FD 2030 - Wake Up, Something's Burning

Which Building Will Catch Fire Next?

The recent Compass Points post, FD 2030 - The Adverse Impact ... Weakening the Combined Arms MAGTF, has received feedback. The post was about an article in The Marine Corps Gazette by Colonels Marletto and Baird, “The Adverse Impact of Force Design 2030 and Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations.” One particularly colorful comment about the article was received from a Compass Points reader, Fireman Forward:

Cols Marletto and Baird are on target. FD 2030, EABO, and Talent Management will absolutely destroy the Marine Corps’ traditional ability to respond any place, any time. The American people need to wake up. Think about it this way. You might be at the office, you smell smoke. Something does not seem right. Then, someone screams and you see the flames. You reach out and pull the fire alarm. As you look to help others and look for a way out, you are scared, but you are also completely confident that help is on the way.

If it turns out to be a massive fire, eventually there may be dozens of fire trucks on scene, but all you care about right then is that first fire truck. You need fast help. You need one shiny truck, well equipped, well maintained, and loaded with strong, highly trained fire fighters on board. You expect and need an immediate fire fighting force, ready to help, ready to fight, and ready to make things better immediately.

Since 1775, whenever the United States pulled the fire alarm, the Marines arrived. The Marines are America's 911 force, equipped, trained, ready to get to the crisis first, and make things better immediately.

It is a very sad duty to report, that in 2022, your 911 force, your Marines, are in trouble.

Your Marines in 2022 do not have the equipment, transportation, training, organization, or numbers of Marines to be able to respond immediately to any crisis anywhere.

The loss of Marine Corps current capabilities comes from a series of theoretical military concept papers known as Force Design 2030, Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations, and Talent Management 2030 — just call them all, FD 2030. While these theoretical papers may have been designed to make the Marine Corps better in the future, instead, they have made the Marine Corps less capable today, and less relevant tomorrow.

To use the fire fighting analogy, FD 2030 says we know which big building will catch fire. Because we know which building will catch fire next, we can just place small numbers of fire fighters near that one big building. We no longer need fast, well equipped, fire trucks. We do not need to place battalions of fire fighters all around the city. That is the old way of preparing – the way that works. FD 2030 says forget about all that, we just need to place a few fire fighters on the block near that one big building and wait for it to catch fire.

There is one problem. The fire fighting force known as the United States Marine Corps must be prepared to respond to thousands and thousands of buildings. There is no way to know which building will catch fire next. So the Marine Corps has always kept itself prepared, equipped, trained, and ready to get to the next fire fast. Where ever the next fire explodes, Marines have always been ready to get there and put out the blaze. FD 2030, EABO, and Talent Management take away the Marine Corps’ ability to respond anywhere, at anytime.

With or without analogies, the point is, because of FD 2030, when America, this year or next, confidently pulls the fire alarm, they will discover America's 911 force is broken.

— Fireman Forward