For some bracing commentary on the state of the Navy-Marine Corps partnership, pull out a copy of the November Marine Corps Gazette and read the Major General Richard C. Schulze Memorial Essay, “Taking the High Road to Hell: The current state of the Navy-Marine Team.” The fascinating piece, penned by Col Gary W. Anderson, USMC (Ret), is brutal first salvo in the coming Pentagon war over resources.
The essay starts off by revealing some tasty gossip—a tale of Admiral Mike Mullen’s negative reaction (back in April 2007) to an apparently-still-yet-to-be-published Proceedings article, a piece by Marine Commandant General James Conway, tentatively titled “Storm troops from the sea.”
It just gets more acerbic from there on in, a thorough venting of spleen over the “incredible shrinking amphibious fleet,” Marine/Navy command and control failures, the lack of naval surface fire support, uncertainty over F-35 acquisitions and an ongoing Navy/Marine Corps spat over LCAC requirements.
Col Anderson even goes so far as to suggest that, if the Marine-Navy teams continue to bicker, Congress might be asked to intervene, kicking the Navy into “Blue Water” by either granting the Marine Corps authority over future amphibious ship construction or making the Corps join the Army (with its 54-ship fleet) as the primary administrators of the U.S. amphibious fleet.
The angry Colonel closes by remembering old pleas by Marine Corps leaders that upset young Majors:
“…take the high road, be patient, and let the CMC earn his pay. That approach worked well until the decision was made to retire the battleships, and the promise to find a substitute went unfilled. Then, in 2003, the wheels came off entirely.
We now have the smallest amphibious capability since WWII and on that is far short of the shipbuilding plan agreed to in 1992, without any change to the requirements agreed to in the DoN 2 Lift Study. We have seen a reduction of over 25 percent in our surface landing capability that is inadequate to project combat power ashore as called for in OMFTS doctrine. Somewhere along the line, the Marine Corps appears to be on the high road to hell, and the Navy is giving us a ride to get there.”
The National Intelligence Council has long predicted future conflicts over resources, but who knew those battles would start so quickly…and take place so close to home?
