Tag Archives: Generals

Current Events, videos

“The Tun”

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Well, after all the many years of hard work, dedication, and perseverance, it’s finally happening Marines. We as Marines always took pride in the fact that we were born in bar. And now the tavern is being rebuilt. From the website “TheTun.org” here’s the report:

Lieutenant General Calvert L. Worth, Jr., Commanding General, II Marine Expeditionary Force, and Medal of Honor Recipient Major General James E. Livingston, USMC, (Ret.), joined representatives from the six organizations with a heritage at The Tun in Philadelphia for a groundbreaking ceremony in Philadelphia on November 10, 2024, the 249th birthday of the United States Marines Corps. The Tun Legacy Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is rebuilding the historic Tun, the birthplace of the Marines, to coincide with the 250th birthday of the United States Marine Corps in 2025 and America250 in 2026. In a nod to The Tun’s significance in the history of the Marines, participants in the groundbreaking used hand-held entrenching tools (E-Tools) for the ceremony.

The Tun Groundbreaking

The Tun Groundbreaking

Please go to the website and read all about the plans as well as look at all the photos of the groundbreaking ceremony on the Corps’ 249th birthday. The Marine in the daper sport coat (5th from the left) is MGen James (“Jungle Jim”) Livingston who was my Regimental Commander when I had 2/6 back in 1987-88. For some reason I was not aware of this event for had I known about it, I would have been there. I will tell you this though, I will be there for the commemoration planned for the Corps’ 250th birthday! Care to join me?

And while you are there, PLEASE make a donation; it’s tax deductible, but that should not be the reason for a donation. We must make this happen! We need our bar back. LOL. I have already made mine; do yours Marine.

Originally posted 2024-11-26 13:31:51.

Current Events

A Messiah Awaits

8 Comments

Are his comments not a breath of fresh air, and trust me they are not hot.  I am a Floridan, and if there is one thing you can count on from Ron, he means what he says and does what he says. Broward County and Disney learned that the hard way. 

 

From the Wall Street Journal                                          Thursday, 20 July 2023

Next Target for Ron DeSantis: the Military

Ron DeSantis is gradually laying out his presidential agenda, and on Tuesday he unveiled a plan to build a “Mission First” U.S. military. The Florida Governor has several worthy ideas to restore American confidence in the armed forces, though fighting the culture wars isn’t a substitute for preventing an actual war.

“We need a military that is focused on being lethal, being ready and being capable,” Gov. De-Santis said in South Carolina. The U.S. military is suffering from institutional drift, as senior officers rush to associate themselves with progressive causes. One example: Space Force Lt. Gen. DeAnna Burt in a June speech unleashed a political broadside against elected state legislatures for considering what she styled as “anti-LGBTQ+” measures.

One good priority is reviving American military education. Gov. DeSantis is right that the service academies ought to be “narrowly focused” on disciplines such as engineering or military history and leadership. Civilian academics have taken over most military educational institutions such as war colleges, and the instruction is often, as Gov. DeSantis says, “substandard.”

The Governor, a Navy veteran, also says he would review the performance of every four-star flag officer and remove those who aren’t focused on lethality. There is reason to wonder if the services are producing the war fighting talent the country needs by picking leaders on the merits. More aggressive civilian oversight would help.

Case in point: In 2021 a Navy admiral suggested the service should bring back photos as part of promotion boards to achieve more diversity. Gov. DeSantis said he’d ban “race and gender quotas in military recruiting and promotions.”

The perception that the military is a political institution may be hurting enlistment, and the Army looks likely to come up at least 10,000 soldiers short this year. Gov. DeSantis says he will “restore national pride” in the armed forces, to include a school program explaining that the U.S. military “ has been a force for justice and good in the world,” which is at least a start. But an under-appreciated reason the services are struggling to recruit is that the force is too small and ill-equipped to fulfill its current missions. This wears out troops. President Trump boasts that he rebuilt the U.S. military, but he offered a one-time increase that only started to rebuild the readiness burned in President Obama’s two terms.

The defense industrial base also continued to erode on Mr. Trump’s watch. Contractors are now recalling retired engineers in their 70s to teach new workers how to build Stinger antiaircraft missiles that haven’t been in production for decades.

Gov. DeSantis’s special operation against wokeness will thrill his base, and he has correctly identified China as the top threat to U.S. security. His harder task will be building public support for a larger and more capable U.S. military that can deter the Communist Party from a terrible mistake such as invading Taiwan.

