Compass Points - The Higher Fight
Congress reads Marine article.
Compass Points - The Higher Fight
Congress reads Marine article.
June 17, 2024
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This past Saturday, Real Clear Defense published a powerful article from two Marine leaders, General Walter Boomer and General James Conway. The article is a blunt warning that the Marine Corps needs to rethink the direction it is going. The article concludes by calling for help from Congress.
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Force Design is an operational and strategic dead end. It invites defeat in detail. But even worse, renders the Marine Corps irrelevant because it offers virtually nothing to combatant commanders in a full spectrum war against a determined enemy.
The national defense desperately needs Marine Corps leadership and members of Congress to speak up and help rebuild Marine Corps capabilities to fight any foe, anywhere, and win. The American people deserve no less.
-- General Boomer and General Conway, Real Clear Defense
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It looks like Congress may be getting the message. The news service "Morning Recon" a morning news feed for Congressional offices, featured General Boomer and General Conway's article as the lead article. In addition, the web service, Real Clear Politics, which is 'must-read' in Congress, lists the Boomer and Conway article as one of the critical articles that should be read by those in Congress.
The article provides Congress with a frank insight into the "First Cause" of the decline in Marine capabilities.
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To reiterate, the “first cause” in crippling the Marine Corps as the nation’s 911 force was the lack of operational competence by some senior leaders. These generals are focused on Stand-in Forces and Marine Expeditionary Units - - small unit formations that lack an offensive punch or staying power. They neglect the larger Marine Expeditionary Brigades and Marine Expeditionary Forces, which can conduct “single battle” operations in support of a combatant commander against a determined enemy with peer or near peer level capabilities at major theater of war levels.
We do not intend to imply that the entire generation of current and recently retired senior Marine Corps leaders are operationally incompetent because we know several who display exceptional competence.
-- General Boomer and General Conway, Real Clear Defense
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The point is that the Marine Corps must find leaders with a deep understanding of the importance of Operational Level Combined Arms. When Marine leaders narrow their focus to scattering small units of Marines on isolated Pacific islands, and even when they focus on only small Marine Expeditionary Units, those leaders are literally missing the bigger picture. The Nation needs a Marine Corps with the units, equipment, and capabilities to conduct global Operational Level Combined Arms.
General Boomer was the Commander Marine Corps Forces Central Command and Commanding General I MEF during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.
General Conway was the Commanding General I MEF during the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the First Battle of Fallujah.
General Boomer and General Conway directed massive Marine forces in Operational Level Combined Arms. These are the higher fights the Marine Corps must be prepared to fight. Should deterrence fail against peer or near peer adversaries like China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, the fight may become like the current fighting in Ukraine, massive, mechanized, and messy. Congress needs to make sure the Marine Corps, once again, has the capabilities and the leaders to fight, Operational Level Combined Arms.
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Real Clear Defense - 06/15/2024
Force Design 2030: Operational Incompetence
Dangerously Crippled America’s Expeditionary Force-in-Readiness
By Walter Boomer and James Conway
General Walter (Walt) Boomer, USMC (Ret) is a career infantry officer. He was the Commander Marine Corps Forces Central Command and Commanding General I MEF during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. His last assignment was the 24th Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps.
General James (Jim) Conway, USMC (Ret) is a career infantry officer. He was the Commanding General I MEF during the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the First Battle of Fallujah. His last assignment was the 34th Commandant of the Marine Corps.
Having served in Mike Company 3/2 when General Conway was CO of Kilo Company I tell you first hand how COMPETENT he was and probably still is, and if he says that there are senior “leaders” aka this hopeless lot of poor “managers”, are incompetent than they are INCOMPETENT. This is years in the making, they didn’t just wake up as General officers that can’t direct the digging of a fighting hole or create fields of fire, canalize avenues of approach, they can’t see the big “stuff” either. If your perspective was deep reconnaissance and drone strikes and just tolerated the straight leg infantry and the power of combined arms it’s seems easy to be swept up in the hand jive of foggy bottom and the puzzle palace nonsense. That Congress let this blizzard of BS continue is equally telling. Where were the JCS? The Chair of the JCS. Where were the combatant commanders? Don’t bother answering. They were UA.
There is practically no one that comments frequently that would not jump right in to help if called.
If there is traction to reversing the damage done with FD2030 then it seems like a good time to push harder. Like in pugul stick fighting once you have the opponent on his heels you keep attacking and attacking until the whistle blows. Haven’t heard a whistle yet….
If there is a change of administration this November then among other things the new president should request the wholesale resignation of all senior Marine Corps officers who are proponents of FD 2030. Resignation is the only option. They are beyond redemption! We need officers who cam and will rebuild the Marine Corps. Getting back all that was discarded will be a herculean task. This in conjunction with rebuilding our amphibious fleet. FD 2030 is as dead as DEI.