I’m sorry gang, but I just received this from a brother Marine and I HAVE to post it now I just have too!! Remember this is our leader of House and third in line for president. If you can figure out what the heck she is talking about, please enlighten us all. This was a press conference, I wonder the reporters reported? Enjoy!! OMG
Monthly Archives: November 2021
The Corps Part VII
Of course the ANG wants those discharged Marines. First of all they are already trained, disciplined, tough, honorable, and do not have to put up with so much of the woke-ness found in the the active duty services. I happen to know this as a fact. One of my super stars in the Young Marine unit I ran in northern Illinois tried to get into the Corps’ PLC program but was on meds for OCD and was declined, I even wrote the OSO a letter highlighting this young ladies attributes, but it was to no avail. So she went to college under the ROTC program and is now active in ANG and loves it. She says they are not having to put up with all the woke-ness as is the Army. And, as expected, she has risen to a super star in her unit — and is off her meds!.
Why the Marine Corps wants to tank National Guard recruiting efforts
From the Marine Times
Historically the Marine Corps has had the lowest retention rate in the Department of Defense, as it intentionally has only kept 25 percent of first-term Marines.
As a result, the National Guard and other services have seen Marines fresh off a first enlistment as fertile recruiting ground, allowing the Guard to swell its ranks with already experienced troops.
The practice is so common the Army National Guard even has recruiters specifically trained and tasked to recruit prior service Marines.
But as the Corps looks to field an older more experienced force, it wants that to change.
“If we do our job right, they’ll never go to the Army or the National Guard to begin with,” Maj. Gen. Jason Bohm, the commander for Marine Corps Recruiting Command, told reporters on Monday.
On Nov. 3, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger released his talent management vision aimed at improving retention by treating Marines “like human beings instead of inventory.”
For those who left the Corps just to realize the grass is not always greener in the Army combat uniform, the Corps wants you back.
“Quite often, not to disparage any of the other services, but we do hear from (prior service Marines) saying ‘This isn’t quite what I expected, is there any chance I can come back?’” Bohm said.
LOL this is so funny. Did any of these so called SME’s in the Marine Corps Recruiting Command stop to consider why that Marine was dissatisfied with the service he/she opted for after the Corps? Perhaps, just perhaps, they missed the loyalty, comradery, pride, brother/sister hood, familial closeness, traditional values, being part of something good, and the sheer joy and honor of wearing the Marine uniform. But now that the Corps is going the way of the other services who started this woke-ness crap way prior to General Berger arriving will they find the same atmosphere in the “new” Corps? I think so. What happened to the motto: If everyone could be a Marine, it wouldn’t be the Marines, or no one promised you a Rose Garden, or even The Few, the Proud, the Marines. Forget that it’s not important anymore . . . . . I guess?
There already are methods for prior service Marines to return to the Corps, but Bohm said it was not particularly easy.
The Corps will look to streamline that process and welcome the lost sheep back into the Marine Corps’ fold.
The Corps also will improve its efforts to inform Marines who are getting out on ways they can reenter the force if circumstances allow them to return or if they simply change their mind about getting out.
“We are certainly going to maintain contact with those people,” Bohm said.
At least for now the Army National Guard does not seem to expect much to change on its end.
“The Army National Guard Recruiting and Retention Force always seeks to recruit and retain the best available talent for the Guard,” Christina Mundy said on behalf of Army National Guard Recruiting and Retention in a Tuesday email.
Marine Corps Times has previously asked the National Guard for numbers on how many prior service Marines it enlists each year and has not heard back.
While the Marine Corps is looking to improve overall retention, the Corps is planning to downsize over the next few years and has completely eliminated certain military occupational specialties.
In 2021 the Corps had an authorized active-duty end strength of 181,200 Marines. By 2030 the Corps looks to shrink the active duty force to roughly 174,000 Marines, the smallest the Corps has been since 2002.
To slowly reduce numbers while improving retention the Marine Corps expects that it will reduce its recruitment goals.
As part of its redesign to faceoff against China the Marine Corps has eliminated its tank battalions, active duty law enforcement battalions and its bridging units.
Marines with military occupational specialties that were eliminated had been offered easy transfer into the Army, where tank battalions are still going strong.
