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DEPARTMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA
MARINE CORPS LEAGUE


This Just In!!!


20 July 2010

General Officer Announcement

 

                   The Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates announced today that the President has nominated Marine Corps Gen. James F. Amos to serve as the 35th commandant of the Marine Corps and for reappointment to the rank of general.  Amos is currently serving as the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps in Washington, D.C.
U.S. Department of Defense
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)

 

12 July 2010

Another Soldier-Scholar Enters the Fray:
Gen. Mattis Moves to USCENTCOM

by Mackubin T. Owens

Mackubin T. Owens is a professor of national security affairs the Naval War College in Newport, RI and editor of Orbis, the quarterly journal of the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

The President has nominated Marine General James Mattis to be the next commander of US Central Command, replacing Gen. David Petraeus, who has assumed command of the effort in Afghanistan. This is a welcome move. There is now a remarkable military tandem in place in the Greater Middle East, one that Victor Davis Hanson has compared to Grant and Sherman.


It is no secret that my admiration for Gen. Mattis is unbounded. I have expressed it on several occasions on National Review Online and this site. I first met Gen. Mattis when he was a major and a student of mine in a seminar at the Marine Corps Command and Staff College. His  character and intellect were obvious even then.



Gen. Mattis has commanded at all levels. Indeed, Gen. Mattis is probably the finest Marine combat leader since the legendary Chesty Puller.  Perhaps as a harbinger of things to come, then-Lt. Col. Mattis commanded the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines (1/7) during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. This was the same battalion that Puller commanded during the  desperate battle for Guadalcanal. As a colonel, Gen. Mattis later  commanded the 7th Marine Regiment.

During the initial phase of the campaign against al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan, then-Brigadier General Mattis command Task Force 58, executing a bold operation to seize an airfield in Kandahar. During the "march up" to Baghdad in 2003, Major General Mattis commanded the storied 1st Marine Division.

"Bing" West and Major General Ray "E-tool" Smith, USMC (ret) in their book,  The March Up: Taking Baghdad with the 1st Marine Division do a nice job of chronicling his actions during that campaign. It was always the case that   Gen. Mattis "led from the front." He clearly had prepared his command well and it responded to his style of leadership.

His "message to all hands" issued at the outset of the campaign contains echoes of Henry V at Agincourt. "While we will move swiftly and aggressively against those who resist, we will treat all others with decency, demonstrating chivalry and soldierly compassion for people who have endured a lifetime under Saddam’s oppression...Demonstrate to the world there is “No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy” than a U.S. Marine."  West and Smith write that military theory suggests:

"that the ideal location for the general is one where he can observe the battlefield firsthand, gauge the fighting condition of his troops and the enemy,  and still communicate with his key subordinates so that he can exploit what he is observing.… By being on scene during this battle, Mattis was employinng what theorists call the coup d’oeil, when the commander is able to select and focus on the battle’s key elements. He could see that the Marines, although tired, were continuing to press forward, while the enemy had retreated into the town.
He could see with his own eyes that his troops had the initiative."

On one occasion Mattis offered some water to a tired Marine passing his vehicle.  "The Marine refilled his canteens, took a deep gulp, and patted Mattis on the shoulder.  “Thanks, man”, he said, trotting off, apparently unaware that he was talking to his  division commander."

 

Promoted to lieutenant general, Gen. Mattis, who is a well-known advocate of the serious study of war, commanded the Marine Corps Combat Development Command and served as the deputy commandant for combat development. He then commanded the I Marine Expeditionary Force and served as the commander of U.S. Marine Forces Central Command.

In February of 2005, Gen. Mattis got himself into a bit of pickle. Ignoring the old adage that says "never miss an opportunity to shut up," General Mattis made some
Patton-like statements at a meeting of Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association in San Diego, commenting that "It’s fun to shoot some people." Those who got the vapors over Gen. Mattis’ remarks missed the point: he was not saying it is "a hoot" to kill everyone, but only those kinds of people who, as they say in Texas,
"need killin." We used to understand the distinction. Fortunately for the country, the furor blew over and we were not deprived of his future service.

Gen. Mattis is currently the commander of US Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM), where one of his major responsibilities has been "force planning," which attempts to answer the question: what decisions need to be made today about what our forces will look like in the future—one that may or may not resemble the present? In Gen. Mattis case the inherent
difficulty of force planning was exacerbated by the fact that these decisions had to be made while we were in the midst of a war.