That will require convincing skeptical Republicans to increase defense spending—for example, building two attack submarines a year for the U.S. Navy, up from 1.2 now. Or speeding up the new Air Force strategic bomber. Or building a long-range missile inventory that can last more than three nights of fighting in the Taiwan Strait.

An aide to the campaign says Gov. DeSantis still plans to offer a broader defense agenda. But on U.S. support for Ukraine he’s too often catered to the isolationist right that would, in Ronald Reagan’s words, play innocents abroad in a world that’s not innocent.

Still, the Pentagon’s growing preoccupation with identity politics is corrosive to an institution built on cohesion and self-sacrifice. The country would be better prepared for a fight if a new President started to right the ship.

Has he nailed the problems or what? “. . . review the performance of every four-star flag officer and remove those who aren’t focused on lethality.” Wow, that would sure open up the promotions for three stars, albeit he should look at all flag officers, not just the four-stars.

Increase defense budget bother you? He’ll find other areas to reduce the funding e.g., all the woke shit, welfare, immigrant benefits, and many more. Ron is not a big spender, just ask a Floridan. Trump hasn’t talked about any of thee issues, because he is too busy calling people names.

My dream team would be Ron and  SC Senator Tim Scott. What a team that would make. Sorry guys but if you didn’t already know it, I am no longer a Trumper. He simply will not shut the hell up!

Originally posted 2023-07-20 09:26:59.

Current Events, Recent Posts

Sweet Home Alabama

12 Comments

FINALLY, a senator with something between his legs that many of his so-called GOP  counterparts lack and have always lacked, including McCarthy. That fellow ceases to amaze me how he can classify himself as a Republican. This is exactly how congress can get everyone’s attention.  Tommy doesn’t care about votes like all the rest of them do, he’s doing what’s right. Never heard of him before, but I know of him now!

From the Wall Street Journal                                                                      Alabama Senator’s Military Roadblock Draws Criticism

BY NANCY A. Y OUSSEF AND LINDSAY WISE WASHINGTON—Many of Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s colleagues say he is making bad calls.

The Alabama Republican lawmaker has thrown a roadblock in front of promotions for all senior military officers, drawing criticism from the White House as well as Republican and Democratic lawmakers. He also came under fire over his comments about white supremacists in the military, a controversy he tried to tamp down this week.

Tuberville, a former college football coach who guided Auburn University to a South-eastern Conference title, won election to the Senate representing his deep-red state in 2020. He was backed by then-President Donald Trump in the Republican primary over Trump’s onetime attorney general Jeff Sessions. In the general election, Tuberville defeated Democratic incumbent Sen. Doug Jones and he has had a conservative voting record since taking office.

The 68-year-old thrust himself into the spotlight earlier this year when he announced he would block the promotions for top military generals and admirals until the Pentagon agrees to end its policy allowing troops leave and travel funds for reproductive healthcare, including abortion. He has said he won’t lift his hold on the promotions until the military changes its policy or Congress passes a measure codifying the policy.

Tuberville said he doesn’t believe the holds are affecting military readiness. He said this week that there had been no progress toward lifting them. “Zero conversations. Same as usual.”

While senators sometimes put holds on Pentagon political appointees who have policy- making responsibilities, the Tuberville move breaks with Senate tradition as it applies to career military officers. The standoff has created hundreds of vacancies at the top of the military, including the commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps.

“It’s totally inappropriate. It’s outrageous,” President Biden said last month. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) has also criticized the effort. “I don’t support putting a hold on military nominations,” he said in May.

Tuberville has also struggled to quell another controversy related to the Pentagon’s effort to root out extremism in its ranks.

In a radio interview in May, when asked if he believed that white nationalists should be allowed to serve in the military, Tuberville responded: “Well, they call them that. I call them Americans.”

He criticized Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for “saying we’re going to run out white nationalists, people that don’t believe how we believe.”

In 2021, Austin ordered a daylong stand-down for forces to discuss combating extremism within the ranks following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. A working group then recommended changes to Pentagon policy on how the department defined extremist activities and how the force should address an individual suspected of participating in such activities. A review found roughly 100 cases of troops engaged in extremist activities.

Tuberville, who has said conservatives are often unfairly called racists, defended his comments on white nationalism, including to CNN on Monday. He condemned racism but declined to say white nationalism was by definition racist. “That’s your opinion,” he told the CNN host.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) urged Tuberville to apologize.

McConnell, asked about Tuberville’s comments, said, “White supremacy is simply unacceptable in the military and in our whole country.”

