Amphibious Assault.
I wasn't a fan of the former Commandant, but one thing he did do right is keep his eyes and by extension the eyes of the Marine Corps squarely on forcible entry. The debate has been heated, I've absolutely loathed his ideas of becoming a "tilt rotor" biased force but at least the discussion and the THINKING was taking place. I'm of the opinion that we will have to do it the old fashioned way. Carriers, USAF Bombers, 82nd parachuting in waiting for us to link up with them before they're over run, a full scale Marine Expeditionary Brigade running the whole thing and a Regiment sized Landing Team to get the job done before follow on Stryker Brigades land to exploit the initial assault.
Yeah its rolling back enemy defenses, feints to draw off enemy defense and a whole lot of naval gunnery pounding the enemy just for fun but its workable. It can be done. It will be messy but forcible entry is never pretty.
Airborne Assault.
Not real solid on the concept of operations for an Airborne Assault except for what I've read and picked up in a few short conversations with Para-Troopers on how they apply their skill set. From what I gather this is risky beyond belief. You send a Division Ready Company, Brigade or higher into bad guy land and then expect this lightly armed force to hold a set piece of ground (or create havoc) behind enemy lines until they're linked up with. But in discussing forcible entry we also have to remember the insertion method. You're flying C-130's into a hostile area (and if we're treating them like we treat USMC amphibious ops) that's against a moderate to high tech force...which means that they will be facing S-300/400/500's on the run in to the drop zone. They'll be facing enemy fighter planes. If by the Grace of God they make it to the drop zone then they'll immediately be faced with linking up with their comrades all while fighting off mechanized infantry or even combined arms task forces that play it smart and simply call in artillery strikes on their positions. It can be made to work but is much more risky than any amphibious operation, will be operating farther away from supporting forces, will require the dedication of probably the entire remaining USAF to stay supplied and will desperately need those much maligned Stryker Brigades to take the governors off their vehicles and zoom in to help out.
Heliborne Assault.
This form gives me the jitters. I can see Amphibious and Airborne but for some reason the Joint Chief's list this a one of the three forms. I'm not sure and I'm not sold on it. Never forget the mauling that our Apache's got in an assault they carried out against a mechanized division. Small arms chewed them up. But before I go on, let me state clearly that I've never discussed how the 101st would conduct a forcible entry operation. I've never even read a scenario that would make it a viable option. Quite honestly in my opinion the 101st would be better served to revert back to an Airborne outfit, farm out its helicopters to the rest of the Army and relieve some of the pressure on the 82nd.
Conclusion.
Its easy to toss stones at the USMC when it comes to the forcible entry mission, but lets be honest here. Currently the USMC is really the ONLY game in town when it comes to getting into bad guy land when the bad guy doesn't want you there and they're not adjacent to a country that will let you stage.
I doubt very seriously if the JCS will ever get serious about the forcible entry mission but if we're going to be real then we have to acknowledge that at least the USMC is taking the role seriously.
