Behind the cover: Commandant calls out complacent leaders, tells Marines to quit embarrassing the Corps
April 30th, 2012 | Behind the Cover Leadership The CMC | Posted by Andrew deGrandpre
This week's cover story examines the commandant's new efforts to address misconduct in the ranks and restore the notion of engaged leadership.
The Marine Corps’ top general wants an end to the monkey business that, since the start of 2012, has cast a steady, unflattering light on an institution defined in no small part by the pride it exhibits in being a disciplined, moral fighting force.
“We are allowing our standards to erode,” Gen. Jim Amos, the service’s 35th commandant, laments in an internal memo distributed to all of his generals, commanding officers and sergeants major. Known as a White Letter, the sharply worded missive comes in response to “a number of recent widely publicized incidents” involving Marines misbehaving abroad.
Complacent leadership bears some of the blame, he says.
To recap: In January, a video surfaced showing grunts in Afghanistan appearing to urinate on dead Taliban foot soldiers. A month later, Amos apologized on behalf of the entire Marine Corps for photos of deployed scout snipers posing with a flag bearing the Nazi-era SS logo. At the same time, three Hawaii-based Marines were court-martialed in connection with the war-zone hazing and subsequent suicide of Lance Cpl. Harry Lew.
Since the White Letter was circulated, five Marines were implicated in separate prostitution scandals. One in Colombia and one in Brazil.
Amos is worried the fallout from these embarrassing incidents will eclipse the progress Marines have made in securing Afghanistan’s Helmand province, though he is quick to note that, overall, Marines have fought the war “in a way that meets the high, almost lofty expectations of the American people.” He has directed leaders across the fleet to get smart on specific regional directives governing conduct abroad, and get tough in ensuring the rules are crystal clear to rank-and-file personnel. The Marine Corps’ reputation is at stake, Amos says.
Additionally, the service will hold a daylong “ethics standdown” for all Marines in the coming weeks, and the commandant has launched a tour of bases and air stations to address his frustrations — and his expectations — and to point the way forward.
To learn what Amos has in store for Marines, pick up the current issue of Marine Corps Times. It’s on newsstands now. To read it immediately, click here and subscribe.
New Marine commanders take over in Afghanistan
March 1st, 2012 | Afghanistan Camp Leatherneck Leadership | Posted by Dan Lamothe
Maj. Gen. Charles Gurganus, left, tours Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan, in September 2011. (Marine Corps photo)
It’s that time of the year again: Transition is coming in Afghanistan.
The Marine Corps is in the process of swapping out the command elements in Helmand province, a rotation that will put new general officers in the driver’s seat. Maj. Gen. John Toolan, commander of Regional Command Southwest and II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), will be replaced March 12 by Maj. Gen. Charles Gurganus, Toolan said.
The subordinate command elements in Helmand province already have made the transition. The new commanders are:
Maj. Gen. Charles Gurganus
Commanding general, Regional Command Southwest and I Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward)
Gurganus will lead about 17,000 Marines and thousands more coalition troops at the beginning of his deployment, managing both continued combat operations and a drawdown to about 7,000 Marines by October. He previously served as the head of Marine ground forces in Iraq in 2007 and 2008.
Maj. Gen. David Berger
Commanding general, Task Force Leatherneck and 1st Marine Division (Fwd.)
He took over for Brig. Gen. Lewis Craparotta on Feb. 25, and will lead the I MEF (Fwd.) ground combat element. Berger previously served as the one-star director of operations at Marine Corps headquarters, and led Regimental Combat Team 8 in Iraq in 2005 and 2006.
Brig. Gen. Gregg Sturdevant
Commanding general, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing (Fwd.)
He took over for Maj. Gen. Glenn Walters as the head of Marine aviation in Afghanistan on Feb. 29. A former Marine sergeant, Sturdevant served as the commanding officer of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, out of Camp Lejeune, N.C., from May 2006 to May 2008. He has been selected for promotion to major general.
Brig. Gen. John Broadmeadow
Commanding general, 1st Marine Logistics Group (Fwd.)
He took over for Brig. Gen. Michael Dana as the head of Marine logistics in Afghanistan on Feb. 19. Broadmeadow served as the commanding officer of Marine Wing Support Squadron 371, out of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Calif., in Iraq from 2004 to 2006, and as the team chief and senior adviser to the 7th Iraqi Infantry Division during combat operations in 2008.
