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GyG1345
01-21-03, 08:20 AM
The New Boss's Plan Of Attack
by Dick G (Login Dick Gaines)
Forum Owner

Marine Corps Times

January 27, 2003

Pg. 14

The New Boss's Plan Of Attack

Influenced by Maj. Gen. John A. Lejeune, Hagee emphasizes education,
technology

By Gordon Lubold, Times staff writer

As Gen. Mike Hagee assumes command of the Corps at one of the busiest times
in its history, he's holding his cards close to his flak vest.

In the early days of his job, he outlined only in broad brushstrokes the way
he'd like to see the Corps molded over the next 4〓 years. But from what he
does reveal, the 33rd commandant wants a lot.

Hagee wants to see a faster, more efficient and more educated Corps, one
that continues to push responsibility downward and relies on technological
advances to ensure the service has a place on the 21st-century battlefield.
And that's what he said on just his third day in the top job.

Hagee, who assumed command from Gen. James Jones in a Jan. 13 ceremony at
the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., issued his planning guidance the
next day.

Short on specifics, it outlines his ideas about the Corps and quotes heavily
from the 13th commandant, Maj. Gen. John A. Lejeune, credited with laying
the groundwork for much of what the Corps is today.

"An intellectual giant and one of our greatest leaders, [Maj.] Gen. John A.
Lejeune, was instrumental in leading the Marine Corps from its role as
colonial infantry of the 19th century to the combined-arms expeditionary
force needed for America's increased global responsibilities," Hagee said in
his six-page guidance document.

Lejeune's insights, he wrote, offer guidelines for the Corps' current
transformation efforts.

The guidance a new commandant issues upon taking office varies in style.
Gen. Charles C. Krulak, who was commandant from 1995 to 1999, published an
extensive planning guidance document that explicitly detailed the numerous
changes he wanted made during his term - complete with deadlines and
requirements for specific commands.

Jones' 16-page "Commandant's Guidance," which quoted from Rudyard Kipling's
"The Second Jungle Book," offered some specifics, such as his push to fix
the reconnaissance field. But it also outlined his general leadership
approach.

Hagee's guidance is far broader in scope, spelling out only generally the
direction in which he'll take the Corps.

But in a half-hour interview with Marine Corps Times at a hotel outside
Washington where he was meeting with his general officers, Hagee offered
additional insight into the kind of organization he hopes the Corps will
become under his leadership.

With a Corpswide stop-loss and stop-move policy in effect and a buildup for
a possible war with Iraq under way, Hagee, 58, was not expected to announce
major policy shifts. He noted, in fact, that "Marines should not expect to
see any near-term shifts in the rudder."

With Hagee as commandant, Marines can expect to see a new emphasis on
technology - both on and off the battlefield - as well as improvements to
the way Marines are trained and educated. Deployed Marines may live on
mobile offshore bases in the future or find themselves in a war or exercise
in which their movements and logistical requirements are sent to a massive
database that relays information in real time.

But he also has questions about how Marines fight and what they bring to the
battlefield. Are they equipped, trained and properly educated in how their
adversaries will fight?

Hagee's full agenda is still unclear - he's expected to provide more
detailed guidance on specific issues in the near future.

But here are five areas the Corps may explore during his tenure:

1. Enlisted empowerment

Taking a page from his predecessor and expanding upon it, Hagee wants to
prepare staff noncommissioned officers for broader roles in the future,
possibly placing more of them in jobs traditionally held by officers.
Hagee summed up his approach
to empowering enlisted Marines in simple terms: "If you can do the job, you
have the job."

Marines saw some of this under Jones' stewardship. More enlisted Marines
were added to promotion boards, opportunities for enlisted aides were
created and staff NCOs in the admin field were given authorization to
certify unit diary entries, for example. And the Corps is looking at giving
enlisted Marines the opportunity to serve as forward air controllers, a job
traditionally filled by officer aviators. It's a trend Hagee wants to
continue.

"With good education, I think we can cause them to fill a lot of the billets
that officers are filling right now," he said.

And he wants to push authority down the chain of command by cutting the
middle man out of some processes. In what he calls "skip echelon," a
division ...............

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