Marines Won’t ChangeThere will be no attempt whatsoever to make the Marine Corps a more congenial and comfortable organization to work for, its Commandant said yesterday.
"Negative," General Leonard F. Chapman Jr. replied with brisk, professional economy when asked about the prospects.
General Chapman spoke at a press conference at the Marines' Memorial Club during a one-day stopover in the Bay Area to inspect Marine facilities.
PROPOSAL
He was asked about proposals revealed last week by the Army which would ease life for the enlisted man by eliminating such trials as predawn reveille and midnight inspections.
Chapman, crisp, dry and unwrinkled, made his one-word reply when someone inquired as to whether the Marines might do likewise. "Why not, General?" another reporter asked.
"The object of recruit training is to instill discipline and other virtues of loyalty and patriotism and to put recruits under physical and mental strains to see if they can stand up to it," the four-star general said.
"If he can't take it at the recruit depot, he can't take it on the battlefield," Chapman added.
TOUGHER
In fact, he commented after a pause, if anything the Marines are going to "tighten up and toughen up".
The Commandant had occasion during the press conference to reject another suggestion from an Army source calling for the formation of longhair and shorthair platoons to spur rivalry.
That suggestion - with the inevitable allusions to General George Custer of the long, flowing locks - was made in this month's Military Review, a publication of the Army's general staff college.
"The Marine Corps is not going to do that because it's hazardous in combat," Chapman said, unsmilingly, noting that long hair tends to get tangled in rifle and machine gun parts.
Beyond that, he said, "wounds in hairy areas are much more susceptible to infection."
Chapman afterward awarded the Navy Cross - the nation's second highest decoration for heroism - to Staff Sergeant Harold A. Riensche, 29, now a mechanic for the city of Oakland.
Friday, August 16, 2013
No Compromise, General Chapman 24th Commandant of the Marine Corps via Sgt Grit.
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