Marines Aim to Avoid Postwar Identity Crisis

Wall Street Journal ^ | June 25, 2011 | Nathan Hodge

[lbryce]

The service's top officer plots a post-Afghanistan focus in the Pacific region, where Marines experienced their most devastating losses and most heroic victories.

The U.S. Marine Corps, one of the most storied military forces, is searching for a mission after the war in Afghanistan ends.

Marines consider themselves a quick-reaction force, traveling light and giving their all whether waging war or responding to humanitarian disasters. But for the past decade, the Corps has been fighting long conflicts in the deserts of Iraq and valleys of Afghanistan, requiring it to behave more as a dug-in land army. Moments in the Marine Corps

With President Barack Obama's announcement this past week that he would begin drawing down troops in Afghanistan, the Corps sees the need to find a new calling.

Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos, the service's top officer, sees renewal in the region where Marines experienced their most devastating losses and most heroic victories: "We're going to reorient in the Pacific," he said during a recent swing through bases in Japan and South Korea.

The reorientation is in part because of the coming contraction of the defense budget, in part because of the shifting balance of power in the world, and in part because of a historical fear embedded in Marine culture.

Since World War II, the Marines have fretted about being remade into a second land army or, in times of economic contraction, cast aside as extraneous. Soon after enlisting, recruits are taught of great Corps victories—at Guadalcanal and Fallujah—its most devastating casualties—at Iwo Jima—and the story that President Truman tried to eliminate the Corps altogether.

[lbryce]

FTA;Though no service commands more respect and fierce loyalty on Capitol Hill (it is impossible to think of Congress ever eliminating the Corps), current Marines note with trepidation that Defense Secretary Robert Gates said last year that they functioned too much like a "second land army" and were too removed from their expeditionary and maritime roots.
Gates, some piece of work.

[onedoug]

...in case one missed Vietnam....

[oh8eleven]

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said last year that they functioned too much like a "second land army" and were too removed from their expeditionary and maritime roots.
Marines fight wars wherever they're told to fight ... it's not like they pick and choose.
If you don't want them fighting in the desert - DON'T SEND THEM THERE, you feckin' moron.
Semper Fi ...

[a fool in paradise]

We don’t live in a post-war Earth.

There are dozens of wars currently under way and many of them have Islamists waring on one or both sides of the armed conflict.

[a fool in paradise]

We don’t live in a post-war Earth.

There are dozens of wars currently under way and many of them have Islamists waring on one or both sides of the armed conflict.

[Recon Dad]

Just a suggestion but if I were looking for something to do in the future I'd double down on the MEU’s because we're going to need troops on scene around the world just to help rescue our embassies around the world.

[blueunicorn6]

Someone’s always worrying about the future of the Marines. I think there’s a law about the size of the Marine Corps. If I remember right, they have to have three divisions. The Navy hasn’t been building a lot of ships. The Air Force hasn’t been building a lot of planes. The Army hasn’t been building tanks or fighting vehicles. I think a lot of armored Hummers and armored trucks have been built. I think the old peace dividend has already been cashed in. How many federal GS employees have been laid off over the past 20 years? I haven’t seen anything in the news about that.

[sergeantdave]

There’s no identity crisis among Marines. We know who we are. Now, people who aren’t Marines may have a crisis about exactly who are Marines. That’s your problem and not one for Marines.

We know exactly who we are. There’s no curtain, smoke or identity crisis that confuses Marines.

Gates is a turd. He can look up the word in the DI’s dictionary.

If you’re still confused, go ask our brothers in the 10th Army who stood on the frontlines and flanks with us on Okinawa in WW II.

They’ll tell you who Marines are and we’ll return the compliment about who they are.

Semper fi!

[SnuffaBolshevik]

Spread the word, brother!

But there’s always a Schmuckatelli to deal with.

[ken5050]

Bookmark

[Stonewall Jackson]

Lt. General Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr., Commanding Officer 10th United States Army - Killed In Action June 18, 1945 on Okinawa by Japanese artillery

Maj. General Roy Stanley Geiger (picture shows him after his promotion to Lt. General), Commanding Officer III Amphibious Corps, temporarily assumed command of 10th United States Army after the death of General Buckner, the only Marine to command a US Army.

Buckner and Geiger were two of my childhood heroes. My great-uncle, Rear Admiral Cletus Atkeson, USN, was an amphibious assault pioneer and had served with both men. He considered them to be two of the finest officers he'd ever had the honor to know.

[JimC214]

Geiger was also one of the first five Marine Pilots when the Corps. was starting up it aviation branch. A remarkable man indeed.

[Stonewall Jackson]

The history of the Corps is full of remarkable men (and in recent years, women). One of my favorites is Master Gunnery Sergeant Lou Diamond. Despite regulations to the contrary, he sported a goatee (who was going to tell him to shave it off?!) and kept a hutch of chickens behind the NCO quarters because he liked fresh eggs for breakfast every morning.

[sergeantdave]

Thanks for posting the pix, Stonewall Jackson.

It gives a face to the Okinawa campaign. Appreciate that a bunch.

May God bless you and your family.

[sergeantdave]

“The history of the Corps is full of remarkable men...”

Allow me to add a bit of trivia to that.

When a Marine platoon took a hill on Okinawa, a Captain in the platoon raised a rebel flag and the men gave a good rebel yell.

Here’s a picture -

http://www.ww2incolor.com/us-marines/Marine_Raises_FlagShuri_Palace.html

[SuperLuminal]

WTF?

This left-wing rag is spinning BS as badly as the WaPo & NYSlimes.

The Corps has never had an "identity" crisis...Although it might become susceptible to such an unthinkable state if the feminization that has occurred at P.I. is allowed to continue beyond the reign of our current dictator...

Since boot camp, about 60-years ago, even as the Nation slid into a socialist cesspool and the former Republic and Constitution that were it's cement were disintegrating, I always took pride in the fact that the Marine Corps would always remain the Marine Corps.

Now it drives me half crazy when I read that:

• "All" Marines, regardless of gender, receive exactly the same training;
• That Marines are combat-trained in several level of "situational response";
• That only 30% of the MCMAP is devoted to actual practicing the physical techniques and the rest is, essentially (paraphrased), learning to be in touch with their feelings; and,
• Three Marines did "the right thing" when they were attacked by two pissant civialians and handed over their wallets and let the perps walk away unscathed. (Now there is a WTF moment if I ever saw one!)

Hmmm..To steal a famoust quote: "I've a feeling we're not in Kansas any more."

[Jack Hammer]

‘...Marines experienced their most devastating losses and most heroic victories.’

Losses?

WHAT losses???