Some colleagues said Tuberville had been unfairly maligned.

“I don’t sense from Tommy that he’s a bigot in any way, a racist,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R., N.D.). “I mean, my gosh, the guy’s a college football coach…he’s certainly been around a multicultural world view.”

After a closed-door Senate GOP lunch Tuesday afternoon, Tuberville altered his stance. “White nationalists are racists,” he told reporters.

The same day, Tuberville’s hold on military nominees came under scrutiny on Capitol Hill as Biden’s nominee for chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown, sat for his confirmation hearing.

Brown told the Senate Armed Services Committee the hold could affect both retention and recruiting, adding that it was forcing some generals to put off retirement and leading junior officers to reconsider their military careers. —Dustin Volz and Simon J. Levien contributed to this article.

Tuberville also came under fire over comments about white supremacists.

 

It sickens me how the so-called GOP senators can possibly condemn and criticize him for doing what needs to be done. You want to get the military’s attention this is exactly how to do it. Keep it up Tommy my man, go get em’! Wish my Florida senators had your set.

Originally posted 2023-07-13 15:27:48.

Current Events

Toxicity

6 Comments

A VERY WELL written article from US & World by someone who must have been a Marine. I looked him up and here is who he is: Prioleau Alexander, who is a native of Charleston, South Carolina, and a graduate of Auburn University, is a former Marine officer and a self-employed advertising entrepreneur. And trust me he pulls no punches. Enjoy. And oh BTW, I personally agree with everything he says. What say you?

US & WORLD

Fitness News – Independen. Unapologetic

Here he is with my favorite 2024 Presidential candidate

Prioleau Alexander: The Marine Ethos

Current administration making changes that go against the Corps’ congressionally mandated responsibilities …

by E Prioleau Alexander May 3, 2023 

I don’t know much about the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Coast Guard, but I do know a bit about the Marines … and I can tell you that since 1775, there is a singular mission that gets a United States Marine out of the bed before sunrise: Killing those who wish harm to the United States.

That’s it.

To understand a Marine, you must know they have one thing they fear far more than death: Failure to perform in a way worthy of those who worn the uniform before them – a reputation built on blood, pain, and death.

The Corps, you see, is not a branch of the military – it is a cult.

This is because Boot Camp and Officer Candidate School tear men down to the edge of their souls, then rebuild them as men who believe they could go head-to-head with Hell’s most powerful demons. These young men and women leave that training with the belief that there is no greater or harder-to-earn honor than wearing the Eagle, Globe, and Anchor insignia. With that goes their belief that “every Marine is a rifleman.”

Are there not men such as these in the other branches? Absolutely, but each branch has its own mission – and serving as America’s “force in readiness” rests with the Marines. It is their job to be the first to fight – taking charge of hostile situations by deploying extreme violence. In the Korean War, North Korea overran the south until there was but a tiny patch of land left unoccupied. The Marines landed, and in short order the retreat of the enemy began.

Who are the Americans who sign on to be a part of this? As liberals would say, “toxic males” join the cult because they are old-fashioned patriots – and want to be a part of America’s most elite fighting team. Tough and driven women who also want to be a part of something elite often join, even if it means certain jobs and promotions won’t be available to them.

Life is much easier for a woman in the other services, but female Marines aren’t looking for “easy.”

What binds these men and women? Their ethos. The belief that they are different from Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen. That they can do the impossible, despite a lack of funding and using the Army’s hand-me-down gear. That they can accomplish the difficult in short order – and the impossible with a little extra time.

The importance of Marines believing themselves to be a breed apart cannot be overstated. Writing about the current failures of Marine Corps leadership, Marine Medal of Honor recipients Maj. General Jim Livingston and Colonel Jay Vargas state, “The structure of the Corps or the weapons they are provided can be changed or reversed. Ethos is different—and once extinguished, it is gone forever.”

Marines have always been told they are America’s shock troops. They are the force the President uses when it’s time to call 911. Take that away, and you might as well offer them a beret and roll them into the Army.

For Marines, “the good order and disciple” of a combat unit is paramount, and that good order and disciple is based one primary belief: We are all the same. Yes, we are different colors of green, but we are all green. We are Marines, nothing will divide us, and no one will be singled out for any kind of special treatment.

The first open strike of the Marines’ ethos came with the reversal of “Don’t ask don’t tell,” a policy that worked well for the Marines. Openly gay individuals began serving in the Corps despite the fact the Corps is mostly comprised of “toxic males” who object.

