THE CORPSBut the commandant then cites a long list of the chal-
lenges the Corps faces, and his plans to address them,
starting with the acknowledgement that “to maintain the
readiness necessary to meet our day-to-day require-
ments, we have accepted risk in the readiness of our non-
deployed units, our ground and logistics modernization
efforts and our infrastructure sustainment.”
That reflects the decisions his predecessor, Gen
James F. Amos, made when sequestration cut funding
to focus the re duced resources on the deployed and the
next-to-go forces, which left little for non-deployed
units and home bases.
“We will need to address that risk in order to be ready
for tomorrow’s requirements,” Dunford writes.
While continuing to “give priority to our forward
deployed MAGTFs,” he says, “we must rebalance in some
areas to address the personnel, equipment and training
shortfalls in our non-deployed units to maintain our readi-
ness to respond rapidly to contingencies. My expectation
is that all Marines and all units are physically and mentally
ready to deploy to every clime and place, at any time.”
While meeting the combatant commanders’ require-
ments remains a priority, he notes that, “it is equally
important to our combat readiness and combat effec-
tiveness that our non-deployed forces are ready to
respond quickly and successfully to the unexpected.”
And, he said, “the Marines and facilities of our sup-
porting establishment have a critical role in training
and sustaining our expeditionary forces; they are vital
to building our warfighting capability.”
The guidance did not explain
how Dunford would create what
he called “balanced readiness” for
all units if sequestration remains in
effect.
Many of the goals in the guid-
ance would require funding above
the sequestration levels to stop the
personnel reductions, increase unit
training and buy the new genera-
tion of weapons while maintaining
the aging legacy systems.
But in the first presentation of
the Navy Department’s fiscal 2016
budget request Feb. 25, House
Appro priations defense subcom-
mittee chairman Rodney Freling -
huysen, R-N.J., told the naval lead-
ers the Budget Control Act that
triggered the sequestration process
still is the law and “we have to fol-
low the law.”
“Barring some dramatic change
in the law, we will mark up an
appropriations at the Budget Control Act limit,” Fre -
ling huysen said.
That would mean cutting the department’s request-
ed funding by $13 billion, he said, and asked the offi-
cials to tell the committee what they should cut.
Dunford responded that personnel and operations
consume 88 percent of his funding, and if he had to cut
it would have to be Marines, or to stop training.
The Marines’ most expensive procurement pro-
grams, the F-35B Lightning II joint strike fighter and
CH-53K heavy-lift cargo helicopter, are funded in
Navy’s accounts and Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said he
would “protect shipbuilding” if forced to cut.
Dunford, in his guidance, also calls for changes in
personnel policies to rebuild the leadership and unit
cohesion he considers vital to the Corps’ combat doc-
trine that relies on mission orders, in which a com-
mander states his objective and empowers his subordi-
nate leaders to decide how to accomplish the mission.
“The cohesion necessary to operate effectively with
mission tactics must exist in our deployed, next-to-
deploy and non-deployed units,” and that cohesion starts
with leaders who “truly know their Marines,” he says.
“Today, the Marine Corps does not have the proper
level of stability or cohesion in our non-deployed
units. The practice of moving Marines between units
to meet manning goals for deployment creates person-
nel turbulence, inhibits cohesion ... affects our combat
readiness and our ability to take care of our Marines,”
Dunford writes.W W W. S E A P O W E R M A G A Z I N E. O R G S E A P O W E R / A P R I L 2 0 1 5 25
Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen Joseph F. Dunford Jr., center, speaks
with 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing Marines at Marine Corps Air Station Mira mar, Calif.,
Feb. 11. In his Commandant’s Planning Guidance 2015, Dunford wrote that his
meetings with Marines during his first months as commandant “reinforced my
belief that our United States Marine Corps is fundamentally in good shape. We
are recruiting and retaining high quality Marines, we are adequately equipped, we
are well trained,” and are developing the next generation of leaders.
U.
S.
MARIN
E^
CORPS