I'll give you my top events affecting the Marine Corps in 2011. Feel free to add or subtract if you disagree but this is how I see it....
*HQMC wallows about seeking purpose and relevance.
The little issue with the move to have sleeves down despite a survey of Marines that indicated that the rank and file wanted to continue the practice is nothing but an indication that HQMC and the Commandant in particular are seeking to not only put its stamp on the Marine Corps but to also be viewed as relevant to his Marines. I cannot remember a Commandant that had as little support as this one. The only other embarrassment that wore 4 stars was the pathetic General Peter Pace. His time as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was disgraceful.
*IAR selected to replace SAWs in some roles.
The service that is suppose to epitomize frugality embarked on this quest to replace an automatic weapon with an assault rifle. The jury is still out on whether this was a good idea or not but it goes against Marine Corps ethos. Additionally when you have MEU's and Infantry Battalions still trying to figure out how they'll deploy the weapon then you have a still baked idea. Another black eye for the Corps.
*EFV gets canceled.
The EFV got whacked and while the writing was on the wall, it was still a terrible blow. HQMC, the manufacturer and the program office all get the blame for this fiasco. There was no sense of urgency, no drive to get the problems fixed, no attention to details...only a very late attempt to rally Congressional support for a fucked up weapon system.
*F-35 troubles continue.
Nuff said.
*Marines head back to the sea.
Another black eye for HQMC. They started the talk of being a second land army and every critic of the Marine Corps picked it up and ran with it. What was the remedy? To launch a concerted effort to inform the public and individual Marines that we were getting our sea legs back. Major exercises off the coast of Camp Pendleton and Camp Lejeune emphasize that fact. Problem is....the Marines never left the sea. MEU deployments continued unabated so consider this one a case of loose lips.
*MEB's are back in style.
The 3rd MEB was recently reactivated. What does that mean? I'm really not quite sure. But it appears that we have a doctrinal log jam coming up. All the rage was distributed operations, now we're switching gears and going toward Marine Expeditionary Brigade operations. One is based on extremely small unit ops, the other towards putting upwards of 15000 Marines into action. Mini-ARGs are not talked about, Distributed ops aren't talked about but somehow we're doing MEB exercises. Wow.
*Tanks deploy to the fight.
I wrote more than a few pieces on how Tanks needed to get into the fight or out of the Corps. I guess someone in Tanks had the same idea and wanted to get to the fight because they deployed to Afghanistan and are having great success. Heavy armor lives in the Corps.
*Boat spaces get slashed.
The Marines are about to take a big hit in manpower. We're starting at a little over 200,000 Marines are expected to get down to 186,000. Problem is with money sapping programs for aviation like the F-35B and the probably even more expensive F-35C, not to mention the MV-22, manpower will probably sink down to 150,000 in order to save money. Alot of good Marines are going to get whacked, a lot of shit birds will continue and the selection boards will have jacked it all up once again. Bad news for some good warriors in a terrible economy.
*The Navy bitch slaps the Marines.
The Marine Corps Aviation Neck Down Campaign indicated a desire to go to an all STOVL force. The Navy slapped the shit out of the Marines and forced the F-35C down our throats. The picture of the Commandant signing the agreement was priceless. I guess everyone gets to experience the Big Green Wiener...or in his case I guess it was the Big Blue Clitoris.
*The Marine bitch slaps the Navy.
The Navy has bigger priorities than amphibious shipping but somehow, someway the Marines were able to get the foundation of sea basing funded and in construction. They forced the F-35C on us, we forced a new class of ships on them. Pay back.
There are probably a ton of other issues that I missed but these just bounced off my forehead.