Then came women in combat arms, and many “toxic” males in the business of gunfighting don’t want to be burdened by a female who may slow them down, or receive undue attention from instinctually-concerned males if wounded in combat. (For men, hearing a man scream in pain is very different than hearing a woman scream in pain).

U.S. Marines (USMC)

Finally, we come to admittance of openly trans individuals, with the military paying for their gender mutilation surgery. This needs no further analysis.

Is honoring the particular friction a person likes during sex worth disrupting the ethos of America’s one military unit capable of serving in every clime and place? Liberals would say, “If they don’t like it, they can get out.” They are. Liberals also say, “If they don’t like the new system, don’t join.” They aren’t.

If you haven’t served in the Corps, Marines don’t care about your opinion on “toxic” men… because they know first-hand these men are the best at stacking up enemy dead like cord wood. These “toxic “males speak of themselves only as Marines, without the need for adjectives pointing out their differences.

The current mumbling point for those in favor of this lunacy is that “the Corps is stronger with diversity.” No statement could be further from the truth: The Corps has been feared by enemies of America for centuries because there’s no diversity. Everyone is green, and committed solely to the accomplishment of the mission.

Is that offensive? Too bad … the truth can hurt.

In addition to the sexual revolution in an organization that lives and dies by unit cohesion, Marines find themselves with a new Commandant — General David Berger — who seems to have lost his mind … to the point of making changes that go against the Corps’ Congressionally mandated responsibilities.

No two words sum up this evolution better than the Commandant’s retention efforts being touted as “Talent Management.” First, these warriors aren’t “talent” — they are Marines. Second, Marines don’t “manage” anything – they lead. I confess I laughed out loud at the Commandant’s cluelessness when I read the words “talent management.”

U.S. Marines (USMC)

General Livingston and Colonel Vargas sum up the current Commandant’s other changes quite succinctly, pointing to the erosion of the Corps’ ethos: “The decision has been made to eliminate all armor, and scout sniper platoons in infantry battalions. The Corps is moving forward with drastic cuts in the infantry, cannon artillery, assault amphibious vehicles, aviation, military police, assault beaching and combat service support. They have crippled the Marine Corps capabilities to respond to global crises and contingencies across the spectrum of conflict. And they are investing in experimental weapons that simply replicate war-fighting skills offered by other services.”

It is madness to make cuts to anything having to do with the man-to-man warfighting skills and equipment needed to destroy the enemy, because man-to-man warfighting is the Corps. Tanks, assault amphibian vehicles, combat engineers, artillery, and the air wing exist solely to assist infantry grunts in planting the American flag on enemy soil. The rest of the Corps exists solely to support those combat arms units. The Army, Navy, and Air Force can handle the other warfighting needs — and they are quite good at it.

If you were to meet General Livingston or Colonel Vargas in person, even if they were attired in their Dress Blues and wearing their Medal of Honor decorations, it would be perfectly acceptable for you to forgo the formalities of their rank, and greet them by saying, “Hello there, Marine.”

That is part of the uniqueness of the Corps—that rank and awards take a distant second to the honor of being called a Marine.

If the Corps isn’t going to react on a moment’s notice to rain hell on an enemy that pops up in some remote area of the globe, who will?

I hope Congress and the Corps’ current leadership will get together for a discussion centering on the question, “Why are we trying to strangle the life out of the very things that make Marines who and what they are?” There are hundreds of thousands of former Marines out here who’d love to know the answer, and they’ll be joined by a few million civilians when they no longer hear the words, “The Marines have landed, and the situation is now under control.”

I never met Colonel Vargas, but I know MajGen Livingston very well. He was my 6th Marines regimental commander when I was blessed to have had command of 2/6, Huxley’s Harlots. There is no better warrior in my book. A Marines’ Marine through and through.

Originally posted 2023-06-21 18:41:14.

Current Events

Why Has he Not been Fired?

9 Comments

I have been remiss in posting anything on here for quite some time. I have been in the hospital with some plumbing issues. I reckon that comes about with some of us old codgers from time to time. But, other than feeling a tad weak and lightheaded at times, I believe I am on the mend. 

Anyway, I, along with a hell of a lot of other retired Marines, am wondering what is taking Trump so long to fire the fellow. He should have been the very first service chief to get the finger wave from Trump. In case you have not been privy to it, here is a very well-written piece by Gary Anderson, Col, USMC (Ret)

The Case Against the Marine Corps                                                    Commandant

Marine Corps Commandant Eric Smith should be the next
item on Hegseth’s housekeeping list.