General: ‘Inside threat’ from Afghan troops takes courage to face
March 1st, 2012 | Afghanistan General officers Leadership | Posted by Dan Lamothe
Maj. Gen. John Toolan speaks with Marines of 1st Battalion, 6th Marines, during a January visit to Forward Operating Base White House. (Photo by Lance Cpl. Justin Loya)
In next week’s Marine Corps Times, we’ll have a package of stories highlighting what’s coming this summer for Marines in Afghanistan. Much of it comes from an interview I did Friday with Maj. Gen. John Toolan, the top commander in Helmand and Nimroz provinces, where 17,000 Marines are deployed.
We covered a lot of ground, some of which appeared in this breaking news story last week. Then I asked the general if there was anything else he wanted to touch on.
Not surprisingly, he said he was proud of the troops under his command. But he also added a candid assessment of what it’s like to be training members of the Afghan national security forces, even after dozens of them have killed U.S. personnel in the last few years.
“There’s one threat out there that could really damage the progress that has been made so far,” Toolan said. “There are a couple of threats, actually. Corruption is one. But, the other is this insider threat –you know, that the Afghan security forces in a couple of instances have turned on their advisers, trainers and mentors.”
The glue that keeps the training mission going is trust, and the insurgency knows it, Toolan said. The Taliban has actively attempted to turn Afghan troops against their mentors, “and it’s just an act of courage and commitment every day that our guys step up, take the time, building the relationships with the Afghans, teaching them about their job, and most importantly modeling how to behave when you’re given responsibility and authority.”
The general didn’t add much else to the topic, but it’s a frank assessment of what he and his troops are dealing with. It’s also rings a lot truer than when military officials suggest there’s no pattern emerging with green-on-blue deaths.
Marines in Helmand avoid Afghanistan’s Quran-burning violence
February 24th, 2012 | Afghanistan Leadership | Posted by Dan Lamothe
Afghans burn an effigy representing President Obama during Friday's protest over Koran burning at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan, in Ghani Khail, east of Kabul. (Associated Press photo)
U.S. soldiers burning Qurans at Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan has prompted violence and protests across the country, leading to at least 20 deaths. Noticeably absent from the fray, however, is an area that has seen more than its share of violence — Helmand province.
Helmand, occupied by some 17,000 Marines, has avoided bloodshed tied to the controversy so far, Maj. Gen. John Toolan told me today during a phone interview. He attributed the success to a plan hatched by Mohammad Gulab Mangal, Helmand’s governor, to quickly respond with several respected mullahs to areas where anger over the burning of the Muslim holy book swelled.
The governor asked Toolan to set aside a helicopter in case it was needed to get to a protest before it boiled over into violence, the general said. In Lashkar Gah, Helmand’s capital, Mangal and the mullahs also met yesterday with a charged crowd of people at a soccer stadium. Toolan said the governor reiterated that it was ignorance, not hatred, that prompted the soldiers to burn the Qurans — and then the crowd dispersed.
“They basically walked out of the soccer stadium and went home,” Toolan said. “It’s really been the Afghan leadership that has stepped up and taken responsibility, and I’ve seen that happening so many times over the past several months. It’s almost gotten to the point when we talk about transition and we give over the reigns to the Afghans, they won’t give it back.”
Toolan also instructed his Marines to minimize operations today, he said. Muslims typically attend the mosque on Fridays, and the general was concerned inflamed rhetoric there combined with regularly patrolling could incite violence.
“Certainly there was a great deal of concern coming out of Kabul that this Koran burning could ignite a lot of demonstrations and riots throughout the area,” Toolan said. “A lot of the heated debates and discussions come out of the mosque, so we told our armed forces to minimize their operations and wherever possible, keep out of the populated centers. There’s no need to cause any stir.”
It’s an encouraging sign for a section of Afghanistan in which U.S. forces will be drawn down significantly this year. As reported here, Toolan said today he expects there will be about 7,000 Marines left in Afghanistan by October.
Marine captain: ‘We don’t know how to supervise anymore’
February 14th, 2012 | Leadership Marines | Posted by Dan Lamothe
It has been a rough few months in the public relations department for the Marine Corps.
