This html article is produced from an uncorrected text file through optical character recognition. Prior to 1940 articles all text has been corrected, but from 1940 to the present most still remain uncorrected. Artifacts of the scans are misspellings, out-of-context footnotes and sidebars, and other inconsistencies. Adjacent to each text file is a PDF of the article, which accurately and fully conveys the content as it appeared in the issue. The uncorrected text files have been included to enhance the searchability of our content, on our site and in search engines, for our membership, the research community and media organizations. We are working now to provide clean text files for the entire collection.
will study tactics and operational art— historically and theoretically—then go on to exercise acquired military judgment in map exercises and war games.
PROCEEDINGS: How does this tie in to the University concept?
GRAY: It s not a “concept” anymore. It’s in place. The Marine Corps University will touch the life of every Marine. It encompasses all the formal PME schools, from NCO School up through the Command and Staff College and our new Top-Level School Fellowship Program, which begins at Quantico in the fall. There will be nonresident programs available to those who are not able to study in residence.
Studies will focus sharply on warfighting theory and practice, and students will have to work—that is, to study and demonstrate thinking ability. Our faculty will be world-class. It will take a while to get it in place at Quantico. Right now, we have faculty members who are fine field Marines but they need more training in how to teach—at least a year’s preparation. Civilians with Ph.D.s in military history are now joining our faculty and there will be more.
A 300,000-volume research center will be the focal point of the University. We hope to see the ground-breaking in 1991. In addition to scholarly works, it will have after-action and les- sons-leamed reports—from both training exercises and combat operations.
Our goal is for Quantico to offer a graduate-level program, awarding an advanced degree, by combining the Marine Corps University’s core curriculum with courses from affiliated civilian universities. Both resident and non-resident students will earn degrees. This will not happen overnight, but we will get there quickly.
PROCEEDINGS: Has your emphasis on training and education gone beyond the Marine Corps University?
GRAY: There is nothing more important than what we are doing in training and education—and it involves much more than the University. Nothing we have done better positions the Marine Corps to respond to the future and nothing is more in keeping with our tradition. Our efforts touch on every aspect of training and education, from boot camp to our highest level of officers’ schools. In fact, it now begins even before boot camp. We provide training materials for new recruits, to prepare them for boot camp. The system continues through the noncommissioned officer and officer ranks, with either formal schools or structured self-study, correspondence study, and reading requirements. As I have said— every Marine, from private to general, is either attending a formal school or participating in a self-study program.
PROCEEDINGS: You have said that this is your most important initiative in the last three years. Why?
GRAY: Because the future of our nation depends on naval forces that are forward deployed, ready, and trained to respond to situations for which there will be no time to prepare.
PROCEEDINGS: But hasn’t that always been the case?
GRAY: For years, we have maintained a high state of readiness to deploy naval forces of combined arms, to escalate combat power to meet whatever threats are encountered and to operate with relative self-sufficiency. And we are very good at that. But times have changed—and we now see an almost infinite array of situations that naval forces might face when they arrive in an objective area. The difference is the ever-changing world that Marines will encounter from now on. In such tactical situations, we must respond to such
Reading for Professionals
There are many books dealing with war; not all of them are worth reading. The Marine Corps professional reading program, built on a list of 153 books, provides some guidelines. Senior officers, enlisted Marines, and others helped compile the list, drawing upon years of reading and study. The books are divided into 18 categories, including “History,” “Theory and Nature of War,” “Civil-Military Relations,” Strategy,” “Low Intensity Conflict,” and “Leadership.” The list is further divided by rank, from corporal through colonel. Selected readings, not on the master list, are also required for general officers.
The list runs from Tolstoy’s War and Peace and Crane’s Red Badge of Courage to Mao’s Guerrilla Warfare and such current selections as Sheehan’s A Bright Shining Lie. Some of the books are clearly flawed, and they are “approved” only in the sense that they are worth reading despite their flaws. The list is neither exclusive nor restrictive. Marines are encouraged to read whatever they like. The reading list is merely a starting line for self-education—not the finish line.
The profession of arms has developed a profound body of knowledge that requires constant study if a military leader is to become and remain proficient. Marines fight better when they fight smarter, and systematic and progressive professional reading contributes directly to that end.
The reading program has several objectives:
- To impart a sense of Marine Corps values and traits
- To increase knowledge of the military profession
- To improve analytical and reasoning skills
- To enhance reading skills
- To increase knowledge of our nation’s institutions and the principles upon which our government and our way of life are founded
- To increase understanding of the world’s governments, culture, and geography.
Marines must always prepare for the next war. This requires, among other things, education in the values and history of our country, an understanding of what men have endured in historic battles, and a sense of how future wars might be fought. Books can provide many answers for the regular and discerning reader.
The reading program is systematic and progressive, and its elements are interwoven. For example, the Low Intensity Conflict (LIC) category contains 11 books:
The Village (F. West)
War In The Shadows (R.B. Asprey)
The Terrorism Reader (W. Laqueur and Y. Alexander) Guerrilla Strategies (G. Chaliand)
A Savage War Of Peace (A. Home)
The Army And Vietnam (A.F. Krepinevich)
On Guerrilla Warfare (T.T. Mao)
People’s War, People’s Army (Vo Nguyen Giap)
Proceedings / Naval Review 1990
rapid change almost by instinct. We are trying to prepare leaders both with the lessons of the past and with the agility °f mind to apply those lessons and experiences to the complexity of today’s and tomorrow’s rapidly changing battlefield. That is why books like Managing Chaos are now part of our curriculum.
