Who can save the Marine Corps?

On November 10, 2024, we celebrated the 249^th birthday of the Marine Corps. Marines around the world gathered and sang “From the Halls of Montezuma To the shores of Tripoli, We fight our country’s battles In the air, on land, and sea.  First to fight for right and freedom….”   Familiar lyrics to many, but are they relevant today? The simple answer, No.

In 2020, with the implementation of Force Design 2030 (now called Force Design) coupled with the Marine Corps’ abdication of its amphibious ship lift requirement, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, General Berger, effectively neutered the Corps’ capabilities to be a global response force.   General Berger’s Force Design divested (cut) 21% of the personnel in infantry battalions, 100% of the tanks, 67% of the cannon artillery batteries, 33% of the assault amphibious companies, more than 25 % of Marine aviation, and almost all assault breaching equipment in the active forces.

These “divestments” were made to “invest” in reorganizing and restructuring the Marine Corps to focus primarily on one geographic theater (Indo-Pacific) and one enemy, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). Is it wise to primarily focus on one enemy? Former Senator and Secretary of the Navy Jim Webb wrote “There is no greater danger in military strategy than shaping a nation’s force structure to respond to one specific set of contingencies, giving an adversary the ability to adjust and adapt beforehand.”

Under Force Design, the Marine Corps supports the Joint Force Commander with Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations (EABO) by placing small teams of Marines (Stand-in-Forces) on islands with missiles in order to deter or sink ships.  When Newt Gingrich read what the Marine Corps was doing, he challenged Congress to take action.  Others have challenged Force Design with an alternative approach, Vision 2035, which is designed to meet the Marine Corps’ future challenges while retaining the strengths of the Marine Air Ground Task Force (MAGTF).

Force Design has gutted the Corps’ combined arms capability to support the Combatant Commanders in the air, on land, and sea. The Marine Corps is not organized to meet its statutory requirement found in Title 10 USC 8063.  Additionally, the “United States Marines are no longer capable of responding to global crises and contingencies quickly and ­effectively, and in some cases, at all” and are at risk of losing their moniker “First to Fight”.   If you have a bumper sticker “U.S.M.C. America’s 911” scrape it off. Force Design has achieved what our enemies could not, put the Marine Corps on the path to irrelevancy but more importantly has put our National Security in jeopardy.

We are now five years into the Corps’ experiment with Force Design and have a new Commandant at the helm, General Smith. How does he see Force Design? In his statement on the posture of the Marine Corps before the Senate Appropriations Committee on 16 April 2024, he wrote: “I remain fully committed to Force Design and all its supporting efforts.”

One can only conclude from General Smith’s testimony that he has no intention of changing course. What is the way ahead? We need new leadership, and we have been here before.

In August 2019, 2ndLt Rykar Lewis, USMC, wrote “SAVIORS OF THE CORPS: Generals Louis H. Wilson Jr. and Robert H. Barrow.”   “In the span of eight years, Generals Wilson and Barrow completed their goal of saving the Marine Corps from the post-Vietnam War slump. They inherited an organization in desperate trouble, polished it, and returned it to its former glory. Virtually every level of the Corps transformed, from recruiting efforts all the way to the role of the Commandant. The roles and capabilities of the Marine Corps were re-examined and bolstered to meet the demands of the Cold War.”

Who will be the Corps’ next Wilson and Barrow? The future change in President offers the opportunity to select new leaders for the Secretary of Defense and Secretary of the Navy. These leaders can drive change in the Marine Corps by nominating leaders whose sole focus is on returning to the nation America’s 911 Force.

Who will save the Marine Corps, the U.S. Congress. The new question, will they?

Stephen Baird is a retired Marine Colonel. He served as the Chief of Staff for the 1^st Marine Division followed by his last assignment as the Chief of Staff for U.S Marine Corps Forces Command during Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

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