The Marines, Counterinsurgency, and Strategic Culture

Norms and Values 101
most mundane organizational norms. Marines do not dig foxholes. They dig
“fighting holes.” Foxholes are for hiding in. Fighting holes are a “weapon
to kill the enemy.” 92 Ricks tracks the implications of the “fighting” value on
leadership advancement within the Corps. In the platoon he is following,
Recruit Lee is made the “guide” for his group because he performed best in
“combat hitting skills.” 93
Though not specifically trained toward, bravery bordering on insanity—an
extreme form of audaciousness (a value that is consciously cultivated)—is
“oorahed” in the Corps and is a signature of many legendary
heroes. What might be diagnosed as clinical psychosis in civilian society is
loved and revered if it is geared toward the good of the Corps. Describing
his boot camp DIs, one Marine reminisced:
Instructors were hardcore, Gunnery Sgt. Lamar among them. He
was a former sniper, a man of high morals, very honorable, and
could bring on the pain. Gunnery Sgt. Leonard was a regular guy
and the easiest, not a good platoon sergeant. Sgt. Wyatt was sadistic
but the best of all because he was hard, a sniper and was crazy.
He would destroy us to no end until you liked it. Then he would
increase the temperature in order to make you hate it. He was constantly
trying to break morale. [He’d] talk crap to belittle you and
laugh at you, but he was the most respected drill instructor in the
whole platoon. He tried the hardest to teach us stuff, spent extra
night[s] when he didn’t need to, and [went] . . . out of his way to
make the platoon learn. 94
The resultant Marine fighting ethos has mixed results. Craig M. Cameron
claims that attempts to achieve the impossibly high standard of bravery
under fire worked well for World War II–era Devil Dogs and other times
“conflicted with more rational, commonly accepted military practices, and
at these times the marines paid a price in blood incommensurate with their
accomplishments.” 95 On the flip side, Marines relish the upshots of a reputation
that precedes them. State Department political officer Kael Weston had
this to say about the Marines’ reception in his area of Afghanistan: “The
Afghans love the Marines. They fear the Marines the most, but in a warrior
culture they respected them the most. They know that when the Marines are
in town, the sheriff is here. The Army guys are not bad, [but] they are not
as aggressive. The Afghans respond to the aggressiveness.” 96 This sentiment
was echoed, but in more negative form, by a Marine veteran from Afghanistan
who noted that civilians near the base would stop what they were doing
and emit vibes of fear, awe, or apprehension when the Marines walked by. If
soldiers passed by, they would just keep sweeping. 97
The excellent craftsmanship and fine- tuning required in making Marines
the lethal weapons they aim to be comprises many of the martial arts but