 

As a seasoned operational commander who had fought the kind of wars we are likely  to have to fight in the future, Gen. Mattis helped to break the "technology-as-panacea" culture that had long dominated JFCOM. He is a vocal critic of what he sees as the unchallenged assumptions of much contemporary defense planning. He has argued against those who believe that technology provides a cure-all for America’s security problems.  He has denounced the idea, advanced by some prominent commentators on security issues,
that advances in technology have "changed the very nature of war." He has always placed the human element of war at the center of his thinking about war.  This background makes Gen. Mattis an excellent choice for this important position. Of course, the challenges he faces are daunting. Perhaps in taking the CENTCOM position, he is ignoring the axiom that one "should never pet a burning dog." But he, like Gen. Petraeus, represents the epitome of the thinking general, the true "soldier-scholar." If anyone can extinguish the "burning dog" that Afghanistan represents, this team can.


21 June 2010

Next Marine Commandant Must Resolve Frictions With Navy Over Missions And Money

Author:  Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D.
Date:  Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Initial reaction to the selection of aviator James Amos as the next Commandant of the Marine Corps has been almost entirely positive. There is also much support for the apparent decision to make the charismatic Joe Dunford Assistant Commandant. Some insiders suspect that Amos will serve for two years and then the younger Dunford will move up to the top job, although a lot can happen in two years. Perhaps, though, people should be paying more attention to the role Navy Secretary Ray Mabus played in blocking the more
forceful and outspoken Gen. James Mattis from being named to the Commandant's position. Mattis, as Greg Jaffe noted in the Washington Post yesterday, "is widely considered one of the military's best minds when it comes to waging war on insurgents." 

So why wasn't Mattis chosen, given the fact that defense secretary Robert Gates believes counterinsurgency warfare is the wave of the future? The main reason probably was that political appointees didn't think they could control him at a time when they are trying to redefine the role of the Marine Corps. Policymakers are openly questioning the relevance of
amphibious warfare to future strategy, and trying to water down the requirements of "forcible entry" -- capabilities that are at the core of the modern Marine identity. The cover story for these changes is that Iraq and Afghanistan have taught the joint force lessons that the Marine Corps must assimilate, but the real story is that the Navy doesn't want to spend all
the money needed to field a robust expeditionary warfare capability. Among other things, the Corps wants about 38 amphibious warships, more robust surface fire support, greatly enhanced vertical agility in its air wings, and a more versatile landing vehicle. 

The Navy doesn't want to buy hardly any of this. Its future force posture supplies about 20 percent fewer amphibious warships than Marine planners say they need. The DDG-1000 destroyer, which was designed around long-range guns that could deliver sustained rates of precision fire, will be terminated at a mere three hulls. Navy aviators have been bad-mouthing the Marine vertical-takeoff version of the F-35 joint strike fighter since it was first conceived. And the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle that would revolutionize
ship-to-shore landings has been targeted for termination by the Navy secretary. In sum, the Navy leadership is opposed to much of what Marine leaders say they need for the future. 

In fairness to those Navy leaders, there are legitimate questions about how successful future amphibious landings can be against well-armed adversaries.  The advent of precision munitions and networked warfare has made opposed landings a tougher mission than they used to be. But the larger story is that there is chronic disagreement between the Navy and the Marine Corps about budget priorities, with the Navy preferring to fund what used to be called capital ships over amphibious systems. It's handy to have the Marines
around when politicians question the relevance of the Fleet to future warfare, but that doesn't mean that admirals are willing to give up a couple of aircraft carriers to keep them happy. So General Amos will have his hands full trying to defend Marine Corps priorities against a Navy Department leadership that would prefer to spend increasingly scarce budget dollars in
other ways. 

Loren B. Thompson, Ph.D.
<http://www.lexingtoninstitute.org/main.asp?page=1241> ;


7 June 2010

Proposed Changes to the NATIONAL Marine Corps League Bylaws for 2010

Click Here to View
This is a very large file (7MB), if you do not have high speed access it may take a very long time to download!

08 March 2010

From: Executive Director
Date: Wed, 3 Mar 2010 14:47:42 -0500
Subject: R. Lee Ermey Takes D.C. By Storm With Our Cause! www.marinecause.com

 

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R. Lee Ermey Takes D.C. By Storm With Our Cause!

2010 . 03 . 05

R. Lee Ermey Takes D.C. By Storm With Our Cause!


Flickr Photo Gallery

R. Lee Ermey and the Marine Corps League held a successful press conference and rally Feb. 25 in Washington D.C. Hundreds of attendees came to support the Marine Corps Identity Cause which supports legislation in the Congress to change the name of the Department of the Navy to the Department of the Navy and Marine Corps. Other speakers included Congressman Walter Jones, Senator Pat Roberts, General Anthony Zinni, General Alfred Gray, Sgt. Eddie Wright, Dick Linn, Tracy Della Vecchia, and Michael Blum.



 

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