Vision 2035 – Help Build a Stronger Marine Corps
Need Your Observations, Thoughts, & Ideas.
Marines and Friends of the Corps,
Because you are on Compass Points, as I am, I know you want what is best for our Corps. We all want a Marine Corps that is strong today and stronger tomorrow. I am confident we can and will build a better Marine Corps, but I need your help. Would you be willing to do one specific thing?
Every leader of Marines knows, from fire team leader to Commandant, there are times a leader must give orders. You tell your Marines what needs to be done and you expect them to turn to and get it done now. The leader does the talking and the Marines do the listening.
Often, though, the situation is very different. For example, when I send out a patrol, and they get back, I do not do the talking. I do the listening. I need to hear the patrol’s observations, thoughts, and ideas. I do not need them to tell me what they think I want to hear. What is important is what they have seen, what they think, and what they conclude.
It is the same in Marine Corps schools. Yes, some classes are lectures where the leader stands at the front. Some classes, though, are seminars. In a seminar, everyone gathers around the table. The seminar leader does not do the bulk of the talking. The seminar leader listens. The seminar leader encourages a full and free discussion where everyone joins in.
The benefit of the seminar is everyone sits together, everyone takes a turn talking, and everyone takes a turn listening. In the back and forth of group discussion, bad ideas are exposed, and good ideas are improved. The key is everyone takes a seat around the table, and everyone speaks up.
Compass Points is like a seminar, a seminar on the future of the Marine Corps. For those of you on Compass Points who have not yet spoken up online, would you start? I need you to get up from the seats way in back, come down, and join us around the table. There is a seat at the table just for you. Then, once you take your place around the table, I need you to speak up. The seminar only works if everyone contributes. We need your observations, thoughts, and ideas.
Whether you served on active duty for a year or a lifetime, or whether you never served, you have been on your own patrol. You have experiences and insights the rest of us do not have. We need your patrol report. We need to hear where you have been, what you have seen, and what you think we should do next.
Here is where I need your help. Besides taking a seat at the table and speaking up, would you consider doing one specific thing? Would you put yourself on a comment quota? A comment quota means you make it a habit at least once a week to come to the Compass Points site and contribute something. Leave a “like.” Leave a comment. Agree with one comment. Disagree with another. We need your input. We need your input every week. We want to hear how you see things.
Vision 2035 is the start of a better way forward for the Marine Corps, but it is only a start. There is much work to do. Some of that work needs to take place on Compass Points. Some of the work involves your comments, observations, and insights.
If you have ever wanted to have someone hear your ideas on how the Marine Corps can be better, I am on Compass Points every day and I am ready to listen. Join me.
Semper Fidelis,
Charles C. Krulak
General Charles C. Krulak, a career infantry officer, is the 31st Commandant of the Marine Corps. As a young boy, General Krulak watched in the living room of his own home as his father, Lt General Victor Krulak, led meetings of the original Chowder Society. Now, General Krulak leads Chowder II, a second group, once again working for a stronger Marine Corps.
What I, a former Marine officer and immigrant to the USA, find intolerable is that any attempt to approach the “drafters” of this plan or to have an open discussion of FD2030 in order to present dissenting views on this issue only wind up in a “cul de sac”. Attempts have been made at MCUF, MCU, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and other institutions and think tanks to have an open discussion on different views regarding FD 2030. Each attempt to establish such a forum has been quickly squelched. This is contrary to the long standing tenets of our Corps and clearly an un-American way of dealing with a serious national security issue. This way of handling the future of our Corps only can weaken it in the long term as our Nation’s 911 Force.
Thank you, Sir for asking for our input.
I am a retired MGySgt, Motor Transport is my OCC Field. I want to comment on two things.
One, having read Force Design2030, I was struck about the lack of information on resupply, in a contested area, that is closer the the enemy’s home base than it is to ours. Call me simple, I just don’t see us winning a fight with China when the logistics piece hasn’t been fully vetted while at the same time, the Corps divested from Air, Tanks, Artillery and even trigger pullers.
The second piece, when we, retirees, do comment on other social media platforms, we get disrespected by active duty (enlisted and officers) by being referred to as “has been.”
This disrespect cause Marines like me to give the middle finger as a “has been” and stop trying to help recruit young people into the Corps!
This is my take and two cents on this topic.
I would leave my active duty compatriots this quote:
“Amateurs talk about tactics, but professionals study logistics”
- Gen. Robert H. Barrow
Marine Corps advocates for FD2030, please prove to me that you gave a winnable plan for logistics and I might start to believe in Force Design2030