Berger said the Corps needs an older and more mature force to handle the increased complexities of a potential war against a near-peer opponent.
On the future battlefield Marines will have more responsibilities pushed down to lower levels than ever before.
”The machine gunner who is also corpsman, a medic, also has to be able to talk to MQ-9 UAVs and bring in ordnance and understand the satellite connection that is required to do that,” Berger told reporters in early November.
The Corps is also leaning on updated science that shows people do not fully mature until they are in their early to mid-twenties and that peak physical performance does not happen until someone is in their late 20s.
“We based our force on an assumption that (18 to 20-year-olds) were indestructible supermen,” Berger said. “Turns out it’s not. We don’t peak physically or cognitively until our late 20s.”
“We can’t have a force full of 18 to 21-year-olds,” Berger said. Really? Tell that to the Marines of WW I, WW II, Korea, or Vietnam. I wonder how old these Marines are?
Recruits with Delta Company, 1st Recruit Training Battalion, run up the Reaper during the crucible at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California. (Cpl. Grace J. Kindred/Marine Corps)
There are so much coming out of CMC’s mouth, I can’t keep up with them, Therefore, I’ll simply provide links to some of the “stuff,” and should you desire to lower your blood pressure even more please click on the link below and read more of this goobly-gook. I find no reason to publish this as a post. It’s simply filled with more BS.
The Corps Part VI
Here is more of CMC’s “Talent Management Plan.” There is that word “Management” again. Seems there are many more “things” attached to this plan than meets the eye. This one will surely shake up the retired community even more than Parts I-V. Read on and cry Marines.
Marine Corps plan calls for some future Marines to skip boot camp.
By Jeff Schogol from Task and Purpose
“We Make Marines,” proclaims a banner at Marine Corps Recruit of Depot Parris Island, South Carolina, summarizing the service’s ethos that recruits have to prove they have the mental and physical toughness to serve in the Corps by surviving boot camp. By the time men and women receive their Eagle, Globe, and Anchor, they have proven that they have the physical and mental toughness to earn the coveted title of “Marine.”
But Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger wants “exceptionally talented Americans” to be able to bypass the Corps’ traditional rites of passage and begin serving “at a rank appropriate to their education, experience, and ability.”
Berger’s radical new Talent Management plan calls for allowing civilians with critical skills to be able to join the Marine Corps “laterally” as opposed to starting at the very bottom as new recruits.
“As a result of the significant lead time necessary to build expertise, we are unable to respond quickly to changes in the security environment that demand urgent course corrections,” Berger wrote in his plan, which was first made public on Nov. 3. “The rapid rise in importance of the cyber domain, for instance, has challenged us to find creative ways to quickly build critical skills at mid-career and senior levels. Unless we find a means to quickly infuse expertise into the force – at the right ranks – I am concerned that advances in artificial intelligence and robotics, among other fields where the speed of technological change is exponential, will force us into a reactive posture.”
Berger made clear that this option would be limited to certain military occupational specialties, adding it would be “difficult to imagine a scenario” in which a civilian could skip boot camp in order to join a combat arms field like infantry or artillery.
He also wrote that Marines no longer on active duty who now have “critical career experience” should be able to return to service at a higher rank.
“For example, I can envision a Marine who left active duty as a captain or corporal rejoining our ranks as a lieutenant colonel or gunnery sergeant, respectively, after spending 5-7 years working in a cyber or IT field where the service currently lacks capacity,” Berger wrote. “With the right education and experience, that same corporal might also be eligible to return as a mid-grade or senior officer.”
The new talent management plan could involve a “cultural shift” in how the Marine Corps attracts the best possible people, said Lt. Gen. David Ottignon, deputy commandant for Manpower and Reserve Affairs.
For example, how will Marines who have gone through The Crucible at Parris Island or San Diego respond to the idea of allowing civilians to bypass boot camp to become Marine Corps cyber experts? Ottignon pondered with reporters on Monday.
“How does that line up to a culture of a Marine Corps at roughly 180,000 Marines that go through this exacting training that makes us all one in the same – uniformity in what we do?” Ottignon said. “That’s a cultural thing that we’re going to have to work through.”
The Marine Corps has been here before. Former Commandant Gen. Robert Neller initially considered allowing civilians with cyber skills to become Marines without going through boot camp in 2017.
