My grandson is a Marine Sergeant. When he was home for Christmas I asked how things were at CLNC. He complained about the barracks and the messhall. The barracks were reported to be in very poor condition and we're the responsibility of contractors who would not do their jobs. The messhall complaint was the poor quality of the food. His response was perplexing.
The Marine Corps going to Barracks Advisors is disturbing. The quality of life where Marines live, eat and work is a primary command function. Turning the command responsibility of where Marines live over to barracks advisors goes a long way toward explaining why this problem exists.
As a squadron commander at New River in 1980 my Sergeant Major and I inspected barracks weekly. This procedure not only results in early recognition of structural problems, but it motivates Marines to do their part of field day maintenance. Barracks upkeep is part of professional life.
As a new squadron commander at New River in 1980, I was also dealing initially with a rampant marijuana problem. One of my barracks buildings had an indoor passageway. Marines who were found to be marijuana users were required to move to rooms that had their doors removed. It was not long before I could no longer detect the lingering odor of marijuana on weekly barracks inspections.
Commanding officers who do not inspect their barracks and deal with barracks issues on a regular basis are not doing their job.
Well done. Further, I believe that open squadbays are in order for all Corporals and below. Sergeant earn a single room in the same Barracks. To maintain order.
Marines are always in transit, ie. Training, duty or deploying. That's scheduled deploying or national security. Staff NCOs and Officers we would visit our troops on weekends to check their welfare or personal counseling or to answer weekend thoughts they may have. Leaders lead all the time not just doing duty hours.
The sad point of this issue reflects poorly on the command structure for allowing these barracks to fall into this state of disrepair! As a leader of Marines, I was taught to "take care of your troops and lookout for their welfare". To allow this to have happen is unconscionable. This situation did not happen overnight. It would appear that several commanding officers ignored this issue during their tour of command!
Further, it is embarrassing to establish a program of Resident Advisors (RA's) to handle these situations. This is not a college campus or Air Force quarters. These are Marine Barracks! Where are the Sergeants and Staff Non Commissioned Officers? Are we allowing the Gen Z's to have their way?
I am dumbfounded by the idea of “Resident Advisors” (RA) living in the barracks. Whatever happened to the NCOs and SNCOs, the Police Sgts, and Company Gunnys that were at the forefront of making sure the barracks’s were clean, policed, and maintenance was not an issue? Where are the 1stSgts and SgtMajs in this picture? Whatever happened to self reliance when the system fails to take care of the issues at hand? Where is the Company Cmdr and Bn Cmdr?
Resident Advisors??? Is the Marine Corps turning into a college campus? What’s next, Political Commissars for every unit, oh wait, I think we have those already but under a different title!
Back around 2012, I toured a barracks, I won’t say where. The state of barracks was totally unsat! This is an open squad bay type. The racks looked like amateurs made them. Dust balls the size of half dollars were under and behind the racks.
The paint on the walls and ceilings was peeling.
I asked the Bn SgtMaj who was with us, why is the barracks in such a state? He replied, “we are in a state of war, our focus is on warfare!”
I couldn’t but help to think about the lessons I was taught by great Marine leaders. Do what is right ALL the time. Take care of the small stuff so it doesn’t turn into big stuff that you can’t handle. Attention to detail in training will save lives in combat, and so on and so on.
The Marine Corps doesn’t need stinking RAs, the Marine Corps needs focused, solution oriented, hard charging leadership to fix their billeting and other health, welfare and morale issues!
What happened to my beloved Corps of Marines? When did we move from a combat organization to a "business entity" with Human Resources rather than Manpower department. "Resident Advisors" responsible to whom? Why do we have civilian run billeting or quarters? What happened to NCO's, SNCO's our 1st Sgts and Sgts Major? Do they think their job is a 9-to-5 position? As a Company Commander aboard Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe in mid-to-late 1970's my 1st Sgt and I inspected the barracks (open squad bays) weekly and occasionally visited the barracks at varying unannounced times. I also charged the ranking NCO living in each squad bay with the "care and cleaning" of the Marines living there. As with the 1st General Order "I took charge of this post and all government property in view." These Marines, their equipment, their housing and all things about them was my responsibility. Yes, the barracks were aging with some maintenance problems, but they were taken care of by base maintenance. And to top this off we have the madness of FD2030 I fear for the future of our Corps.
Before we make changes to accession, training, or retention policies, it is critical to develop a problem statement. Is there a problem? When Marines are measured against anyone...sister service or civilian, what is their performance record? If it is inferior, how do we fix it? If it is superior, how did they get that way? What needs to change about the Marines we are producing?
The intangibles of being a Marine are often hard to define. Marines do the right things, the right way for the right reasons, alone or in concert with other Marines. If something does not enhance Esprit de Corps it better be very, very important because few things are worth undermining the team synergy. When a Marine is viewed as a mere pawn it makes him a piece on the board. Interestingly, for the last five years, the phrase Esprit de Corps seems to have vanished from the senior leader vocabulary. There might be a reason for that. I never heard Gen Berger use the phrase. A spit and polished Barracks, despite the drudgery to achieve it, is a source of pride in oneself and the unit. It is Esprit de Corps.
Unsatisfactory! Remember the SecDef was a Deserter Recently, UA for more than 24 hours. It appears we have returned to the days just after we were forced to forgive and accept Viet Nam War Deserters from Canada and prior to mandatory drug testing. What does the Commandant have to say about this sad state of “his Marine Corps”?
