- Saturday, November 7, 2020

As the Marine Corps celebrates its 245th birthday on Nov. 10, Marines can take justifiable pride in their heritage; but they also face some controversial challenges as they go forward. 

When Congress authorized two battalions of Marines to be created in 1775, it was seen to be primarily as an auxiliary of the Navy. Marines were to provide shipboard discipline at a time when sailors were often of varying quality and sometimes prone to mutiny. Marines were expected to provide sharpshooters in the ship’s fighting tops and act as the nucleus of landing parties for what passed for amphibious operations in those days. The Founding Fathers could not have envisioned that they had created a monster that would swell to nearly a half million men during World War II and would average out at nearly 200,000 in the seven decades since then. 

It took a while for the monster to mature. For the first hundred years of its existence, the Marine Corps’ mission remained static and the organization stayed small despite storming the Halls of Montezuma and the shores of Tripoli. In fact, more Marines die in accidents each year than the Marine Corps lost in the entire Civil War. But the age of steam and the increasing professionalization of Navy brought the existence of the Corps into question. Marines came up with a new mission, that of seizing and defending advanced bases as coaling stations. This gave the organization renewed purpose.

The Marine Corps did not fully burst on the national stage until World War I. Ironically, that new-found notoriety was due to a breach of operational security. War correspondent Floyd Gibbons broke Army censorship rules by identifying the Marine Brigade of the Second Army Infantry Division as the force that was primarily responsible for defeating the vaunted Germans at Belleau Wood. They got the nickname “Devil Dogs” there, but Gen. John Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force, thought them to be glory hounds. After the war, Pershing was among those who wanted to roll the Marine Corps into the Army as it had acted as a ground force. This precipitated another identity crisis.

In the years between world wars, visionaries in the Marine Corps saw modern amphibious warfare as the key to seizing advanced bases in what they saw as an inevitable conflict with Japan. Marines worked hard with the Navy to develop and experiment with advanced amphibious techniques.

But these developments were not without controversy within the Corps because Marines had developed a parallel niche in waging small counterinsurgency operations in the Caribbean. Some small wars hands viewed the focus on Japan as being too specialized. A compromise was reached; the Corps did both. Amphibious operations proved crucial in World War II and Korea. Names such as Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima and Inchon were burned into the nation’s consciousness.

Some members of the other services lampoon Marines as knuckle-dragging troglodytes. However, noted historian Williamson Murray calls the Marine Corps the most intellectual of the U.S. armed forces. Over the years since Vietnam, farsighted commandants have caused the Marine Corps to be a leader in technological, tactical and educational innovation. 

Gens. Louis Wilson and Robert Barrow led the Marine Corps out of the doldrums of Vietnam. Gen. Al Gary introduced Maneuver warfare as the Corps’ warfighting philosophy and revitalized professional military education. Gen. Charles Krulak wisely saw urban combat as a wave of the future and created a Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory to develop future tactics and technologies which paid dividends in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Today, the Marine Corps stands at another crossroads. The current commandant — Gen. David Berger — is positioning the Marine Corps to lead in the close battle should war with China break out. He has made some organizational and equipment changes to pay for the new equipment needed to realize his vision. Once again, there is debate about the possibility of over-specialization, many retired Marines have expressed concern. Healthy internal debate has been a hallmark of the Corps for decades, and I suspect that when the dust settles, there will be some degree of compromise on both sides.

Despite a reputation for innovation, the Marine Corps jealously guards its customs and traditions. Whether active, retired or in hiatus, Marines will pause on Nov. 10 to do their traditional cake-cutting ceremony and perhaps quaff an adult beverage in a toast to the Corps. But then, it will be back to the business of forging the future of the Corps as it has since 1775.

• Gary Anderson retired as the chief of staff of the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab in 2000.

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