This year's annual Marine issue coincides with a number of events of major importance to the Corps. Perhaps most significant is the investiture of James T. Conway as the 34th Commandant.
The general will be the first Commandant in the past quarter century not to have led troops in Vietnam. But he has seen more than his share of hostilities, including the tragic Beirut peacekeeping mission of the early 1980s, the first Gulf War, and two deployments to Iraq as commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.
General Conway, an accomplished speaker, has coined some memorable phrases over the years. This is my favorite: "The Greeks had their Spartans. The Romans had their Centurions and the French had their Imperial Guard. America has her Marines."
We tip our hat to General Conway amid a sense of remorse that his ascension means the retirement of his outstanding predecessor, General Michael W. Hagee. General Hagee, like General Conway a Marine's Marine, has led the Corps with distinction and fortitude.
As the Marine Corps Times reported in September, General Hagee broke ranks with the Pentagon earlier in the year when he urged that the Corps' permanent end-strength be set at 180,000 Marines, 5,000 more than Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wanted.
A few times over the past several months, I found myself taking up a bed at Bethesda Naval Hospital. None of these sojourns involved life-threatening issues, more like a medical shaggy dog story. I bring up these hospital stays simply to note that it seemed that every time I looked around the ward there was General Hagee visiting his wounded Marines.
This month and early next month marks the conclusion of General Jim Jones' excellent adventure as both Supreme Allied Commander Europe and commander of the U.S. European Command. General Jones is the subject of our lead article this month, which incorporates an interview with him in his Pentagon office. He officially retires from the Corps in February, but—as the article suggests—he is not likely to fade away.
Generals Jones, Hagee, Conway are impressive Marines whose service we salute with gratitude and a deeply felt Semper Fidelis.
Our cover story celebrates the grand opening of the National Museum of the Marine Corps on 10 November, the 231st birthday of the Corps. Veteran journalist and frequent contributor Art Pine brings the museum vividly to life in an article that may well impel Leathernecks young and old, as well as Americans of any vintage and background, to flock to what stands to be a spectacular tribute to the Marines.
Mr. Pine's graceful prose is accompanied by the exceptional work of photographer Greg Mathieson, whose striking, never-before-published 9/11 photos lit up our September issue.
This month's issue contains a review of Flags of Our Fathers, a film from director Clint Eastwood that revolves around the iconic flag raising on Iwo Jima, as captured by the late AP photographer Joe Rosenthal. This is not your typical review. Our commentator is retired Major General Fred Haines, who as a young Marine captain fought in the 36-day battle that resulted in more than 25,000 American casualties, including nearly 7,000 men killed.
Former Leatherneck and Iraq combat veteran David J. Danelo, another frequent contributor, spins a fascinating tale about the silver eagles that once adorned the uniform of the legendary Marine Raider "Red Mike" Edson.
Our line-up of Marine green articles also includes a tale of World War II aviator Pappy Boyington by Major Christian Fitzpatrick, USMC, and a look at one of the hottest topics in the Corps, so-called "distributed operations," by retired Colonel Vincent Goulding. And three of the four winners of the Marine Corps Essay Contest are in this issue (the fourth will run next month). You'll like them.
Elsewhere in the magazine, Captain Mark Hagerott and Commander Mark Gorenflo offer a trenchant criticism that applies to all branches of the armed forces. They believe that the technologically oriented U.S. military focuses too heavily on machine-dominated warfare at the expense of the human element. This disregard, they argue, has led to several military difficulties, including the bombing of the USS Cole (DDG-67) in October 2000 and the ongoing insurgency in Iraq.
We also offer readers a taste of a book just published by the Naval Institute Press: Capturing Jonathan Pollard. The author is Ronald J. Olive, a retired special agent of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, who led the investigation of Pollard, a notorious spy who sold more than one million pages of classified material to Israel.