Posted on May 20, 2014

Has the mentality and objective of MEU deployments changed?

Cpl Ray Fernandez

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I had a friend mention that it seems now that getting deployed and going to sea seems more like a check in the box and an opportunity to add ribbons.

I started thinking about how for me going to sea for six months was different than it is now. Back then we trained and we prepared for a wide variety of missions during our work ups. It seems at least by looking at how MEUs were essentially a way to transport units across to the battlefields in South West Asia, that we've lost the capability and many career Marines have lost the skills to carry out most of those missions that we trained for years ago.

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LTC (Join to see)

Posted >1 y ago

Coming from an Army perspective I think deployments are really changing focus in mentality of a lot of servicemembers who want to have a career. You do not want to be the only one in your peer group without a deployment. So the focus is to find a deployment, any deployment. Training as a whole changed and now we going back to a garrison military. Will we focus again on the "basics" so many say we should do? Or will we continue to train for a specific theater and only train up for a new area when we start deploying there? Only time can tell and we can only control our little bubble of influence.

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CWO3 (Join to see)

Posted >1 y ago

You know Corporal Fernandez, we used to call it the MAU, before General Alfred M Gray, ie Papa Bear, that's when he was our Commandant. I can't comment on your views, but I can say this, The Marine Corps had definitely changed since I retired. All is Not Loss.

Semper Fidelis,
James K Kaupe, Jr. CWO3, USMC, (Ret) 1972-1994

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