MCRU/Penn State connection, The

Sea Power, Apr 2001 by Brill, Arthur P Jr

"I explained what was expected," said Madrid. "They have not let me down. Everyone is on board from the president to the individual performer. The Marine Corps will not be treated like just another customer."

The MCRU attitude and the scope of Penn State's services apparently impressed the Corps' current commandant, Gen. James L. Jones, during his one-day visit last October. To eliminate gatekeepers, Jones appointed the threestar commander of the Marine Corps Combat Development Command in Quantico, Va., as the MCRU contact.

MCRU projects happen in three ways. First, a Marine Corps sponsor states a requirement and Penn State fulfills it, provided it has the expertise needed to meet the requirement. Second, knowing the Corps' needs, MCRU hooks up potential Marine sponsors with Penn State experts-in the college of health and human development, for example, which specializes in family advocacy programs including child rearing, the prevention of substance abuse, and coping with domestic violence. (Several Marine projects are pending in this area.) Third, faculty members approach MCRU with their own ideas. If those ideas have merit MCRU will seek Marine Corps sponsors.

"Thus far, we've had an exceptional experience with Penn State," said Lt. Gen. Garry McKissock, deputy commandant for installations and logistics at USMC Headquarters.

The starting points for the MCRU were the new focus on the use of nonlethal weapons and the need to improve the Corps' logistics capabilities. Jones is DOD's executive agent for the development of nonlethal weapons, and Penn State offers the only university program focusing on that esoteric subject. The school carries out technical assessments, and human-effects advisory panels evaluate every nonlethal system under DOD consideration.

"We want to guard against developing a weapon that produces horrible human effects the first time we use it," said Madrid, who teaches nonlethal courses to DOD personnel. "We [would] never be able to use it again."

In June, 40 Marine field-grade officers are scheduled to tour the Wal-Mart district center near Penn State to learn about supply chain management. To improve its expeditionary logistics capabilities, the Marine Corps wants to know and master the best commercial practices in inventory control, transportation, and other links in the supply chain.

The Wal-Mart tour is part of the Marine Corps' semiannual Logistics Education Program (MCLEP), which started last year. MCLEP is conducted by Penn State's Center for Logistics Research from the Smeal College of Business. Ranked first by the Journal of Business Logistics, Smeal runs the largest academic logistics and transportation program in the country.

"Three years ago we realized that information technology was important and that we would make no progress until we understood how to ... [use] it," said McKissock "We needed help."

Fine-Tuning the System

The Marine Corps has always had a good reputation for supplying its troops on the beach, but up to and through the Gulf War, the Corps, and the other U.S. services, relied primarily on unsophisticated mass-distribution techniques. Without knowing how to move individual equipment items quickly, the Marines took with them everything they might need, "just in case."