MAKING MARINE GENERALS
By Andy Weddington
Tuesday, 25 June 2024
The opposite for courage is not cowardice, it is conformity. Even a dead fish can go with the flow. - Jim Hightower
We Make Marines ...
proclaims sign aboard Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island.
I suppose there's comparable sign aboard the depot in San Diego.
There's ongoing debate as to whether or not Marines are being made the way they used to be.
That will always be the case so no comment; though for three years forty years ago I supervised drill instructors making Marines aboard Parris Island, and visited San Diego for two weeks.
A day or so ago I finished reading a book my wife stumbled upon in a back street bookstore in Beaufort, SC.
A find by any definition of the word.
Published in 2006, author Dick Camp wrote about the careers of five Marines - generals Lem Shepherd, Eddie Craig, Roy Geiger, Ray Davis, Bob Barrow.
'Leatherneck Legends'
is book title and the names absolutely etched in Corps history.
Terrific book!
How to summarize?
To me a common thread through the five - obedience, necessarily, did not make them the leaders, battle-tested and hardened at that, and icons they became.
One, as captain, in the middle of a gunfight turned off his radio as to disregard stupid orders from the chain of command.
The seniors, not on scene, clueless.
The captain was right.
Three ranks later the same officer, to engage the enemy, ordered his unit into a country understood to be off-limits.
Seniors, learning of the action and angered, opined they'd believed the officer had a future in the Marine Corps.
The colonel was right.
And he did have a future.
And there's example after example throughout the book of the five, for being on scene, knowing what was right and boldly making a decision.
Courage.
Moral and physical courage.
Sometimes disobedient.
I'll not spoil the book.
Throughout reading and since finishing, the fishing question ...
Do we still make Marine generals the way we used to?
Well, gentlemanly, rewarding courage and conformity does not temper the same quality steel.
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4 comments:
Great question. Do we make Marine Generals like we used to. I would say, with certainty that we don’t. What we are turning out are generals who are politicians first and foremost. We are turning out officers who lack in integrity, honesty, self discipline. Heck, on an almost monthly basis we read about senior officers to include flag offices relieved, getting courtmartialed for personal improprieties or unprofessional conduct. What we need are warrior generals who accept responsibility for their Marines be it the good, the bad or the ugly!
Sir, your closing words ring so true! I could have heard Commandant Henderson’s Mameluke sword clashing and ringing with truth. Thank you Semper Fi Jorge
I know Dick; we served together at the Oldest Post of the Corps; he a Captain, me a freshly promoted GySgt just in from RVN. When I arrived, Dick was the OIC of the Marine Detachment they sent to Montreal for the World's Fair. When he finally arrived back at the Barracks, I was by then a freshly caught Brown Bar. Did not get to know him well as he transferred soon after arriving. But I do remember him as an outstanding officer. I definitely need to get the book
Jim,
Great book! Much history not read before. You’re going to like it, surely.
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