My grandson is a Marine Sergeant. When he was home for Christmas I asked how things were at CLNC. He complained about the barracks and the messhall. The barracks were reported to be in very poor condition and we're the responsibility of contractors who would not do their jobs. The messhall complaint was the poor quality of the food. His response was perplexing.
The Marine Corps going to Barracks Advisors is disturbing. The quality of life where Marines live, eat and work is a primary command function. Turning the command responsibility of where Marines live over to barracks advisors goes a long way toward explaining why this problem exists.
As a squadron commander at New River in 1980 my Sergeant Major and I inspected barracks weekly. This procedure not only results in early recognition of structural problems, but it motivates Marines to do their part of field day maintenance. Barracks upkeep is part of professional life.
As a new squadron commander at New River in 1980, I was also dealing initially with a rampant marijuana problem. One of my barracks buildings had an indoor passageway. Marines who were found to be marijuana users were required to move to rooms that had their doors removed. It was not long before I could no longer detect the lingering odor of marijuana on weekly barracks inspections.
Commanding officers who do not inspect their barracks and deal with barracks issues on a regular basis are not doing their job.
Well done. Further, I believe that open squadbays are in order for all Corporals and below. Sergeant earn a single room in the same Barracks. To maintain order.
Marines are always in transit, ie. Training, duty or deploying. That's scheduled deploying or national security. Staff NCOs and Officers we would visit our troops on weekends to check their welfare or personal counseling or to answer weekend thoughts they may have. Leaders lead all the time not just doing duty hours.
The sad point of this issue reflects poorly on the command structure for allowing these barracks to fall into this state of disrepair! As a leader of Marines, I was taught to "take care of your troops and lookout for their welfare". To allow this to have happen is unconscionable. This situation did not happen overnight. It would appear that several commanding officers ignored this issue during their tour of command!
Further, it is embarrassing to establish a program of Resident Advisors (RA's) to handle these situations. This is not a college campus or Air Force quarters. These are Marine Barracks! Where are the Sergeants and Staff Non Commissioned Officers? Are we allowing the Gen Z's to have their way?
I am dumbfounded by the idea of “Resident Advisors” (RA) living in the barracks. Whatever happened to the NCOs and SNCOs, the Police Sgts, and Company Gunnys that were at the forefront of making sure the barracks’s were clean, policed, and maintenance was not an issue? Where are the 1stSgts and SgtMajs in this picture? Whatever happened to self reliance when the system fails to take care of the issues at hand? Where is the Company Cmdr and Bn Cmdr?
Resident Advisors??? Is the Marine Corps turning into a college campus? What’s next, Political Commissars for every unit, oh wait, I think we have those already but under a different title!
Back around 2012, I toured a barracks, I won’t say where. The state of barracks was totally unsat! This is an open squad bay type. The racks looked like amateurs made them. Dust balls the size of half dollars were under and behind the racks.
The paint on the walls and ceilings was peeling.
I asked the Bn SgtMaj who was with us, why is the barracks in such a state? He replied, “we are in a state of war, our focus is on warfare!”
I couldn’t but help to think about the lessons I was taught by great Marine leaders. Do what is right ALL the time. Take care of the small stuff so it doesn’t turn into big stuff that you can’t handle. Attention to detail in training will save lives in combat, and so on and so on.
The Marine Corps doesn’t need stinking RAs, the Marine Corps needs focused, solution oriented, hard charging leadership to fix their billeting and other health, welfare and morale issues!
The story of the young Marine reminds me of a line from the movie, A Few Good Men: Marines fight for those who cannot fight for themselves.
Semper Fidelis!
What happened to my beloved Corps of Marines? When did we move from a combat organization to a "business entity" with Human Resources rather than Manpower department. "Resident Advisors" responsible to whom? Why do we have civilian run billeting or quarters? What happened to NCO's, SNCO's our 1st Sgts and Sgts Major? Do they think their job is a 9-to-5 position? As a Company Commander aboard Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe in mid-to-late 1970's my 1st Sgt and I inspected the barracks (open squad bays) weekly and occasionally visited the barracks at varying unannounced times. I also charged the ranking NCO living in each squad bay with the "care and cleaning" of the Marines living there. As with the 1st General Order "I took charge of this post and all government property in view." These Marines, their equipment, their housing and all things about them was my responsibility. Yes, the barracks were aging with some maintenance problems, but they were taken care of by base maintenance. And to top this off we have the madness of FD2030 I fear for the future of our Corps.
Before we make changes to accession, training, or retention policies, it is critical to develop a problem statement. Is there a problem? When Marines are measured against anyone...sister service or civilian, what is their performance record? If it is inferior, how do we fix it? If it is superior, how did they get that way? What needs to change about the Marines we are producing?
The intangibles of being a Marine are often hard to define. Marines do the right things, the right way for the right reasons, alone or in concert with other Marines. If something does not enhance Esprit de Corps it better be very, very important because few things are worth undermining the team synergy. When a Marine is viewed as a mere pawn it makes him a piece on the board. Interestingly, for the last five years, the phrase Esprit de Corps seems to have vanished from the senior leader vocabulary. There might be a reason for that. I never heard Gen Berger use the phrase. A spit and polished Barracks, despite the drudgery to achieve it, is a source of pride in oneself and the unit. It is Esprit de Corps.
Unsatisfactory! Remember the SecDef was a Deserter Recently, UA for more than 24 hours. It appears we have returned to the days just after we were forced to forgive and accept Viet Nam War Deserters from Canada and prior to mandatory drug testing. What does the Commandant have to say about this sad state of “his Marine Corps”?