SINCE 23 FEBRUARY 1945 - A REAL BRIEF HISTORY OF THE U. S. MARINE CORPS

SINCE 23 FEBRUARY 1945 - A REAL BRIEF HISTORY OF THE U. S. MARINE CORPS

By Andy Weddington

Tuesday, 23 February 2021

All war is based on deception. - Sun Tzu

Seventy-six years ago this date on a spit of land called Iwo Jima a detail of six combat hardened U. S. Marines raised the American flag atop Mount Suribachi (though combat operations continued for weeks), and an unscripted split-second of planting that flag-topped pole was fortuitously captured, on film, by photographer Joe Rosenthal.

Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal opined that impromptu turned epic forever frozen moment meant a Marine Corps for the next 500 years.

A mere thirty-one years later Marine Corps commandant, General Louis Wilson - World War II veteran awarded the Medal of Honor - was on the hot seat and testified passionately before Congress his plan to end recruit abuse. Without recruit training, believed General Wilson, there'd be no Marine Corps. 

General Wilson and his successor, General Robert Barrow, saved, literally, the Marine Corps.

A mere 15 years after General Wilson's appearance before Congress, now retired General Barrow testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee that women in combat was a bad idea. His bottom line (an infantryman who held command in three wars): The Marine Corps would be destroyed (something no enemy had  been able to do). 

Marine Corps recruit training, genders segregated, not only survived but improved, as did the Corps reputation and warfighting prowess.

Not two years later, for controversial personnel policies addressing homosexuality, the late Colonel Art Corbett, USMC (while a major and student at the Naval War College) wrote a timeless classic - Disband the Marine Corps. 

General Barrow, through handwritten one-word note, cheered: Bravo!

Six years after General Barrow's testimony and four years after Major Corbett's 'case the color' recommendation, Assistant Secretary of the Army Sara Lister said ...

"I think the Army is much more connected to society than the Marines are ... The Marines are extremists. Whenever you have extremists, you've got the risk of total disconnection from society, and that's a little dangerous."

First offered opportunity to retract, she refused. 

Mounting pressure forced apology. Then she was done. 

I recall Lister's disparaging comments and have memory of a senior Marine, when hearing of her intended insult, thanking her for the compliment. 

Nine years later I retired. From oath in 1979 to retirement in 2006 serving as reserve and active Marine, the Marine Corps was the Marine Corps. And because of my life-changing experiences, at my retirement I encouraged a nephew to enlist (he did within weeks too becoming an infantryman and serving two combat tours). 

Two years later, under President Obama, came change. Big changes. 

Open homosexuality. No more ground combat exclusion for females. Integrated entry-level training. Etc. 

Heavy was the political lean on the Marine Corps.

The resistant voices of battle-tested Marines - male and female and all ranks - ignored.

The Marine Corps, and not just culture, was changing. Much not recognizable to older Marines. Some decided, for lack of credibility, no longer could they in good conscience recommend service as the experiences today so different from theirs.

Oh, and athletes, supposed role models, take a knee during the national anthem - flag-raising; disrespectful in the eyes of veterans and patriots. And an angry retired battle-tested Marine colonel, who buried some of his wonderful Marines, penned a blistering letter to the NFL commissioner. It went viral. Still his powerhouse letter circles in social media and news. 

At present, female recruits, once trained only at Recruit Depot Parris Island, are being trained at Recruit Depot San Diego. 

That recent news on Twitter was not enthusiastically endorsed by all in the citizenry. Rather than welcome and consider the citizenry's (who they serve and protect and recruit from) voice, the Marine Corps disabled public comment. That action as stunning as disturbing from argument of courage to free speech. Not so Marine like, certainly. Disappointing.   

Now there is ongoing efforts at the Department of Defense (DoD) to inject Critical Race Theory, purge "extremism" from the force, and the Navy is introducing some sort of new oath or pledge of inclusion (to be fair, as I understand though for being swamped with higher priorities, the particulars on any of these and other matters there's no time to familiarize and digest). 

So here we are four hundred twenty-four years short of Secretary Forrestal's forecast and the pragmatic wonder. 

Some concerned believe the Marine Corps dead. 

A military has one purpose. To win fights - after all means other than fighting fail. That's it. Win fights!

As luck would have it I'm reading Philip Gerard's 'Secret Soldiers - How a Troupe of American Artists, Designers, and Sonic Wizards won World War II's Battles of Deception Against the Germans'

Is the sitting Commandant of the Marine Corps efforts of purging combat power - tanks, artillery, aircraft, and Congress's efforts to fully integrate females (despite science and field testing validating bad idea) into all training and forces, and DoD breaking-from-traditional personnel policies but one big masterful deception to lure enemies into a trap?

If so, it's the most comprehensive slight-of-hand strategy conceived (and being carried out) in the history of warfare or movie-making; Sun Tzu seeming an amateur. 

Will today's Marine Corps be relevant tomorrow?

Will the Department of Defense, when all other means fail, win? 

For certain the next war will sort it all out.  

And as victors do, the culminating event will be a flag-raising. 

Maybe a descendent of Rosenthal will capture; timing is everything.