Compass Points - Valentine ACP
Two gifts for the Marine Corps
Compass Points - Valentine ACP
Two gifts for the Marine Corps
February 14, 2026
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Happy Valentines Day!
Over the years the Marine Corps has received several gifts on Valentine’s Day.
One gift arrived February 14, 1911, and another gift -- very different -- arrived today.
It was on Valentine’s Day in 1911 that the US Patent Office issued patent #984,519 to J.M. Browning for his new pistol, first known as the M1911 and later as the Colt 1911 ACP.
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Few firearms so perfectly capture the spirit of their time as the M1911. Forged in an era of industrial ambition and martial necessity, it emerged from the mind of John Browning as a deliberate answer to the evolving demands of modern warfare.
Its steel frame and single-action mechanism reflected not only mechanical ingenuity but a deep understanding of what a fighting pistol must endure.
Born from trial, refined through engineering, and shaped by the philosophy of early 20th-century arms design, the M1911 would come to define an age. This is not merely a weapon—it is a legacy.
-- Cat Outdoors
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The Browning 1911 served Marines for a century.
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The Marines are finally ditching the M45A1 Close Quarters Battle Pistol. The iconic steel-frame sidearm — the Corps’ latest (and now last) iteration of the M1911 pistol — is being replaced by the SIG Sauer M18. After more than 100 years of faithful service, the big iron’s days of riding on the hips of service members are coming to an end.
At the turn of the century, the United States Armed Forces sought an automatic pistol to replace the myriad revolvers American troops had carried . . . .
. . . The Army held a series of trials between 1907 and 1911 to determine which pistol should become its official sidearm. The competition eventually boiled down to the Colt 1911, designed by John M. Browning, and the Savage 1907, both chambered in the .45 ACP cartridge. A final stress test, in which 6,000 rounds were fired from each of the pistols over two days, revealed the Colt to be the superior weapon. When the Colt’s barrel began to overheat, simply dunking it in water sufficiently cooled the weapon with no obvious detriment to its accuracy or reliability.
-- “Marines Ditch the M1911: A Look Back at the Last Big Iron”
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Marines received another gift on Valentine’s Day when Real Clear Defense published the latest article by author and Marine Gary Anderson. Like the 1911, Gary Anderson’s article is on target.
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. . . In 1995, the Marine Corps began developing a concept called the “Three Block War” where marines were taught to be “Strategic Corporals” training them that any action they took might appear on the news world-wide almost immediately due to the twenty-four-hour news cycle. ICE would do well to study and emulate this concept.
Despite the misconception among many in the other services and some civilians that marines are dumb, the Three Block War and 4GW are examples of perceptive marines seeing trends in the world that others might have missed.
There is a myriad of other examples such as the combat use of the helicopter and the jump jet as well as the development of maneuver warfare as opposed to the more traditional American attritional approach.
Until 2019, the ingenuity of the Marine Corps has been to integrate these new ideas seamlessly into the Corps in an additive way that did not disrupt the basic fabric of the organization or its aggressive outlook.
However, when the Corps occasionally gets something wrong, it’s a doozy.
. . . This concept called Force Design, required a radical revision of the force structure and warfighting philosophy of the Corps to send small missile shooting teams situated on remote islands in the South China Sea and China’s first island chain rather than forward deployed strike forces – a global force-in-readiness.
. . . It may take years to kill or neuter Force Design, but there is hope. One of the original authors of the 4GW articles eventually became Commandant of the Marine Corps and instituted the Three Block War concept, but he did it in a manner that was in keeping with the ethos of the organization.
-- Gary Anderson, Real Clear Defense, “Real Innovation for the Marine Corps”
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On Valentine’s Day, Compass Points salutes both John Browning and Gary Anderson for doing so much to help the Marine Corps remain extremely lethal and on target. Over the century ago the pistols used by Marines were not good enough. Marines needed something better. John Browning’s 1911 allowed the Marines to serve the Nation better. Today, Marines need a warfighting focus much better than the defensive, island based, Force Design.
