Lou Wilson stopped by Hawaii during a swing through the Pacific and reiterated Marine Corps values as the all-volunteer force kicked in. Readers of a certain age will remember Marine Corps recruiting slogans such as "We never promised you a rose garden" and "Nobody likes to fight, but somebody has to know how."Ī few years later, in the wake of a weak commandant, Medal of Honor recipient Gen. However, during the nadir of the Vietnam War, when the other services were lowering standards to increase recruitment, Chapman doubled down. Chapman would not claim to be one of them. There have been several transformational commandants in the storied history of the Marine Corps. David Berger, who recently retired, may well be the commandant who doomed the Corps. It has taken four decades, but his pessimistic prediction may have come true. If we ever get a truly bad one, it could destroy the Corps." That has been a strength, but it is also a potential weakness. "The commandant has always been seen as a super-regimental commander. "We grew from an organization that was less than a regiment in size to the nearly 200,000 Marines we have today ," he said. I asked him why he thought that had come about. I had always been fascinated that - unlike the other service chiefs, each of whom had a variety of competing constituencies - the commandant of the Marine Corps had virtually unlimited power over the Corps, matched only by the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. On our flight to the speech site, I had the temerity to ask a question. Leonard Chapman, who had been the 24th commandant. I would also be tapped as the traveling aide for the former commandant. One of my additional duties was to write speeches when a retired commandant came on active duty to stand in for the current commandant when he could not attend a big event. If you would like to submit your own commentary, please send your article to for consideration.įorty years ago, I was the speech writer for the commandant of the Marine Corps. The opinions expressed in this op-ed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of.
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