HONE THE SPEARHEAD

HONE THE SPEARHEAD

By Andy Weddington

Monday, 05 October 2026

Note: Last Friday Real Clear Defense published 'Marines Die and the Corps Will Die Too'. Unfortunately, poor editing (not affording my opportunity to cross-check) changed not only tone but turned fact to fiction. And there was error or two. So, to ensure truth, I published the original along with RCD's link. The link to both versions next under. 

https://acoloneloftruth.blogspot.com/2026/10/marines-die-and-corps-will-die-too.html

For today, a nearly twice as long essay (not limited by word count) intended to complement Friday's post. Published here first. A third forthcoming. Thank you. 

HONE THE SPEARHEAD 

 

 

Among the men who fought on Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue.  – Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, U.S. Navy

 

 

Fifty-one years ago, Dr. James Ferguson, historian and Chancellor, UNC-Greensboro spoke to students and faculty about the importance of history. Critical, he believed and preached. Though I do not recall particulars, I remember his thoughtful, eloquent and compelling message - ‘without knowledge of and learning from history man suffers a sort of amnesia.’ 

 

As strange things inexplicably happen at opportune times, midday Saturday Labor Day weekend in the jam-packed parking lot of popular Hendrix Barbecue in Spencer, NC a first cousin’s girlfriend, daughter of a recently deceased Marine, handed me a sturdy cardboard box. Contents - a dozen or so Marine Corps books from her dad’s library. Though I’d not had the honor of meeting him she felt I was the proper heir. 

 

Among the books a surprise, a gem: ‘The Spearhead – The World War II History of the 5^th Marine Division’ by Howard M. Conner (1950). 

 

So far, I’ve only had time to peruse Mr. Conner’s record of the rigorous pace of activating, forming, organizing, training, and deploying the Division for combat. A mere 13 months after activation those Marines attacked Iwo Jima. The date: 19 February 1945.

 

Casualties are listed alphabetically followed by rank. Name after name after name span pages 183-219. Page after page after page and column after column after column the numbers just sobering and mind-boggling: KIA - 1,816; Died of wounds - 588; WIA - 6,960; MIA – 16. The total (recorded) casualties: 9,380. Men. Just one of the three attacking Marine Divisions. Thirty-six days of intense fighting. Do the math. 

 

Among the dead men …

 

Basilone, John GySgt. Gunnery Sergeant Basilone was previously awarded the Medal of Honor for actions during the Guadalcanal battle (1942/43). He was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross. 

 

Dollins, Raymond W. Maj. Major Dollins, unknown to me until a few months ago, was a 5^th Marine Division aerial observer. More about his death at the end. He was posthumously awarded an air medal. 

It’s been 81+ years since U. S. Marines planted that hasty pole - with jerry-rigged flag attached - atop Mt. Suribachi (four days after first attacking). Not that long ago, really. 

 

For the sake of preserving history, we have photojournalist Joe Rosenthal’s iconic photograph of six Marines raising that pole. A more powerful image of a moment - fraction of a second forever frozen - of triumph, of ethos, does not come to mind. Though there’s nothing glamorous about war, that image glorifies the Marine warrior spirit. In a stunning super-sized bronze, sculptor Felix de Weldon brought Rosenthal’s photo to life. Since 10 November 1954, when dedicated, the Marine Corps War Memorial is a “must see” when visiting Washington, D.C.  

 

Though not those specific Marines, they were exactly the caliber of men American journalist and war correspondent Ernie Pyle wrote about. Men Mr. Pyle wanted to ensure America never forgot. He embedded with them - in holes, on planes, ships and submarines. He got to know them. He shared in their victories, hardships, and losses. Grown men laughed. Grown men cried. In awe and out of respect for those warriors, both theaters, who won World War II, his history book ‘Brave Men.’ Read it! 

 

U. S. Marine E. B. Sledge, who fought at Peleliu and Okinawa, too wrote about brave men. His history book, ‘With the Old Breed,’ published about 35 years after the war is an enduring classic describing the horrors of combat. I’ve read it a handful of times. And still find it difficult to comprehend what those Marines, those men, did. Tragically, and ironically, Mr. Pyle was killed by a sniper on Okinawa. I don’t know that Sledge and Pyle. 

