Compass Points - Week in Review
Discussing drones and more.
February 25, 2024
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Happy Sunday!
Sunday is a good day to look back at the week. We started on Monday commemorating the 79th anniversary of the Marine landing on Iwo Jima. Later in the week, we discussed artillery, drones, South Korea, and a critical report the Marine Corps is required to submit to Congress. In all, it was a week of particularly good discussion.
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Monday 19 Feb – Anniversary 79
The Japanese were well dug in on Iwo Jima and the pre-landing naval bombardment had little effect. The island would need to be won inch by inch. It was the beginning of weeks of bloody fighting that were not completed until 26 March. The Marines suffered 26,000 casualties, including 6,000 KIA.
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Tuesday 20 Feb – Drone Cult
In his powerful article, "Cult of the drone: At the two-year mark, UAVs have changed the face of war in Ukraine – but not outcomes" Professor Paul Lushenko reveals that in Ukraine, both sides are using enormous numbers of drones.
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Wednesday 21 Feb – King of Battle
For decades, Marines have called artillery the King of Battle. The fighting in Ukraine shows that the King still wears his crown. By some reports, most causalities in Ukraine on both sides are caused by artillery.
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Thursday 22 Feb – MAGTF Drones
Professor Lushenko went on to say, that as powerful as drones are, for strategic results, "countries must rely on time-tested combined arms maneuver." Professor Lushenko's article stimulated much good discussion on Compass Points and beyond (comments have been edited for length and content).
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Friday 23 Feb – Still Wondering
The wargames that supposedly undergird Force Design have been exposed. In addition, the Congress is requiring a special report from the Marine Corps. That leaves Compass Points still wondering about both topics.
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Saturday 24 Feb – South Korea
It was a surprise in 1950 when North Korea attacked. Somewhere today, a similar enemy force is plotting a surprise attack on one of the US allies. When that new attack comes, the nation that is attacked, the US, and the world will once again ask, "Where are the Marines?"
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Compass Points appreciates all the great discussion this week and thanks all our readers who served as seminar leaders this week by providing topics, articles, and comments. Many thanks!
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One Compass Points reader, Samuel Whittemore, sent in a reminder about the eulogy given by Rabbi Gittelsohn after the fighting on Iwo Jima. On 21 March 1945, Rabbi Roland Gittelsohn helped dedicate the 5th Marine Division cemetary on Iwo Jima. Rabbi Gittelsohn was the first Jewish Chaplain assigned to the Marine Corps and his eulogy was the first time a non-Christain clergyman gave a Marine cemetery eulogy. Although he was a devout pacifist, Gittelsohn joined the military, stating that World War II was “a just war.” Rabbi Gittelsohn’s eulogy became one of the most reprinted and repeated religious eulogies of its time.
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Rabbi Gittelsohn:
This is perhaps the grimmest, and surely the holiest task we have faced since D-Day. Here, before us lie the bodies of comrades and friends. Men who until yesterday or last week laughed with us, joked with us, trained with us. Men who were on the same ships with us, and went over the sides with us as we prepared to hit the beaches of this island. Men who fought with us and feared with us.
Somewhere in this plot of ground there may lie the man who could have discovered the cure for cancer. Under one of these Christian crosses, or beneath a Jewish Star of David, there may rest now a man who was destined to be a great prophet --- to find the way, perhaps, for all to live in plenty -- with poverty and hardship for none.
Now they lie here silently in this sacred soil, and we gather to consecrate this earth in their memory. It is not easy to do so. Some of us have buried our closest friends here. We saw these men killed before our very eyes. Any one of us might have died in their places. Indeed, some of us are alive and breathing at this very moment only because men who lie here beneath us had the courage and strength to give their lives for ours. To speak in memory of such men as these is not easy.
Of them too can it be said with utter truth: “The world will little note nor long remember what we say here. It can never forget what they did here.” No, our poor power of speech can add nothing to what these men and the other dead who are not here have already done. All that we even hope to do is follow their example. To show the same selfless courage in peace that they did in war. To swear that by the grace of God and the stubborn strength and power of human will, their sons and ours shall never suffer these pains again.
These men have done their job well. They have paid the ghastly price of freedom. If that freedom be once again lost, as it was after the last war, the unforgivable blame will be ours, not theirs. So it is we the living who are here to be dedicated and consecrated. Too much blood has gone into this soil for us to let it lie barren. Too much pain and heartache have fertilized the earth on which we stand. We here solemnly swear: This shall not be in vain! Out of this, and from the suffering and sorrow of those who mourn this, will come --- we promise --- the birth of a new freedom for the sons of men everywhere.
-- Rabbi Roland B. Gittelsohn, Dedication of the 5th Marine Division Cemetery, Iwo Jima. 21 March 1945