Been saying this for years, finally, somebody who apparently matters agreed. These are the tactics most folks know nothing about and need to start realizing ARE tactics.

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/0/A55EE70A90E4276485256FF0006B466F?opendocument

Looks like the Marines are starting to once again blend in with the local culture as they have so successfully in the past.The CAP program during VietNam comes to mind.
Good on them.

I had read about this a couple of days ago. Some have treated as if it were a brand new concept though as the article implies, it's old school really.

When Al Gray was the CMC, he really brought about a renewed emphasis on smart fighting, maneuver warfare and a more intelligent aspect to the warrior ethos. What we see going on now in the Corps is all fruit from the seeds that Gen. Gray and others planted when they saw what the Cold War was doing to our military.

The War Fighting Manual that Gray authorized is still available in just about any Borders or Barnes and Nobles. Good stuff, makes a good gift too, even to non-military types.

Airwinger,
Don't know when you got out...I assume you got out from your post. This is "new". Not new to the USMC, but new to this generation of Marines. The programs and emphasis he placed on many things went by the wayside (some of it stayed, but not his emphasis on what is now called "cultural intelligence"). I've been through the huge successes we had in Somalia (well, the op went bad under the US Army, but we had some good stuff going when I was there), to total ignorance. The S-3 went back to driving operations instead of intel, nobody wanted to hear anything about what the enemy had to say...they were just targets. So, like I said when I started this post, somebody, who apparently mattered, finally noticed this might be a problem.
That's why Marines are "dusting off" the Small Wars Manual, everybody put that thing away. And, yes, I've heard many Vietnam Vets claim this is very much like the CAP. And how well (like Somalia) it was working, even though the overall outcome became a flawed political football.

Sorry gunny, didn’t mean to imply that Gray was individually responsible for this or to take away from your post. My comments were of a broader context.

I went in the Corps in 88 and there were a lot of changes going on when I got there. It was obvious, everywhere we went, the senior Marines were always talking about how things were changing and all of them who were worth listening to had positive remarks about the changes and for Gen. Gray in particular.

From my own experience and subsequent learning since I’ve been out, the Marine Corps began a formal change just prior to Gen Gray and has been evolving into an ever leaner and professional fighting force since then. Gray just gave it substance and acted as a vehicle of sorts for a lot of good ideas that had been floating around the officer corps and this is the ethos that I think has enabled such ideas as this one you’re posting on.

If you are interested,there is a great book called "The Village"by FJ West Jr.,a former Marine.
It is about a village in Quang Ngai Province in Viet Nam and the Combined Action Program the Marines were carrying out there.
Great book by a man that was there.It has been reprinted so you can probably pick it up in paperback at a bookstore.

"Bing" West wrote the book and yes, it's currently in print. He also wrote the more recent book "The March Up" where he and another former Marine, a general tag along with the Marines for their march on Baghdad.

Victor Krulak, father of the more recenty CMC Krulak, wrote a great book about the Marine Corps between WWII and Vietnam. Reading this book, one sees that the traditional Marine thinking typically produced efforts like the cultural training cited in the article above. The Corps still relied on the Small Wars Manual up to Vietnam and since CMC Gen Gray, in the late 80s - early 90s, has tended to go back towards that "intelligent" warrior mindset.

It was as an 18 year old E-3, a mechanic no less, when I was encouraged to read such things as Sun Tzu and Gunny Hathcock's story. The latter, not for the ooh-rah factor but for the nuts and bolts of what made Hathcock a warrior.

quote:

Originally posted by Airwinger:
Sorry gunny, didn’t mean to imply that Gray was individually responsible for this or to take away from your post. My comments were of a broader context.

I went in the Corps in 88 and there were a lot of changes going on when I got there. It was obvious, everywhere we went, the senior Marines were always talking about how things were changing and all of them who were worth listening to had positive remarks about the changes and for Gen. Gray in particular.

From my own experience and subsequent learning since I’ve been out, the Marine Corps began a formal change just prior to Gen Gray and has been evolving into an ever leaner and professional fighting force since then. Gray just gave it substance and acted as a vehicle of sorts for a lot of good ideas that had been floating around the officer corps and this is the ethos that I think has enabled such ideas as this one you’re posting on.

General Gray did great things, yes, and it was his idea to focus more on these things. When the cultural focus program began (I don't think there was a specific name for it) I was involved in it. I was giving cultural briefs every month, we were sending Marines away all the time to cultural comms and AO orientation courses. This all slowly petered out during the mid-late 1990's and dead by the turn of the century. Typically, Marines have a short memory when it comes to doing business (part of that is the high turnover/no homesteasing attitude). We recreate the wheel over and over and over again. I personally think this is what makes Marines stand out. Yes, we've done it before, yes, we're playing games (again) re-doing the same friggin thing we did 5-10 years ago (sometimes more). But each problem (Marines prefer "each challenge") is slightly different than the past, and each solution unique. We find that unique solution "playing games" and "recreating the wheel". I bitch about it, but then I'm "an old gunny" who is on the ROAD program and thinks that we always did it better in the past and nobody but me and my generation can do it right.
We're probably doing the exact same things we did in the CAP in Vietnam, as we did during the Banana Wars...with a twist. The more things change the more they stay the same.