Americas Defense Meltdown - IT Acquisition Advisory Council

102 • A Traveler’s Perspective on Third and Fourth Generation WarSimilarly, we know what each battalion is supposed to be doing: fighting, supplyingfighting battalions or supporting the nation as a whole, including but not limitedto the Marine Corps. So for men to be drained away from the FMF, we either haveto change the purpose of the battalion, which we do very seldom, or someone has tolie on his muster roll.ME: Do people lie on their muster rolls?LORD DORN: In the beginning, that sometimes happened. Surprise inspector generalvisits quickly put a stop to it.ME: Is an Islandian Marine battalion in effect a regiment?LORD DORN: Yes. An Islandian does not just enlist in the Marine Corps. He enlists ina battalion. He remains a member of that battalion until he leaves the service. Officersand NCOs from his battalion take him through boot camp; he goes into reserve withthe other recruits of his battalion who leave after a four-year term of active service. Heis with the same people, with few exceptions, through his entire service. This buildsthe strongest possible unit cohesion.ME: How do you replace Marines who leave the service before their four years are upfor health or disciplinary reasons?LORD DORN: We don’t. Over the four-year period between receiving new recruits,a battalion normally shrinks somewhat in size.ME: Doesn’t this reduce their readiness?LORD DORN: No. We measure readiness by the result of force-on-force, free-playexercises, not statistically. The improvement of cohesion and training over time morethan offsets the slow decline in numbers of men.ME: How does this work in combat?LORD DORN: If a unit is reduced in combat to a point where it is ineffective, it iswithdrawn and reconstituted as if it had reached the end of the normal four-year cycle.But history shows that a combat-experienced battalion at half strength, or sometimesless, is as effective, or more effective, than a green battalion at full strength. If a battaliondoes fall to the point where it must be reconstituted, its A or B reserve battalionnormally replaces it.