Also new is the reorganization of training and education into one center at Quantico, institutionalizing a training establishment vertically and horizontally. Let me explain. Now that we have placed all education and training aider one center—the Marine Air- Ground Training and Education Center, 0r MAGTEC—one headquarters now develops the curricula for all of our schools. This ensures logical upward training progress throughout a Marine’s career—I call that vertical integration, tt also helps the flow of lessons devel- °Ped in one school to other schools and, even more important, to the operating forces. That is what 1 call hori- Zc>ntal integration. Let me give you an example: Our future forces must be Prepared for short-notice, high-tempo, combined-arms, maneuver-oriented con- met in an environment of uncertainty. The rapid-planning sequence has been developed and exercised in our Marine Expeditionary Units, (MEUs) and rapid planning is now taught routinely in our PME schools. The curriculum now comes to grips with the rapid application of fire support and maneuver.
This, in turn, has evolved into a three- phase course taught to all Marine Expeditionary Brigate staffs. So you see that the consolidation of training and education in one headquarters connects the training-and-education establishment with the operating forces. Incidentally, it took years to move rapid planning from the decks of our amphibs into the formal-school curriculum. After the reorganization, it took less than six months to move our MEB battle-staff training from the classroom to the FMF—and it is being revised and updated even as we speak. Another example is our combat water-survival program. It was tested at The Basic School and then implemented in the recruit depots. We also have gained in establishing Corps-wide management systems for ranges, ammunition and training devices.
PROCEEDINGS: And as part of the reorganization, the Warfighting Center was located in Quantico . . .
GRAY: Yes—again, for the purpose of integration. The Warfighting Center is linked with the FMF and works closely with MAGTEC to ensure that education and training programs respond to the Force commanders. It also integrates education and doctrine into a cohesive whole. 1 put the research-and-develop- ment folks down there in Quantico for the same reason. The Warfighting Center and MAGTEC’s action officers work daily with the R&D program managers. Warfighting requirements and our training-and-education programs have had more visibility in our POM-92 program document than ever before. Things are working well.
Incidentally, the primary focus of the Marine Corps Inspector General (IG) is now on training and education. The IG works closely with MAGTEC and, in effect, evaluates all the training and education programs.
We also established the Marine Corps Wargaming and Assessment Center at Quantico. It assists us in validating changes to our concepts, doctrines and plans. Wargaming is a cost-effective substitute for extensive field exercises. We are tailoring and conducting wargames for all levels of conflict. In less than two years, we have conducted more than 30 wargames for formal schools, operating forces and Reserve units of the Marine Corps. Additionally, our CMC Policy and Strategy Series provides wargames for flag and
By Captain John D. Kuntz, U.S. Marine Corps
Seven Pillars Of Wisdom (T.E. Lawrence)
How \ye yjon The War (Vo Nguyen Giap)
4 Bright Shining Lie (N. Sheehan)
The first book, The Village, is on the reading lists for captains and sergeants. In a Marine rifle company, then, ttle squad and section leaders and the company commander—the captain—are reading the same book. Discus- s‘°n, debate and interaction are encouraged. Before long, jhe platoon leaders (lieutenants) and platoon sergeants bftaff non-commissioned officers) will also have to read Village, to stay abreast.
The reading program is just one facet of a new empha- Sls on professional military education throughout the Ma- r'ie Corps. In contrast to acquiring specific task or techni- skills, professional military education consists of .'belong learning: structured self-study, professional read- ln§. symposia, and formal schools attendance, as well as experience gained through duty assignments. The primary Purpose of professional military education is to assist all Marines in achieving competence in combat.
Initial reaction to the new reading program has been enthusiastic, particularly among the junior corporals and Sergeants. They are so eager and are reading so much, so rapidly that older Marines will have to start reading more '1 self-defense, if for no other reason. In any organization, Pe junior people are the ones who can make things
happen—even the “brain-stretching” preparation that the modern battle-field demands.
Marines must be ready to go to war tonight. The words, “First to Fight” mean that they must know how to fight, as individuals and as an organization, before the outbreak of hostilities. A common body of knowledge must be created among Marines, allowing each to understand what the other is doing. The common ground of professional military education is the factor that will allow every Marine to understand how decisions are made and how actions are to be carried out. In short, professional military education permits widespread communication of intent in a common language. Further, for those in technical fields, the assimilation of technological change is possible only when there is an understanding of the larger picture that change will affect. Such a common educational background exists today, but the Marine Corps is taking action to sink the roots of professional military education ever deeper. The future is here and is making us all run faster just to keep up. But Marines must do better than merely keep up with the future. They must meet and master it. By reading about today and yesterday, they will be better prepared for tomorrow, no matter what tomorrow brings.
Captain Kuntz is the special assistant to the President of the Marine Corps University, Quantico, Virginia.
147
Pr°cecdmgs / Naval Review 1990