 

The last Marine Commandant having seen combat during World War II was the Corps 27^th - the late General Robert H. Barrow, USMC. General Barrow’s history “books” gifted us are oral histories and sworn testimony. The most powerful of which is his appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee subcommittee ‘Women in Combat’ in June 1991. His 13 minutes of impromptu reflection and sage counsel is a comprehensive, emotional, compelling argument – a master class start to finish – on Marine Corps ethos and why only men ought to face the physical and emotional demands of combat. Make time to watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fy--whDNNKk

 

The late Colonel John Ripley, USMC - in the news recently for his Navy Cross being upgraded to the Medal of Honor - is another calm but strong voice of experience and reason to heed. The year after General Barrow testified, Colonel Ripley appeared before the ‘Presidential Commission on the Assignment of Women in the Armed Forces.’ His answers echoed General Barrow’s sentiments though with more detail as to the physical requirements of training and combat. Not to shock but to sober decisionmakers he shared graphic stories from his experiences in Vietnam. Author Norman J. Fulkerson wrote ‘An American KNIGHT - The Life of Colonel John W. Ripley, USMC’. That biography, published in 2011 (three years after Colonel Ripley’s death) is an important history book. Appendix I is a transcript of his testimony (easily found on the Internet). Read it! 

 

Further, I’ve read and reread all sorts of relevant history, articles and books, published during the past 10-15 years by Marines, including Medal of Honor recipients, and others who know what they’re talking about.

 

One of those books - ‘The War on Warriors’ - was written by an infantryman - U. S. Army veteran and present Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. A determined powerhouse of action he is comprehensively restoring the warrior ethos to warfighting. During his recent State of the Force, he commented, “The gender-neutral standard is the male standard.” As it must be. So long as that male standard is demanding to the point that as a rule women nor some men cannot meet it. The male standard must be the case to ensure to greatest extent possible the readiness of the force. Rest assured enemies care nothing about diversity, equity, inclusion, neutrality. Nor does the enemy care about agenda. For failing leadership, a peculiar dynamic crept into entry-level and follow-on warfighting training: The intermingling of men and women. 

 

How did this happen? 

 

General Barrow, prophetic 35 years ago, “They changed the policy to fit the pressure.” That’s exactly how and why it happened. 

 

So, let’s set warfighting aside a moment to address a topic germane. The physical inequities between woman/female and man/male. As if ever in question, the disparity played out during the last Olympic games. 

 

In women’s boxing a woman proved to possess the key gene that triggers male development, and who admitted having high levels of testosterone, fought women. She pummeled them. One opponent conceded less than a minute into the bout and during a post-fight interview said she’d not ever been hit that hard. The biologically advantaged pugilist was draped with the Gold, of course.

Then there’s the dynamic of biological males transitioning to womanhood. The advantage these men/males enjoy competing against biological females/women has, not surprisingly, played out in swimming, bicycling, soccer, track and field, basketball, fencing, and other sports. Simply, the women are outgunned. Most athletes and fans of women’s sports are disgusted and outraged by the lopsided “competitions.” Rightfully so. For consider the work required to compete with dreams of winning only to realize you stand no chance. Such irony - athletic competition is supposed to be fair, yet superiority, not sportsmanship, wins fights for survival in battle. 

 

From late 1980s to present, little more than 37 years, Marine Corps recruit training has moved from building, separately, boys into men and girls into women to a gender-integrated model. And this despite candor, warnings, and pleas from seasoned, wise Marines - who know much about training warriors and war. That is, once separate commands that did not interface at all, today’s male and female recruits are in one command. They train together. And the Marine Corps has gone further by self-imposing a policy of, when possible, assigning a female drill instructor to a male platoon (and vice versa).

 

Having served three years in a recruit training battalion, when the regiment was strictly male, I just cannot imagine. It’s madness! But “WE MAKE MARINES” - despite gender differences of size, strength, speed, explosive power, stamina, durability, psyche, and potential - is the Corps straight-faced pitch. 

 

Since 2010 I’ve visited Parris Island every couple of years to attend reunions. Each visit there’s more intermingling of male and female recruits. DIs and officers, too. Twelve maybe fourteen years ago I walked the 2d Battalion O Course. From first obstacle to final rope climb, the course familiar to me had been rebuilt - the obstacles lower. Just recently I learned the new course was erected using the dimensions of the old Women’s Recruit Training Command O Course (still stands albeit neglected). The once imposing Confidence Course (I ran often complying with safety requirements before recruits allowed on the course) was also compromised. Never was a male, for lack of size or strength, excused from conquering the challenging heights of bars, hurdles, logs, walls, and rope climb on these courses. 

 

Overcoming fear to attack, reattach when necessary, and conquer the scary is what builds not only confidence but is essential to that ethereal thing called ethos. When women can physically do what men do, it’s not a male standard. And both are cheated. 

