"A defining moment in Marine Corps history"

Sea Power, Nov 1998 by Brill, Arthur P Jr

Interview with Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Charles C. Krulak

Lt. Col. Arthur P Brill Jr., USMC (Ret.), a frequent contributor to Sea Power, interviewed Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Charles C. Krulak for this issue.

Sea Power: With eight months to go as commandant, what are your priorities?

KRULAK: The first one is resourcing the Corps. That does not sound very sexy, but this is an opportunity that the Corps has not seen in years. Our problem is not near-term readiness. We have been putting money there. Our problem is that, to do so, we are mortgaging the future. I want to continue to solve it in my final year. We have been slowly and surely getting better by QDR [Quadrennial Defense Review] actions and better business practices. We have got our procurement up a bit, but I want to walk out of this job knowing procurement is right.

I think I am going to do that. My testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee [at the SASC military readiness hearing on 29 Sept.] is probably the most important given by a Marine commandant since an amendment to the National Security Act of 1947 regarding the future of the Corps was debated.

How significant are the readiness hearings Congress is conducting on the Hill this fall?

KRULAK: This is a big deal. It concerns the long-term health and wellness of our Corps. I believe we are ready to take a giant step forward. It will involve some of the modernization concerns we talked about over the last three years. Can we get the AAAV [advanced amphibious assault vehicle] and the MV-22 [Osprey tiltrotor aircraft]? Can we modernize our truck fleet and HUMVEEs [HMMWVs: high-mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicles]? Can we get new generators and good equipment for the Marines? We have been working very hard at that and doing pretty well. But, we have an opportunity now similar to the Reagan years when we were able to build a modern Corps. It is pretty exciting. So you think the attention readiness is getting in Washington will produce results?

KRULAK: Yes. I think it will make a major difference. The meeting we [Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the commanders in chief of U.S. combatant commands] had with President Clinton [on 15 Sept.] resulted in a letter from him to the secretary of defense stating that he would support a short-term readiness plus-up in '99 [fiscal year 1999]. He said the problem is a long-term issue that has to be solved by the modernization of the forces.

I think he realizes that we have gone down [in readiness]. The defense budget has gone down 40 percent. You cannot do that and expect to keep a ready, relevant, and capable force.

In recent years, the funding for general-purpose [GP] forces was reduced to pay for additional strategic programs like ballistic missile defense. Today, in light of new mission areas like counterproliferation and "first responders" [rapid deployment forces], if there is more defense money, will the GP forces get their fair share? KRULAK: Today, I have 26,514 Marines forward-deployed. In the chaos of the 21 st century, GP forces like the Navy and the Marine Corps are going to be more critical. In the environment we are going to see, I do not think that in their wisdom the members of the Congress of the United States are going to lessen that capability.

They know that we are an insurance policy. If you are going to put money into such a policy, it better be the bestand that's us. Today, we have Marines and Sailors all over the world who are literally protecting the lives of American citizens. They are in Tirana, Albania, right now. They were supposed to pull out, but the ambassador said, "Please don't do that; they are critical." We have a lot of kids out there managing instability.

What are your other priorities?

KRULAK: We want to build the Corps of the 21 st century. Based on the lessons learned from our Sea Dragon experiments [operational training exploiting new technology], the capstone doctrine we have written, and the ideas coming in from the fleet, we will then do what I promised. We will hold another Force Structure Planning Group to build the Corps for the next century. We will then cost it out to see if we can afford it.

In addition, we want to institutionalize some of the key areas we have been working on, such as the entire transformation process: recruiting, recruit training, cohesion, and sustainment. We also are refining a number of issues related to the commandant's Planning Guidance. For example, we said we would make a change in the performance evaluation system. It takes effect 1 January 1999, and we want that to work properly.

We want to ensure that whoever becomes the 32nd commandant understands where we have been and has a united front behind him-like I had. Finally, I am also very interested in working the training aspects of our squad leaders to go with our "power down" concept. Those are just a few of the things on the plate.

What is the "power down" concept?

KRULAK: The real warriors of the 21 st century will be our NCOs [noncommissioned officers]. You and I remember Vietnam-when that corporal and sergeant would take a patrol out every night, leaving the lines at 2000 and coming back at 0400. Sometimes they would have contact. We were trusting corporals to do that. Now, in peacetime, they need a lot of supervisors. We are going into an environment that we have got to put the trust back into that young officer and NCO. We are going to be working very hard on that. I call him the "strategic corporal."