trained snipers in infantry battalions; emasculation of cannon artillery and maritime prepositioning; loss of resiliency in infantry, assault amphibious vehicles, aviation, and combat service support; and a reduction in amphibious shipping to a maximum of 12-14 operationally ready ships (worldwide) at one time. And what has been gained by these losses? Very little. None of the 14 Naval Strike Missile batteries are fully operational. Not a single LSM, which is described as essential for positioning, repositioning, and logistically supporting SIFs, has been built.
The Gaza Pier Operation was excessively delayed getting to Gaza and largely failed once it arrived. The Marines need to study the IG report and take corrective action to undo the damage done by “divest to invest” before it’s too late.
My concern over the Gaza Pier fiasco is that so many knew it would fail and I conclude that no one spoke truth to power. Or, were told to shut up. After the Beirut bombing many knew the attacks into the Bekka Valley at the time designated would be virtually suicidal and were told to execute anyway.
Meanwhile I see the current leadership touting USMC capabilities not in hand and no one at the appropriate levels questioning it. Show me!
“…. On rode the 600, cannon to the right of them, cannon to the left of them….”