Saddest of all is that senior Marines continue to tell Congress and the American people that the Marine Corps is more combat ready than ever. We know better but many others don't.
They are trading on the honesty and good will of the leaders who went before them. Their actions are shameful. Where giants once trod the halls of Headquarters Marine Corps we now have little men shuffling by.
As a PROUD former member of Command Element 26th MEU (SOC) from July 1987 til 07 Aug 1990, I'm shocked and stunned at the fact that NO single MEU is in the Med or in the Pacific at this time, due to the factors stated in this article... FD2030 has decimated our Corps' MAGTF capabilities and our reactionary capabilities to meet any challenge in "every clime and place"... the lack of amphibs only magnifies this security problem!
Until the past 5 yrs, a MEU was always in these critical AOs and able to respond to any crisis or mission within 6 hrs of the call being made! The SOC ensured this, and made our Corps irreplaceable and a valued asset in the crisis mentioned here... with 3 MEUs on each coast on a rotational OPTEMPO, a MEU in the AOs was ensured and offered assurance and confidence to allies while offering a deterrent and appropriate response to any adversaries. WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED to allow such a criminal lax in our capabilities and ability to continue this as a fulfillment of our Title 10 missions???
The current SecDef, SecNav, CMC, former CMC Berger, and their minions should be subpeonaed and face tough questioning and scrutiny by the US Congress, and subsequently FIRED if applicable and purged as necessary, while immediately implementing VISION2035 and a massive ship building blitz to reverse and restore that which has been forfeited and lost!
There are 160,000 Marines and there has been no operational response of any consequence in five years. How long do current Marine leaders think this absence will be tolerated? Does anyone think the world has not noticed? How about Congress? Who gave the Corps the authority for this absence? Perhaps Gen Smith needs to pin a note to the door: “Sorry we are unavailable as we remodel and rebuild. Grand reopening in 2029.”
With half of the Amphibs ships non-operational, I doubt we will see overlapping MEUs let alone MLRs deterring anyone anytime soon…sad state of affairs.
I certainly hope that China, Russia and North Korea remain at least one step behind our "decision-making process" regarding implementation of our small team missile units deployed as part of the literal regiments. Certainly they would not be so unfair and "downright sneaky" as to continue following their own schedule ignoring the fact, we are not prepared to do anything to challenge the Chinese. Ah well,
no doubt the secretary of defense designee, and the about to be returned commander-in-chief will overcome all the failures of Marine Corps and Navy leadership.
I wonder if CMC Smith realizes that not only has he helped degrade the Marine Corps, he has also put the United States at risk by not giving the National Command Authority a globaly ready response force. Readiness was one of the hallmarks stressed by CMC Lejeune. A fully equipped combined arms, rapid deployment force, the Marine Corps, can prevent or deter a small incident from becoming a much larger incident.
“As we evaluate the navy’s role in the context of the new structure of international relations, we need to understand clearly the intellectual heritage on which our understanding of sea power is based, and we need to reexamine our assumption about it within the context of the different international situation which prevails today.”
Opening remarks by Rear Admiral Joseph C. Strasser, US Navy; President of the Naval War College, at the 1992 Conference on the Works of Sir Julian Corbett and Admiral Sir Herbert Richmond – “Mahan is not Enough” Held at the Naval War College, 28-29 September 1992.
Additional Opening Remarks by Robert S. Wood:
“Issues to be discussed:
• Command of the sea: We are told today that command of the sea is no longer an issue, at least in a contemporary sense, and that we should assume that we already have command of the sea.
• Littoral warfare is crucial issue which we face and about which we have not done as much thinking as we should.
• Striking from the sea, and related to it, power projection, has become another issue and a crucial one.
• Forward presence is something we need to define in terms of meaning and degree as well as in terms of other names used for it throughout history.
• Joint warfare in the American context, as many of you know, concerns the several services of our military institutions cooperating together. It is always a central problem facing the United States in the conduct of military force.
• Combined, allied action is an equally important question.”
To read the published conference “Mahan is not Enough” book, at the time our best Naval Strategist recognized the US had a Naval Strategy problem. The same was true after WW1 when our Naval Strategist went to work on War Plan Orange (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Plan_Orange ).
With the fall of Communist Russia in 1989 and the successful Operation Desert Shield/Storm, the US military has been wrestling with the development of a flexible and adaptive global strategy. With the rise of the CCP, as a great power competitor, our generals and admirals “missed the boat” destine for the great power game.