But Neller faced a conundrum: He did not want to bring in people who did not meet Marine Corps grooming standards.
Then-Marine Brig. Gen Loretta Reynolds, who led Marine Corps Forces Cyberspace Command at the time, recalled in 2016 that Neller once asked her: “Do I have to start letting guys with purple hair and earrings in?”
Ultimately, the Marine Corps decided to establish a Cyber Auxiliary division of civilian volunteers, not Marines. “You can have purple hair, too, but no EGA [Eagle, Globe, and Anchor],” Neller said in 2019.
The question of whether cyber experts who bypass boot camp can hold the title of Marine has not gone away.
“That’s clearly what the commandant has laid out as something to discover and analyze,” Ottignon said on Monday. “And I don’t know the answer to it yet. I don’t think the commandant knows the answer to it yet – other than we know there’s exquisite talent out there.”
That’s why Ottignon’s team is coming up with various options for exactly how the Marine Corps can attract people with the skills that the Corps needs most, he said.
“We think – we could be wrong – you could take a young man or woman, let’s say out of George Mason University that works in cybersecurity and sees opportunities in government; and we show them: Look, no kidding, you’re going to be on an offensive/defensive team and get skill sets; that might be attractive to them. His [Berger’s] point is: How do you do that; and that’s the cultural piece that I offered to you.”
The Corps Part V
LOL. This one is funny even if it is a tragedy. I can see it coming. Cpl Finicnick reports to his company commander that his Lt is an asshole and uses drugs. It matters not that Cpl Finicknick was a Sgt six months ago. OMG This reminds me of the HQMC imposed HumRel classes in 1970 that required us to sit in groups of officers and enlisted and everyone was allowed to say whatever they wanted. LOL, That did not happen in our battalion thanks to Major John I. Hopkins (MajGen, USMC (Ret) Deceased). God Bless him. But I heard absolute horror stories from my peers from other units.
The Marine Corps wants junior Marines to have a say in who their leaders are
“Beginning in 2022, we will institute 360-degree feedback for leaders, on a pilot basis” says Commandant Berger.
Junior Marines could help determine whether officers and senior enlisted leaders are selected for promotion as part of the Marine Corps’ efforts to revamp its evaluation process.
Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger is calling for promotion boards to incorporate “360-degree feedback” into their decisions about which leaders will be selected to advance to the next rank.
Berger’s direction on using 360-degree feedback is part of his Talent Management plan, which was released on Nov. 3. The plan also requires the Marine Corps to retain more first-term Marines and creates the possibility that civilians with critical skills could bypass boot camp to join the service. This will be Part VI, so stay tuned.
Currently, promotion boards largely base those decisions on Marines’ fitness reports, which only include notes on their performance from two of their supervisors, Berger wrote. In some cases, those supervisors do not serve in the same location as the Marines they are evaluating or don’t interact with them often.
“[Three hundred and sixty]-degree feedback, by contrast, includes the perspectives of a larger number of seniors, peers, and juniors and can include unflattering feedback that is prohibited from inclusion in a Marine’s FITREP,” Berger wrote.
This type of evaluation is already in use elsewhere in the Defense Department and it has shown to be effective in “identifying traits of toxic leadership” and helping to reduce the chances that toxic leaders will be promoted, according to Berger’s plan.
“Beginning in 2022, we will institute 360-degree feedback for leaders, on a pilot basis,” Berger wrote. “This feedback will be made available to the Marine and their reporting senior, with the aim of encouraging leadership growth. No later than 2024, we will incorporate 360-degree feedback into the selection board and assignments processes to ensure that this important input is properly considered by those selecting and assigning our future leaders.”
The Marine Corps has looked for lessons from business leaders as well as other military branches as it developed the pilot program for the 360-degree reviews, said Yvonne Reed-Carlock, a spokeswoman for Manpower and Reserve Affairs.
“The purpose of implementing 360-degree leadership reviews is to equip Marine leaders with real, honest feedback to identify their hidden strengths and unidentified weaknesses and to provide them with professional coaching to further develop and advance the capabilities of our force,” Reed-Carlock said. “To accomplish this, the pilot will solicit input from a Marine’s seniors, peers and subordinates to fully inform the picture provided to the Marine.”