 

Fifty, sixty, seventy years ago the Marine Corps proudly boasted, “The Marine Corps Builds Men.” And a clever pitch, ‘The Marines are looking for a few good men,’ resonated with a particular type of boy - one wanting to be tested, to extremes, to prove himself, to step into manhood. There is a distinction, these days, to be made between building men and making Marines. 

 

Does a boy leaving home, confronting the struggle of his life, want or need his mother or sister yelling at him? Just as a girl leaving home, confronting the struggle of her life, does not want nor need her father or brother yelling at her. There’s a time and a place but not in recruit training. 

 

There is not political mandate, directive, law, military order, policy, nor bucketful of encouragement that is going to make a woman the equal of a man. And for mutual natural distractions/holding focus, it’s impossible to build men when girls in the mix. Just as it’s impossible to build women when boys in the mix. Women do not build men. Men do not build women. 

 

What if today’s gender dynamics were in practice during World War II? 

 

What if the 5^th Marine Division had 15%-20% women?

 

What if the 5^th Marine Division had been all women?

 

What the casualties?

 

Would that scrap metal pole hastily rigged with American flag have ever been planted atop Mount Suribachi? 

 

Dare say the Division would have faced certain annihilation instead of just insurmountable odds.  

 

Reasonable men and women know the difference between fiction, fantasy, and facts. Truth. And they know the answers to those questions and any other relevant to the discussion. 

 

Not to belabor the point but barely more than a decade ago extensive field-testing integrating women in Marine infantry units substantiated those teams with females could not perform, significantly so, to all-males level. And female vulnerability to injury sounded another alert. How telling an all-female unit was not formed for evaluation. But, for politics, the inconvenient truth was ignored. Damn reality, do it anyway was ordered.  

 

Warriors of yore ignored. Today’s warriors ignored. Women/females have been ordered to train for and fight. Why? Because politicians - rightfully, civilian masters of the military - and bureaucrats have said so. But reality is though the women will fight, they do not and cannot strengthen ground combat units. 

 

More than once I’ve wondered if every Marine general was subjected to polygraph what the results would be when asked, “Do you, General, believe women belong in ground combat units?” and “Do you, General, believe women strengthen cohesion and the fighting prowess of ground combat units?”

 

But here we are, a strange morphing culture during a blip in time belligerently snubbing reality. Not because they should be but because they can be, women are assigned to Division combat units. They will fight, no argument. But how much degradation, self-imposed handicap, is acceptable risk to the Marines - male and female? And to what extent is higher level units put at risk jeopardizing missions? Don’t forget, in January 1986 an O ring didn’t bring down a space shuttle. Bureaucracy behind that O ring, ignoring data and expert warnings, murdered those astronauts.

 

Today, engaged and focused on restoring, building, and advancing combat readiness like no other President’s Pentagon point-man in at least the last 75-80 years, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (who does not suffer amnesia nor delusion) is in constant battle - against politicians, bureaucrats, and saboteurs - honing our blunted spearhead. Through integrity and courage with pen and sword and bayonet - fix it he will. By example, the warrior ethos he serves. He, the warrior, shows up. Surely not lost on him is what must be reinstated, as law at least as far as ground combat is concerned, is so obvious it need not be stated.

 

Historians will write books about Secretary Hegseth. Your children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren will read those books. But teach them now for it’s never too early to start shaping the warrior ethos. It’s indeed a matter of national security. 

 

Whether suffering amnesia or by way of willful ignorance will we continue to ho-hum history, nature, too, by shelving the common bloody lessons of and warnings from warriors dead and alive? Man, I sure hope not. 

 

Hone the spearhead!

 

Alas, the 5^th Marine Division - those battle-hardened Marines and Sailors, who prevailed against what historians described as insurmountable odds … Major Dollins was crew with my wife’s step uncle, ARm1c Merlan Clifford “Bud” Emberson, USN, in a TBM Avenger. During the opening minutes of H-Hour on 19 February, their plane was hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire. Witnesses reported no chutes and helplessly watched the plane crash into the sea some 100 yards off the base of Iwo Jima’s Mount Suribachi. Also aboard, turret gunner AOm1c Lambertus Stoffels, USN and pilot LCDR Frank Peterson, USN. Eventually, all recovered. Bud Emberson left a young wife and infant daughter he’d seen once. He fought to protect them, and the rest of us. Warriors. Brave men. 

 

Andy Weddington, U.S. Marine