For the Marines to serve the Nation better for the next 100 years, it will take a new focus on global crisis response. Marines must upgrade the Marine Corps’ combined arms tool kit of infantry, air, armor, artillery, engineering, snipers and more. On Valentine’s Day 1911 John Browning provided new leadership and new lethality for Marines. Today, it will take new leadership to make the Marine Corps once again the Nation’s global 9-1-1 force.
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Patent Office - 02/14/1911
J.M. Browning Firearm Patent - 984,519
https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/16/62/9d/530f34f02afc22/US984519.pdf
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Cat Outdoors - 10/25/2025
The Full History of the M1911: America’s Most Iconic Handgun
By Aaron Basiliere
https://catoutdoors.com/history-of-the-m1911/
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Coffee or Die - 06/30/2023
Marines Ditch the M1911: A Look Back at the Last Big Iron
By Mac Caltrider
https://www.coffeeordie.com/article/m1911
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Real Clear Defense - 02/14/2026
Real Innovation for the Marine Corps
By Gary Anderson
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This Marine Corps Compass Points piece (Feb 14, 2026) is a beautiful, timely double gift on Valentine’s Day:
John Browning’s M1911 patent (issued Feb 14, 1911) — the big iron that served Marines for over a century.
Gary Anderson’s RealClearDefense article (same day, 2026) — calling for the Corps to kill or neuter Force Design 2030 and return to a modernized, global force-in-readiness that keeps the ethos intact.
It’s no coincidence these landed on Valentine’s Day. The 1911 was a gift of lethality and reliability. Anderson’s piece is a gift of clarity and courage — reminding us the Corps once innovated additively (helicopters, jump jets, maneuver warfare, Three Block War) without destroying its soul. FD 2030 bypassed that discipline and tried to radically reinvent the Corps into something it was never meant to be: a defensive, island-based missile force instead of the Nation’s 9-1-1 global crisis response.
The author’s closing line is pure Marine truth:
“Today, it will take new leadership to make the Marine Corps once again the Nation’s global 9-1-1 force.”
We don’t need to shrink into hide-and-shoot teams.
We need to upgrade the hammer — mass, combined arms, infantry depth, logistics resilience, and the ability to saturate, stabilize, and switch roles like the old MAGTF did.
The 1911 wasn’t just a pistol; it was a symbol of what happens when you give Marines the right tool for the job.
Anderson’s article isn’t just commentary; it’s a call to give the Corps back the right warfighting philosophy for the job ahead.
Happy Valentine’s Day to the Corps — may the gifts keep coming.
Semper Fi
Ripper '91
There was never a good reason to get rid of the .45 caliber pistol. I carried my personal one for 26 years even after the fielding of the 9mm which I qualified with but never carried. I fired Expert with both for decades. Subsequently I bought two more, both Kimbers, that refined and improved a great weapon. Change is certain but progress is not. The Berreta 9mm gun did not last long. Doubt it ever killed a bad guy. So, why did DoD discard an American icon for an Italian pistol? Well, we have all heard the drivel about why but I contend that females could not master the weapon nor could too many Beta Males. The Corps should have parted ways with DoD and made new and slightly improved ones. Change for the sake of change is a modern disease perfected by DoD.
Which brings us the greatest folly over the Corps’ long history. FD-2030 has been an unmitigated disaster born through deceit and biblical stupidity. The flawed logic that birthed the still born monster is already obsolete as the global picture shifted. It was obsolete before it was fielded the foundational logic had changed. The Corps got on the wrong train, refused to get off and is headed to the terminal station far from where it should be. A classic trip to Abilene. Global relevance traded away for regional impotence. The CMC went hunting for a dragon with a sling shot hoping against hope to hit it in the eye at night, in a thunder storm. His failure is only matched by the lack of integrity to implement it. He must be held accountable as must his successor. The reputation of the Corps demands it as should America’s citizens.