In separate incidents, the Corps has taken hits in the last few months for the hazing-related death of Lance Cpl. Harry Lew, the revelation that Marines in Afghanistan urinated on the corpses of dead Taliban last year and the scout sniper community’s use of the stylized “lighting bolt” SS logo popularized by the notorious Nazi SS organization.
Time Magazine’s military blog, Battleland, ties those themes together in a blog post today provocatively titled, “What’s wrong with the Marines?” Some readers will be quick to point out the mainstream media’s alleged hatred for the military, but it’s worth considering where Battleland got its fodder: an active-duty officer.
Capt. Brett Friedman argues on the Marine Corps Gazette’s blog that while it’s possible rank-and-file sniper in the recent logo controversy didn’t know the symbol’s significance, it’s not possible that all staff noncommissioned officers and officers in charge of scout sniper units across the Corps didn’t.
“No way,” he writes. “They just refused to do anything about it.”
Friedman then broadens his argument to make a broader point: “We don’t know how to supervise anymore.” A segment of his piece:
Our culture has brought us to the point where we all bear responsibility for these events. Every one of us. Every NCO who is more concerned with knocking out a checklist than mentoring his young Marines. Every SNCO who spends time searching out uniform regulation infractions. Every officer more concerned with paperwork and formats than setting an example. Every Marine, of any rank, who has told a subordinate to “shut up and color” when he or she pointed out that something was wrong. Our acquiescence to a culture of corrosive leadership has created this problem. We allowed leadership to be conflated with the creation and rote memorization of irrelevant regulations. We stopped mentoring and started poor parenting. We allowed bureaucratization to drown professionalism. We fostered a belief that we are special snowflakes who need rules, but not morality. We hazed Lance Corporal Lew. We desecrated human bodies. We posed in front of Nazi symbology. It’s our fault that the Commandant has had to publicly apologize for a problem that our poor leadership caused.
Friedman isn’t pulling punches, and he isn’t some outsider looking in. One wonders: What kind of attention will his writing receive?
‘Your quarterback is your platoon commander’
January 5th, 2012 | Leadership Recruiting The Sgt. Major of the Marine Corps | Posted by Tony Lombardo
The Marine Corps hosted the inaugural Semper Fidelis All-American Bowl on Jan. 3 in Phoenix.
The competition pitted the East against the West in a game featuring 100 of the best high school football athletes from across the country.
On Jan. 4, official B-roll surfaced from the East’s locker room, revealing the pep talk given to players by Maj. Gen. Ronald Bailey, commander of 1st Marine Division, and Sgt. Maj. Mike Barrett, the Corps’ top enlisted Marine.
While the West would go on to beat the East, 17-14, Barrett had some strong words to pump the players up.
At about the 3 ½-minute mark, Barrett tells the team:
Your quarterback is your platoon commander. Do everything as a team. Everything you have …all your means…all your talents…all your fiber…leave it out on the battlefield today. Everything you have, leave it on the field today. You should walk back into this room at the end of the game with nothing left. If you can come in here and jack around and do nonsense, you did not give it all!”
In the West locker room, Brig. Gen. Joseph Osterman, commander of Marine Recruiting Command, and Sgt. Maj. Michael Logan, also of Recruiting Command, led the pep talk. Footage of their speech was not immediately available.
Marine baby creates commotion with President Obama
December 27th, 2011 | Leadership Pacific issues | Posted by Dan Lamothe
President Obama laughs as 8-month-old Cooper Wagner puts his hand in the president's mouth on Christmas. (Associated Press photo)
Once again, a reminder: Children are unpredictable.
Marine Capt. Greg Wagner and his wife, Meredith, saw that firsthand on Christmas as President Obama visited Marine Corps Base Hawaii. While the couple took a photograph with the president, their 8-month-old son, Cooper, put his hand in Obama’s mouth.
Meredith said this morning on Good Morning America that she was “mortified” at the time, even though it appears that Obama laughed it all off.
“I was mortified,” she said. “I was embarrassed.”
Capt. Wagner gave the president credit for keeping things light.
“He kind of laughed and said that Cooper looked up and saw his big nose and just wanted to get a hold of it,” the Marine told GMA. “He played it off really well and got a good chuckle.”