The pilot program early next year is expected to include about 200 people to fine-tune the questions leaders are asked and to make sure that the right type of feedback is collected, said Lt. Col. Jim Armstrong, who works for the Marine Corps’ Manpower Management Division.
The Marines taking part in the pilot program will be field grade officers – majors, lieutenant colonels, and colonels – as well as senior enlisted leaders such as master sergeants and sergeants major, said Armstrong, who serves as the operations officer for the officer assignments branch.
Based on the pilot program’s results, Marines at other ranks and leadership positions could also receive 360-degree feedback, Armstrong said.
A 360-degree evaluation system is meant to prevent the promotion of senior leaders who may later be deemed unfit to command, such as one colonel who asked a former captain if she had been drinking before she was raped rather than referring her to trained staff for help. More robust performance evaluations may have also identified a brigadier general as a toxic leader before his subordinates reported him to the Department of Defense Inspector General’s Office, which determined that he had “disparaged, bullied, humiliated them, and devalued women.”
For years, proponents have been calling for the Marine Corps to adopt a 360-degree evaluation system, but other military branches such as the Navy and the Air Force have used this type of feedback sparingly and for certain leaders and civilian executives.
After the Fiscal 2014 National Defense Authorization Act required the defense secretary to look into using this sort of feedback in evaluations, a study from the RAND Corporation recommended against doing so. Wow, sanity from the RAND Corporation for a change.
A sergeant instructor, evaluates officer candidates during close order drill at Marine Corps Officer Candidates School aboard Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, June 21, 2019. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Phuchung Nguyen)
Many of the people whom RAND interviewed for the study, including experts within the Department of Defense, said they did not feel that 360-degree feedback was the best tool to combat toxic leadership, especially in cases where toxic leaders had no desire to change their ways.
“Participants again pointed to other ways of finding these people that would be much more cost-effective (such as through anonymous reporting channels, climate surveys, informal discussion, or inspector general complaints),” the study says.
While federal agencies have used 360-degree feedback as part of coaching and mentoring, the government as a whole – including the Defense Department – has been reluctant to include this type of feedback for promotions, said Katie Kuzminski, a senior fellow and director of the Military, Veterans, and Society Program at the Center for a New American Security think tank in Washington, D.C.
“There was a fear that if the [360-degree feedback] were used for promotions or true evaluations as opposed to personal development that there could be some challenges with that – particularly if your peers in your unit are also your competition: There would be a way to skew the outcomes to make yourself look good by making someone else look bad,” Kuzminski said.
Berger is going much further than the rest of the military by looking at how the Marine Corps can use this type of feedback for promotions, she said.
“I do think that if any service can take the lead on this front, I think it would be the Marine Corps,” Kuzminski said. “Just from a cultural perspective, I think the real value that they place on taking care of fleet really matters – and certainly for more senior positions, there’s this saying that you hear from senior folks: If you had a helicopter full of 10 general officers in the Marine Corps crash today, you would have equally high competitive talent remaining to replace them.” Really? In today’s Corps? Hell that may even help save us. Let’s make it a C-130 with 50 on board. LOL Just kidding, of course.
I trust everyone caught the name of this new plan; the “Talent Management Plan..” That says it all; when was the last time you heard anything coming out in the Corps dealing with “management.” In my day that word was toxic to Marines. Oh well, just another day in the “New” Corps. When will it end? Surely this action will help recruiting; just knowing they can have an effect on their mean Gunny should help.
The Corps Part IV
Okay Marines, don’t know if you picked up on this back in September when it happened. I did but I saved it for this series on “The Corps.”
A Sikh Marine is now allowed to wear a turban in uniform
From The Marine Times
The new headgear for Sikh Marines.
On Sept. 23, 1st Lt. Sukhbir Toor possibly became the first Marine lawfully wear a turban in a Marine Corps uniform.
The Marine Corps granted Toor the ability to wear his turban, uncut hair and a beard in uniform, in accordance with his Sikh faith, unless he deploys to a combat zone or while he is wearing a dress uniform in a ceremonial unit, The New York Times first reported.
The young Marine and the lawyers who represent him said the accommodations mark progress, but do not go nearly far enough accommodate the Marine in his Sikh faith.
