A quick and dirty while I feast on college football.
Seizing airports is cool. It's the fashionable thing in the US Dept Of Defense. But its not the secret sauce to robust logistic support.
If you want to go beyond the visual and head into the realm of the actual and factual then the US Marines, US Navy and even the SEALs/Special Forces should pivot completely away from airport seizure and instead focus on port seizure.
Once again we're looking at a massive HA/DR event in the Bahamas. What will get the most gear ashore? Not airlift but rather sea lift.
Before Commandant Neller left office there was a bright point where he talked about getting back into the port seizure game. Unfortunately after it was stated we saw almost nothing. No papers on the subject in the professional journals, no talk at exhibitions...nothing.
That's a pity.
Since the disaster in Nepal we have seen the USMC attempt to pivot from ship based HA/DR to aviation based help.
From my chair the results have been much less than optimal.
We allowed a concept to take precedence over providing robust life saving functions. All because we emphasized aviation. All in the effort to become aviation centric.
The problem is that this extends from HA/DR to low level warfare all the way up the spectrum.
Port seizure.
When we wrap our heads around this basic function of the United States Marine Corps we'll be back on the right path.