Not only did General Berger ignore the US Marine Corps development process, he also ignore the history of military strategy development going back to post World War One. The Commandant could have stood up in 2019 and stated, wait a minute, before we tackle the CCP problem don’t we need a very good global strategy to provide the frame work for our war plans, budgets and technology planning? Does the US Military now have a crisis in strategic thinking? Is Chowder II a reaction to this crisis? Where is a General Lejeune who sent LtCol Pete Ellis into the Pacific in prep for a possible war with Japan? Where is a General Shoup, when reviewing the Joint Chiefs Plan to invade Cuba, threw a wet blanket on their optimism by showing a dust spot in the Pacific call Tarawa? He reminded the Chiefs that it took 35,000 troops at a cost of 1009 KIAs and 2101 WIAs. Where is a General Krulak (Chowder 1), who was escorted out of the President’s office when he attempted to tell the President that fighting a war in Viet Nam is a bad idea? FD 2030 changed little in establishing the sorely needed military strategy in 2019. "Where giants once trod the halls of Headquarters Marine Corps we now have little men shuffling by." (PVR)
…We are going from clarity of a crusade to the obscurity of the mundane, and we are having a very tough time in this country” Robert S. Wood from the “Mahan is not Enough Conference” 1992.
Criminal Negligence ! It is time for new leadership. New CMC and New CNO 22 Jan, 2025. Recall and Promote LtGen George W Smith (Ret) to 4 Stars as Commandant of the USMC ! Let him pick his team of 3Stars.
Is it possible that CMC Smith is having a “epiphany “? U.S. Military Has to be ‘Ready to Grow’ to Take on Expanded Threats, Says CMC Smith
JOHN GRADY
DECEMBER 10, 2024 3:56 PM
U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Eric Smith, Commandant of the Marine Corps, speaks during the National Naval Officers Association and Association of Naval Services Officers Joint Leadership, Professional Development and Training Symposium in Norfolk, Virginia, July 30, 2024. The theme for the joint symposium is “Advancing Leaders: Connected, Committed and Ready to Fight for the Future.” (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Enos Jimenez)
Saddest of all is that senior Marines continue to tell Congress and the American people that the Marine Corps is more combat ready than ever. We know better but many others don't.
They are trading on the honesty and good will of the leaders who went before them. Their actions are shameful. Where giants once trod the halls of Headquarters Marine Corps we now have little men shuffling by.
General, like you said earlier, they are guilty of malpractice.
As a PROUD former member of Command Element 26th MEU (SOC) from July 1987 til 07 Aug 1990, I'm shocked and stunned at the fact that NO single MEU is in the Med or in the Pacific at this time, due to the factors stated in this article... FD2030 has decimated our Corps' MAGTF capabilities and our reactionary capabilities to meet any challenge in "every clime and place"... the lack of amphibs only magnifies this security problem!
Until the past 5 yrs, a MEU was always in these critical AOs and able to respond to any crisis or mission within 6 hrs of the call being made! The SOC ensured this, and made our Corps irreplaceable and a valued asset in the crisis mentioned here... with 3 MEUs on each coast on a rotational OPTEMPO, a MEU in the AOs was ensured and offered assurance and confidence to allies while offering a deterrent and appropriate response to any adversaries. WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED to allow such a criminal lax in our capabilities and ability to continue this as a fulfillment of our Title 10 missions???
The current SecDef, SecNav, CMC, former CMC Berger, and their minions should be subpeonaed and face tough questioning and scrutiny by the US Congress, and subsequently FIRED if applicable and purged as necessary, while immediately implementing VISION2035 and a massive ship building blitz to reverse and restore that which has been forfeited and lost!
Sooner or later...we all sit down to dine on the buffet of consequences. No sweat though, the US Army and Socom have it covered.
There are 160,000 Marines and there has been no operational response of any consequence in five years. How long do current Marine leaders think this absence will be tolerated? Does anyone think the world has not noticed? How about Congress? Who gave the Corps the authority for this absence? Perhaps Gen Smith needs to pin a note to the door: “Sorry we are unavailable as we remodel and rebuild. Grand reopening in 2029.”
Except the Corps at that Grand Opening will be a missile heavy force (14 batteries) and unable to conduct combined arms operations.
Indeed, sir...
No body is home! It's like calling the police or FD, and no one answers the phone.
Exactly!
With half of the Amphibs ships non-operational, I doubt we will see overlapping MEUs let alone MLRs deterring anyone anytime soon…sad state of affairs.
I certainly hope that China, Russia and North Korea remain at least one step behind our "decision-making process" regarding implementation of our small team missile units deployed as part of the literal regiments. Certainly they would not be so unfair and "downright sneaky" as to continue following their own schedule ignoring the fact, we are not prepared to do anything to challenge the Chinese. Ah well,
no doubt the secretary of defense designee, and the about to be returned commander-in-chief will overcome all the failures of Marine Corps and Navy leadership.
