General Amos. I'm not a fan but his vision of the USMC was spot on...

Thanks to John for the link!

via San Diego Tribune.

"The Marine Corps is America's Expeditionary Force in Readiness * a balanced air-ground-logistics team. We are forward-deployed and forward-engaged * shaping, training, deterring and responding to all manner of crises and contingencies. We create options and decision space for our Nation's leaders. Alert and ready, we respond to today's crisis, with today's force...TODAY. Teaming with other services, allies and interagency partners, we enable and participate in joint and combined operations of any magnitude. Responsive and scalable, we operate independent of local infrastructure. A middleweight force, we are light enough to get there quickly, but heavy enough to carry the day upon arrival. We operate throughout the spectrum of threats * irregular, hybrid, or conventional * or the shady areas where they overlap. Marines are ready to respond whenever the Nation calls...wherever the President may direct."

Then this...

 Factoring all aspects of our role in the Nation's defense, the United States Marine Corps affords the following three strategic advantages:

* We provide a versatile ‘middleweight' capability to respond across the range of military operations.

* We possess an inherent agility that buys time for national leaders and provides them decision space to better analyze developing situations.

* And finally, we bring an enabling and partnering capability to joint and combined operations of any magnitude.

So tell me something readers.  Remember my post from yesterday?  You can check it out here but focus on the part where a serving General is describing the USMC.

 Lt. Gen. Gary Thomas, deputy commandant for programs and resources, said the Marines had not invested as much money into modernization overall as the service would have liked, due to spending caps and near-term readiness challenges, but he said in terms of the aviation versus ground force spending “we do feel like we are balanced.”
“We are a light general purpose force. 

If we're changing from a medium weight general purpose force that can scale up and down the spectrum of combat to a light general purpose force then we need to re-do roles and missions and let the Army know that they're gonna be taking on a bigger slice of the ground combat pie.

What's worse?  It appears that there is no confusion and that the goal IS to become a light general purpose force (if the old adage of "don't listen to words, watch what they spend money on" applies).

General Thomas is the Deputy Commandant for programs and resources.  It's his job to build the Marine Corps to plan.  Either he lied, misspoke or doesn't know what the hell he's doing.  You pick which one.