The accommodations he was granted, “effectively amounts to a denial … it’s almost asking someone to compartmentalize their identity,” said Giselle Klapper, his lawyer from the Sikh Coalition advocacy group.
After several requests and lawsuits the Army changed policy in 2017 and now allows Sikh soldiers to wear articles of their faith and turbans with minimal restrictions.
Toor, the son of Indian immigrants, joined the Corps in 2017 and is serving as an artillery officer in 3rd Battalion, 11th Marines, at Marine Corps Air-Ground Combat Center Twenty nine Palms, California.
The Marine told The New York Times that when he first joined he was willing to cut his hair, shave his beard and wear the traditional Marine Corps covers, believing it was wrong to ask for something from the Marine Corps before he gave anything back.
But when he was selected for promotion to captain in the spring, he decided it was time to ask.
“I finally don’t have to pick which life I want to commit to, my faith or my country,” Toor told the Times. “I can be who I am and honor both sides.”
Sikhs traditionally wear five articles of faith that signify commitment to their religion. The articles include a small wooden comb known as the “kanga,” a small knife or ceremonial sword called “kirpan,” cotton “soldier shorts” or slightly longer underwear called the “kachera,” a small steel bracelet known as a “kara,” along with going without cutting their hair or beard, known as “kesh.”
The turban, or dastaar, over the centuries became closely linked to the Sikh religion. It is in the code of conduct and bears nearly the same amount of importance as the other articles, according to Learn Religions.
In June Lt. Gen. David Ottignon, the head of Manpower and Reserve Affairs wrote a letter granting Toor the ability to wear the turban and unshorn hair, but only in limiting circumstances.
“The real world consequences of the failure of a forward deployed Marine unit, such as the one you lead, could jeopardize the lives of Marines and those relying on them to complete their mission,” the general added. “The Corps cannot experiment with the components of mission accomplishment in forward units without assuming the risk of mission failure.”
Under the initial restrictions Toor was prevented from wearing his articles of faith while he was assigned to units that may deploy on short notice, like 3rd Battalion, 11th Marines, where he currently serves.
“Look, I’m on the ground level with the trigger-pullers every day,” Toor told the Times. “To them, I don’t think it makes a difference. We have men, women, people of all races in my platoon. We all wear green, we all bleed red. My Marines didn’t respect me because of what I had on my head.”
Toor also was banned from wearing a turban or beard in dress uniform in any ceremonial position, arguing it would hurt recruitment along with the Corps’ ability to convince the American people that it was “cohesive group of warriors capable of defending the nation’s interest.”
Toor immediately appealed the decision and received slightly greater accommodations that allowed him to wear a turban and beard while in garrison.
But he says the deployment restrictions and the restrictions on ceremonial units that remained were still unacceptable.
Klapper argued the deployment restrictions might put Toor’s career at risk if the Corps forced him to choose between a deployment and his beard.
She was also appalled by the reasoning by the Marine Corps when it came to ceremonial units.
“We’re saying the reason you can’t serve, or you can’t maintain your religious identity, the reason we have to erase essentially your religious identity is because you are in a public facing role” the lawyer said. “That to me is problematic because in reality it’s not under the law a reasonable argument and it’s also just extremely outdated in my view.”
The Marine Corps has not yet responded to questions about Toor or the branch’s decision to limit his accommodations.
Klapper and the other lawyers representing Toor have since sent a letter to the Marine Corps asking it to reconsider its decision in this case with the hopes that the Corps will either follow the Army’s precedent or at least work with Toor’s representatives to come to an agreeable solution.
But, if the Marine Corps does not come to the bargaining table or accept greater accommodations, the lawyer is prepared to sue the Corps in federal court, she said.
Appears no one in authority within the military is capable of uttering the word: “NO”. What about Women Marine Sikh’s. Can they wear that diaper on their head and cover their face? Of course, CMC Berger can’t say no, SECDEF will chew him out. Plus, we have to follow the U.S. Army’s lead. I mean hell we are no longer a separate and distinct service. Check out the Army’s story. Copy and paste the link below; you won’t believe it! If it wasn’t so tragic it would be laughable. I’m sure this uniform change will really help the poor recruiting issue.
https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-army/2017/01/05/new-army-policy-oks-soldiers-to-wear-hijabs-turbans-and-religious-beards/