Here’s video of the moment:
A Christmas message from the Commandant and Mrs. Amos
December 14th, 2011 | General officers Leadership The CMC | Posted by Gina Cavallaro
Marines, Marine families, Marine supporters and anyone who’s ever worn the Marine Corps uniform get a Christmas salute from Gen. and Mrs. Bonnie Amos in this 4:43 minute video shot at The Home of the Commandants in Washington, D.C.
With “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” playing softly in the background, the commandant sends a “special shout out” to the “more than 30,000 Marines and sailors forward deployed and forward engaged in the defense of our nation in Helmand province, aboard ships at sea, at embassies and in detachments around the globe.”
Taking turns addressing viewers, Bonnie Amos points out the loneliness felt by Marines away from family at Christmas time and notes that she and the commandant have endured such separations over time.
The video was released by the commandant’s office on Dec. 14. Here’s a link.
Is Gen. John Allen already at odds with the president on Afghanistan?
December 8th, 2011 | Afghanistan General officers Leadership | Posted by Dan Lamothe
Well, that didn’t take long.
With a massive military drawdown in Afghanistan looming, there are plenty of questions about what U.S. forces and NATO can do to consolidate and preserve gains in security that have been made in the war-torn country.
Military leadership appears to have accepted that forces will be cut from the estimated 97,000 troops in theater to about 68,000 by the end of next summer. That would leave the U.S. with about the same amount of troops that it had in combat before President Obama ordered the surge of about 33,000 troops into theater in late 2009.
A new report in the Wall Street Journal suggests that Gen. John Allen, the top commander in Afghanistan, is privately lobbying to end the drawdown there, at least for now. That would appear to put him at odds with Obama, who has said troops would continue to leave at a “steady pace” after 2012.
From the report:
… people briefed on Gen. Allen’s thinking said he wants to halt troop withdrawals after the 2012 reductions and maintain troop levels at 68,000 through all of 2013. He envisages the drawdown resuming sometime in 2014, the year Afghans are scheduled to assume lead responsibility for securing the country, officials said.
This position reflects the findings of an internal assessment by NATO’s International Security Assistance Force, which Gen. Allen commands.
The assessment, officials said, warns that quickly cutting U.S. troop levels below 68,000 would make it harder to clear and hold insurgent havens, and would complicate efforts to protect supply lines and bases ahead of the scheduled 2014 handover.
And therein lies the next likely rub about managing the war. While it is now accepted that the U.S. and coalition forces likely will not crush all vestiges of the insurgency before they leave Afghanistan, there are still many parts of the country that resemble the Wild West, especially in the east. One needs only to watch this video to see that there’s also still plenty of fight left in Helmand province, where about 19,000 Marines are still deployed.
It was acknowledged in many circles that the surge to 100,000-plus troops was temporary in nature, but the timeline for cutting forces below the amount in country in 2009 was never clear. Those decisions will go a long way toward deciding how quickly it takes to complete the drawdown, and what we leave behind in Afghanistan.
Marine Lt. Gen. Dennis Hejlik just launched a blog
November 10th, 2011 | General officers Leadership | Posted by Dan Lamothe
One of the Marine Corps’ most senior officers has just joined the revolution.
The blogging revolution, that is. On the eve of the Corps’ birthday, Lt. Gen. Dennis Hejlik posted his first entry on the new Marine Corps Forces Command Commander’s Blog. He also laid out his plans for the site:
I recently have come to appreciate blogs as a way a leader can share his thoughts while also collecting feedback from a broad group with a wide variety of perspectives. I’ve been particularly impressed with the United States Fleet Forces Command Blog started by Admiral J.C. Harvey, and my goal here is to pursue a similar course.
I plan to use the Marine Corps Forces Command Blog to offer my perspective on a variety of issues – from topics as broad as the future of the Marine Corps, to personal observations on leadership. At times, I will open these ruminations to comment in the interests of meaningful two-way communication. Other times, I will not. (It’s my blog, I can do that.)
It’ll be interesting to see where the general takes it. Harvey’s blog offers a mixture of observations and situation reports, allowing the admiral to draw attention to naval exercises and other military operations as he sees fit. Hejlik said in his initial post that he will be posting regularly about the forthcoming Bold Alligator exercise in the next few months, but he’ll touch on other things, too.