More Generals and Civilian General Equivalents for the Corps.

Pathetic.

Around 20,000 Marines are about to be shown the door and yet the Flag ranks (and civilian equivalent...whatever the FUCK that means) continues to expand.

Via Marines.mil.

WASHINGTON, D.C.  — Eight brigadier generals and brigadier general-selects, and six general officer-equivalent civilians were honored here during a ceremony commencing the 2012 Brigadier General Select Orientation Course Aug. 20.
BGSOC is a week-long course held in the National Capital Region to indoctrinate newly promoted and soon-to-be promoted brigadier generals and senior executives into their new rank and responsibilities.
This year’s BGSOC attendees include Brig. Gen. Burke Whitman, Brig. Gen. Gregg Olson, Brig. Gen. Paul Lebidine, Col. Matthew Glavy, Col. William Mullen III, Col. James O’Meara, Col. Edward Banta, Col. Eric Smith, Ariane Whittemore, Russell Howard, Dr. Todd Calhoun, James Simpson, Leila Gardner and William Dillon.
The course will feature appearances and speeches from the secretary of the navy, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, commandant of the Marine Corps, assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, sergeant major of the Marine Corps, and deputy commandants.
Bonnie Amos, first lady of the Marine Corps, is also scheduled to host the spouses of the BGSOC attendees at the Home of the Commandants, to include a full tour of the 15,000-square-foot house, which is also the oldest continually occupied building in Washington.
The course is held every year in August.

Wow.

And you thought it wasn't a club.  A week long orientation course?  I said club, I should have said fraternity.

24th MEU Amphibious Raid

Photos by Cpl. Michael Petersheim

Arktos Amphibious Craft.

US Coast Guard Amphibious Craft.

Who knew?  The US Coast Guard has amphibius craft!  Too bad they haven't expanded this program to include smaller vehicles for use in the Southern US.  I can actually see them doing good work especially after a hurricane hits...AAV's played a huge role in the rescue of citizens after Hurricane Katrina and it might be good to see a few painted in Coast Guard colors.  On a side note maybe police depts need to be equipping with those type vehicles for real rescue work instead of MRAPs.

Type 26 Global Combat Ship

David Axe. You're a dumb ass!

Open note to David.

Dude!  I stepped up to defend you when those bubbas at SOFREP were handing you your ass over the statement made by the General in S. Korea when he made a weird statement about missions being run in the North.

I had forgiven you when it came to some pretty obvious school boy follower ship of the Dark Lord Sweetman and his critique of the F-35 program.  But this new little ditty is just too much.

Oh sorry.  Let me get everyone up to speed.  David wrote this article on the F-35...the whole thing is pretty pathetic but his part stood out.

No mention of the JSF program’s years of delays and rising costs, its reliability and performance problems and the fact that the Marines’ slavish dedication to the flawed stealth fighter means the Corps risks losing its ability to fight in the air.

Read the whole thing but that verbiage is straight out of the Sweetman, Air Power Australia and ELP playbook.  As a matter of fact he can probably get hit with plagiarism cause I'm sure I've read those exact words on one of those websites.

I would like to say that I'm disappointed but that would be a lie.  I expect this kind of behavior along with the secondary effect of Aviation Week linking to his site to help them prove that "we're not the only ones that dislike the F-35" theme.  Its all bullshit and David's a dumb ass. 

NOTE:  The F-35 program is up to speed/performing well and his statement about slavish devotion makes me want to punch walls.  Get a clue you son of a bitch. 

UPDATE:  I know the F-35 Haters Club like I know the inner workings of an M-16A4.  Sure as shit, Sean Meade linked to David Axe's story!  Check out the timeline on my blog posting and then go here to see the link for yourself.

UK cutting top billets. The USMC should do the same.

via BFBS.

The military's "top-heavy" command will be cut by a quarter under the latest in a wave of defence cuts to save £3.8 million a year.

Thousands of posts have already been cut after the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review. These latest cuts were recommended in a report by Lord Levene last year.
Defence Secretary Philip Hammond says one in four senior posts from the ranks of commodore, brigadier, air commodore and above will go and the top brass cull will take two years to carry out.
It means around 26 civilian and military head office posts are being axed and a new senior structure will come in from April next year.

A new streamlined head office will focus more on providing strategic direction. It will no longer get involved in the day-to-day management of the front line commands, which will take over responsibility for managing their own budgets.

Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said: “At a time when we are making difficult decisions about defence spending and have had to accept reductions across the board we cannot ignore the volume of posts at the top. For too long the MOD has been top heavy, with too many senior civilians and military.

“Not only does this new structure reduce senior staff posts by up to a quarter in the next two years, but it allows clear strategic priorities to be set for the Armed Forces. It will hold the frontline Commands to account for their delivery and support them in the tasks they are set.

Acting Permanent Under Secretary Tom McKane said: “All parts of Defence are being restructured as we transform the way the Ministry of Defence does business, and Head Office is no exception. A smaller Head Office focused on strategic direction and policy, which hands more responsibility to the front-line commands, allows for a better-run organisation.”

Wow.

The Brits are actually doing what everyone has always talked about.

Take the US Marine Corps for example.  We're about to put 20,000 Marines out on the street, yet we haven't heard one peep about reducing the number of Flag Billets or seen a reduction in support elements.  All we know for sure is that several Infantry Battalions are going away.

AMAZING.

Time for the Corps to man up.  If you can kick LCPL Schmucatelli to the curb then you can do the same to General Don't Know Shit (said in jest...relax rank thumpers).

Seriously though.  Its time for the Marine Corps to seriously clean house.  Close down shops, combine functions and billets and make this a streamlined machine again.

NOTE:  This should also apply doubly so for all the civilian billets that dot the Marine Corps landscape.

Amphibious Vehicle Test Branch.

The Marine Corps does a good job of leveraging off the expertise found in other services when possible, one area where it isn't is amphibious vehicle testing.

Because of that the Amphibious Vehicle Test Branch was established.  You can check out their website here, but unfortunately a unit history isn't provided.  To be quite honest I'm extremely curious and wonder how long they've been in existence.  What  I do know is that they've had a hand in bringing the improved AAV into existence and they were working hard on the EFV before it went belly up.

The AVTB.  One of the unknown units of the Corps.