Thanks for the article Lee!
via Inside Defense (behind paywall...thanks for getting me straight Tad!).
I believe it.
But forget the internal Marine Corps politics of this and think about the environment where the Commandant of the Marine Corps is about to establish a force that flies by V-22, is extremely vulnerable upon entry into the landing zone and will have a force of about 100 or so Marines to carry out operations...and this is gonna happen in the CENTCOM area of responsibility.
Someone is gonna die if this force is ever used. Correction. Many Marines are gonna die.
There are few more hostile, cavemen sporting sophisticated weapons with advanced training in fighting US forces (a lot of them trained by us) places in the world than the Middle East.
And what is our answer? To station a battalion at Djibouti with a JHSV ready to send them where they're needed? No. The answer out of the Commandant's office is to slam a company of grunts into the back of MV-22's, send them into harms way and hope that a small force of Marines can keep another BlackHawk Down from occurring.
Those Marines that will take that fateful ride might not even be in the Corps yet but they're screwed.
via Inside Defense (behind paywall...thanks for getting me straight Tad!).
The Marine Corps is looking to establish a special-purpose, Marine Air-Ground Task Force used for crisis response in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility about a year from now, according to a service spokesman.Rumor has it that the General's Club USMC, is doing a massive pushback on a whole range of Amos initiatives.
The new unit would support CENTCOM in addition to a Marine Expeditionary Unit that inhabits the Arabian Gulf, Marine Corps spokesman Capt. Eric Flanagan said Nov. 14.
With fewer ships available, the Marines plan to set up a SPMAGTF-CR in CENTCOM because, while being more affordable, it will still allow the Marines to respond to a crisis in a timely manner. All Marines in CENTCOM will report to the commander of the future SPMAGTF-CR, Flanagan said.
Maj. Gen. Robert Walsh, the service's director of expeditionary warfare, said Oct. 31 in Portsmouth, VA, that the service would much rather have Marines aboard ships but since there are fewer amphibious ships available those Marines will be land based. "So, that's a real challenge," he added
I believe it.
But forget the internal Marine Corps politics of this and think about the environment where the Commandant of the Marine Corps is about to establish a force that flies by V-22, is extremely vulnerable upon entry into the landing zone and will have a force of about 100 or so Marines to carry out operations...and this is gonna happen in the CENTCOM area of responsibility.
Someone is gonna die if this force is ever used. Correction. Many Marines are gonna die.
There are few more hostile, cavemen sporting sophisticated weapons with advanced training in fighting US forces (a lot of them trained by us) places in the world than the Middle East.
And what is our answer? To station a battalion at Djibouti with a JHSV ready to send them where they're needed? No. The answer out of the Commandant's office is to slam a company of grunts into the back of MV-22's, send them into harms way and hope that a small force of Marines can keep another BlackHawk Down from occurring.
Those Marines that will take that fateful ride might not even be in the Corps yet but they're screwed.
