The Marines, Counterinsurgency, and Strategic Culture

Norms and Perceptual Lens 125
Waller was not portrayed as exceptional, but rather as fulfilling the
Marine ideal alongside others of caliber. The same traits that endeared leaders
to their men in Spooner’s tales are the traits that contemporary Marines
note as distinguishing of great leadership:
Probably the finest officer I knew was not my last main officer but
the commanding officer before him, Lt. Col. Mike Dana. I mean he
was a man’s man. He was not scared to come to work and work all
day with us on a 5 ton or on a generator replacing a head gasket.
And then the next day he’s over at motor- t or HT and all he does is
move gear all day. Then the next day he’s over at fuel. All he does is
fuel vehicles all day. He was not afraid to do what he asked every
marine in his command to do. . . . He knew everybody by name,
he knew everybody’s wife’s name, and for the most part he knew
what was going on with your family. I remember—and this is what
stands out for me most with him—I had a bad time because my dad
went in for heart surgery and I’d never talked to the man but I had
talked to some people in my platoon and after I got the news Col.
Dana came to my room in the barracks after hours and asked if I
was OK and if I needed some leave. And to me, that’s what makes
an officer right there. 51
Drill instructors training new recruits are schooled to demonstrate this
paternal mode of leadership from the boots’ first day: “There is no way that
I will eat until every single one of my recruits has eaten. There is no way that
I will go to sleep until my recruits are in bed. Those are things that just don’t
happen. . . . That’s just the Marine Corps leadership.” 52
A Marine leader should not only demonstrate paternal regard for each
Marine under his or her command—he or she must also become expert in
the arts of war: its history and philosophies. A Marine leader will also exemplify
intelligence, exceptional boldness, and a willingness to dish out and
receive candid assessment. 53 When the Corps’s leadership ideal is achieved, it
results in a veneration without peer in the other services. One Marine major
acknowledged that “the Marine Corps exhibits hero worship to the extent the
Roman legions did.” 54 This sort of sheer loyalty and determined admiration of
key leaders is perhaps best captured in the words Captain Mariani used after
returning from a 2010 deployment: “If General [John F.] Kelly showed up at
my door tonight, I would follow him barefoot to Afghanistan.” 55
Marines are socialized to hold their senior leaders in high esteem and to
treat them with a sort of reverence. Maj. Ben Connable points out that the
commandant of the Marine Corps can use his position of superior trust and
legitimacy to good effect for the Corps. The commandant’s popular status
and the Corps’s smaller service numbers means “the Commandant can sometimes
effect paradigm shifts against strong currents of internal and external