Marine Wing Support Group 37 Deactivation Video Message...a victim of the new concept (how many have we seen over the past decade?)

Another deactivation.

The Marine Corps is shedding units faster than a dog sheds hair!

The weird thing?  How many different concepts have we heard trotted out?  Remember the shouting I did over being told that fighting in Mega Cities was the hot new thing?  Remember how we were told that the F-35 would act as a sensor node and be the quarterback in the sky?  That it was a "die in the ditch" program (funny thing is we're even cutting that now!) Remember the idea that cyber Marines would be the thing that would change the battlefield?  Remember how we needed to do sea basing to win the day?  There are a few more I've forgotten.

The point?

The difference between now and all the other stuff we've had slammed against the wall to see if it sticks is that we didn't see the MASSIVE shedding of combat power before it was realized that it wouldn't work.

Once it's gone getting it back in the coming age of EXTREME austerity for the military will be a herculean task...maybe impossible!

For some in my audience that continue to shout "believe the generals" I point to past performance.

I don't know why but this generation of generals have been more wrong than right.  It's not a hate filled statement.  It's been demonstrated right before our eyes.

So I hit you with this question.

If you have a general leadership that can't crack the code when it comes to fighting the Taliban, screwed the pooch in Iraq, seem confused as hell in Syria then why would you trust that same leadership to have it together when developing the future force to fight the Chinese?

I have to wonder if this isn't a final legacy building exercise by this class of generals.

The leadership of the 80's built a force that is still doing work to this very day. Gear coming online is already looking incapable of facing the future.  Their only shot at a legacy of "leaving the place as good (no way they can think they left it better) as they found it" is to develop a war winning concept.

For the Marines this will seal the deal on having the worst Commandant's in its history....3 of them in a row with another getting pulled to be CJCS (which means he will suffer the barbs of the failure in the Middle East along with the President he served).

Marines run to the sound of chaos?  Chaos is on every Marine installation right now...no need to go overseas to find it.