The imminent early retirement of Air Force Chief of Staff General David Allen will leave one more Biden-era leftover military chief to be purged. That is General Eric Smith, the commandant of the Marine Corps. Actually, it is the opinion of many current and former Marines that Smith should have been the first to go.

If forcibly retired, Smith would join Allen, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Charles Q. Brown, former Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Lisa Franchetti, and the ex-Commandant of the Coast Guard Linda Fagan as casualties of the rot that permeated the defense establishment during the Biden era. This list does not include the Chief of Staff of the Army, who has so far flown beneath Hegseth’s radar as the Army has made significant innovative inroads on the China front. (RELATED: The Feather Merchants: Senior Leaders Subverted the Marine Corps)

Brown was too woke, and Allen was accused of not doing enough to counter China in the aerospace area. Franchetti and Fagan were seen as DEI hires not qualified for the job. The indictment against Smith has several counts; all more serious than the other four.  (RELATED: Some Generals Should Be Fired. Start With Eric Smith.)

First, he has stubbornly persisted in implementing his predecessor’s poorly conceived and badly executed Force Design strategy which abandoned the Marine Corps’ traditional focus on amphibious warfare and its role as the nation’s world-wide general purpose force in readiness in favor of a China-oriented missile heavy force that duplicates capabilities already exercised by the other services with missiles more capable of accomplishing the mission than what the Corps is buying. (RELATED: Getting the Marine Corps Out of the Chinese Finger Cuffs

Despite mounting evidence that Force Design is logistically unsustainable, is ignored by the Chinese, and is not wanted or needed by the theater commander or by the regional allies, Smith has stubbornly doubled down on it. General David Berger obviously chose Smith over several more competent and qualified general officers because he was a loyal acolyte who had helped Berger circumvent the Marine Corps’ time-tested Combat Development Process (CDP) to implement Berger’s “genius breakthrough.” The CDP was not perfect, but it was designed to prevent really bad ideas, such as Force Design, from becoming reality. (RELATED: The Marine Corps Has Gone Off the Rails)

A second charge is perhaps more serious than the first. In January of this year, General Smith made a false official statement to a group of reporters when he told them that the Marine Corps had never embraced DEI as official policy. (RELATED: Marine Corps Commandant Tells a Whopper)

He did this while his staff was desperately trying to purge its websites of all evidence to the contrary. This either showed poor judgment or abysmal ignorance of the fact that anything that goes out on the Internet stays there forever. Either of which should disqualify him from the office of commandant.

Any public statement by a Marine Corps commandant to the press is, by nature, an official statement. A false official statement is an offense punishable under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. If I had been caught making a false official statement while a serving Marine Corps officer, I would have been relieved of my position and subject to an Article 32 hearing (the equivalent of a civilian Grand Jury) and likely hauled before a general court-martial. Smith still sits in the commandant’s chair. Some pigs are more equal than others in Smith’s Marine Corps.

Third, Smith has contributed to the suppression of professional military expression and discussion in the Marine Corps, begun by General Berger, who made it plain that Force Design was a done deal and that honest discussion and criticism were neither wanted nor would be tolerated. On numerous occasions, members of the faculty at the Marine Corps Command and Staff College invited retired senior Marine Corps officers to debate the merits of Force Design. In each case, the sitting president of the Marine Corps University (MCU) cancelled the invitation. In one instance, a former MCU president was told that he lacked the expertise to discuss the topic.

As noted military theorist William Lind has pointed out, a particularly egregious example of the anti-intellectual bent of the Berger/Smith era: Not long ago, a German naval aviator spent some time at the Basic School, the school for all Marine lieutenants.  Because the German officer had a rank above lieutenant, TBS put some lieutenants under him.  He ran his small units German style, according to what maneuver warfare recommends.  The Marine lieutenants loved it.  The German officer was called in by other faculty who said to him, “You are teaching Marines to think.  We don’t want them to think.  We want them just to follow orders.”

Before Berger/Smith, the old trope about Marines being dumb was an urban legend. The senior Marine Corps leadership actively encouraged informed professional debate among Marines at all levels. No more.

The current president of MCU actively encourages spying on officers to uncover thinking that he deems inappropriate.

Come on, President Trump, what is it with this fellow? It seems to be either you like him, or you are simply not paying attention to what he and his predecessor have done to your Corps. Do you realize that you do not have a 911 call left?