"Old Breed" USMC General says Corps might not be ready for war.

via Stars and Stripes.

If the Marines were called today to respond to an unexpected crisis, they might not be ready, a top Marine general told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.

Gen. John Paxton, assistant commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, testified to lawmakers that the Marines could face more casualties in a war and might not be able to deter a potential enemy.

“I worry about the capability and the capacity to win in a major fight somewhere else right now,” he said, citing a lack of training and equipment.

Paxton, along with the vice chiefs of the Army, Navy and Air Force, spoke to the Senate committee on the readiness challenges facing each service after 15 years of war and recent budget cuts.

For the Marines, he said units at home face the most risk because of fewer training opportunities with the best equipment deployed with forces overseas. And it would be these undertrained home units that would be called to respond to an unexpected crisis.

“In the event of a crisis, these degraded units could either be called upon to deploy immediately at increased risk to the force and the mission, or require additional time to prepare thus incurring increased risk to mission by surrendering the initiative to our adversaries,” Paxton said. “This does not mean we will not be able to respond to the call … It does mean that executing our defense strategy or responding to an emergent crisis may require more time, more risk, and incur greater costs and casualties.”

I know Paxton.  This guy is hard as woodpecker lips, straight talking without the fluff and IS a Marine's Marine.  He was second on my favorites list to become Commandant.

But back to the issue at hand.  The USMC is pushing forces out at such an unsustainable pace that its wrecking itself.  Putting Marines on alternate transports, SPMAGTF-CRs, going aviation centric/seagoing 101st....all that is messing with the rotation schedule and not giving Marines and our equipment time to rest, recover and reset.

You want to take the first step toward fixing what's wrong with the USMC?  Get away from this think tank garbage and deploy the way we're designed to.  Okinawa, floats and now Australia...but can the SPMAGTF-CRs....aviation just can't take the strain.