I wonder if CMC Smith realizes that not only has he helped degrade the Marine Corps, he has also put the United States at risk by not giving the National Command Authority a globaly ready response force. Readiness was one of the hallmarks stressed by CMC Lejeune. A fully equipped combined arms, rapid deployment force, the Marine Corps, can prevent or deter a small incident from becoming a much larger incident.
This is a totally disgraceful.
Mahan is not enough
“As we evaluate the navy’s role in the context of the new structure of international relations, we need to understand clearly the intellectual heritage on which our understanding of sea power is based, and we need to reexamine our assumption about it within the context of the different international situation which prevails today.”
Opening remarks by Rear Admiral Joseph C. Strasser, US Navy; President of the Naval War College, at the 1992 Conference on the Works of Sir Julian Corbett and Admiral Sir Herbert Richmond – “Mahan is not Enough” Held at the Naval War College, 28-29 September 1992.
Additional Opening Remarks by Robert S. Wood:
“Issues to be discussed:
• Command of the sea: We are told today that command of the sea is no longer an issue, at least in a contemporary sense, and that we should assume that we already have command of the sea.
• Littoral warfare is crucial issue which we face and about which we have not done as much thinking as we should.
• Striking from the sea, and related to it, power projection, has become another issue and a crucial one.
• Forward presence is something we need to define in terms of meaning and degree as well as in terms of other names used for it throughout history.
• Joint warfare in the American context, as many of you know, concerns the several services of our military institutions cooperating together. It is always a central problem facing the United States in the conduct of military force.
• Combined, allied action is an equally important question.”
To read the published conference “Mahan is not Enough” book, at the time our best Naval Strategist recognized the US had a Naval Strategy problem. The same was true after WW1 when our Naval Strategist went to work on War Plan Orange (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Plan_Orange ).
With the fall of Communist Russia in 1989 and the successful Operation Desert Shield/Storm, the US military has been wrestling with the development of a flexible and adaptive global strategy. With the rise of the CCP, as a great power competitor, our generals and admirals “missed the boat” destine for the great power game.
Not only did General Berger ignore the US Marine Corps development process, he also ignore the history of military strategy development going back to post World War One. The Commandant could have stood up in 2019 and stated, wait a minute, before we tackle the CCP problem don’t we need a very good global strategy to provide the frame work for our war plans, budgets and technology planning? Does the US Military now have a crisis in strategic thinking? Is Chowder II a reaction to this crisis? Where is a General Lejeune who sent LtCol Pete Ellis into the Pacific in prep for a possible war with Japan? Where is a General Shoup, when reviewing the Joint Chiefs Plan to invade Cuba, threw a wet blanket on their optimism by showing a dust spot in the Pacific call Tarawa? He reminded the Chiefs that it took 35,000 troops at a cost of 1009 KIAs and 2101 WIAs. Where is a General Krulak (Chowder 1), who was escorted out of the President’s office when he attempted to tell the President that fighting a war in Viet Nam is a bad idea? FD 2030 changed little in establishing the sorely needed military strategy in 2019. "Where giants once trod the halls of Headquarters Marine Corps we now have little men shuffling by." (PVR)
…We are going from clarity of a crusade to the obscurity of the mundane, and we are having a very tough time in this country” Robert S. Wood from the “Mahan is not Enough Conference” 1992.
https://www.amazon.com/Mahan-Not-Enough-Proceedings-Conference/dp/096379731X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1YMD6SULQSCQ4&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Jc10bBUWbpNETuZHBpeQ836Xey8fkDJQJ4WstAUIzS0.pn3ED2dqBzXF2c7Fy2z7aC6UAMDnC08ZLkFy2OcNSxw&dib_tag=se&keywords=Mahan+is+not+Enough&qid=1733930395&s=books&sprefix=mahan+is+not+enoug%2Cstripbooks%2C1118&sr=1-1
Criminal Negligence ! It is time for new leadership. New CMC and New CNO 22 Jan, 2025. Recall and Promote LtGen George W Smith (Ret) to 4 Stars as Commandant of the USMC ! Let him pick his team of 3Stars.
That would be a very wise step in the right direction.
Is it possible that CMC Smith is having a “epiphany “? U.S. Military Has to be ‘Ready to Grow’ to Take on Expanded Threats, Says CMC Smith
JOHN GRADY
DECEMBER 10, 2024 3:56 PM
U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Eric Smith, Commandant of the Marine Corps, speaks during the National Naval Officers Association and Association of Naval Services Officers Joint Leadership, Professional Development and Training Symposium in Norfolk, Virginia, July 30, 2024. The theme for the joint symposium is “Advancing Leaders: Connected, Committed and Ready to Fight for the Future.” (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Enos Jimenez)