Advanced technology, increasing weapons lethality

CC6915REQB
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT I
Page 1 of 1
This read was extracted from the obsolete publication, MCRP 6-11D, 28 June 1999, Sustaining
the Transformation. It is intended to provide the student with a better understanding of
transformation.
Today, we are making the Marines of tomorrow, who will face the future battlefield and win;
we are transforming our young Americans into Marines.
Why the Transformation
The first reason for the transformation was that we saw a change in the operating environment
in which our Marines would be employed and we needed to prepare our young Marines for
future battles. Decentralized operations, advanced technology, increasing weapons lethality,
asymmetric threats, the mixing of combatants and noncombatants, and urban combat will be
the way we fight vice the exception in the 21st century. To succeed in a changing operating
environment, our Marines must be good decision- makers. They must be trained to the highest
standard. They must be self-confident. They must have absolute faith in the members of their
unit. This is why we have instituted the Marine Corps Values Program for all Marines, and
why we have enhanced the way we transform America’s sons and daughters into United
States Marines. We must ensure that our newest Marines fully understand and appreciate what
the Marine Corps represents and that, by becoming members of the world’s fighting elite,
they uphold the sacred trust we have with our great nation and with each other. The
transformation is designed specifically to contribute to the making of this kind of Marine.
The second reason for the transformation was derived from subtle changes in the norms and
expectations of America’s youth. The term generation X, often associated with a negative
connotation, is the generation from which we will recruit the Marines who will be our future.
Therefore, we must understand how this generation views the world and what motivates them.
In 1994, we hired a team of psychologists to tell us about generation X. From them, we learned
that young people today are looking for standards; they want to be held accountable. For
the most part they don’t mind following, but they can lead, and they want to lead. Most want
to be part of something bigger than themselves. They want to be something special. Most
believe in God. Many don’t fully recognize it as such, but they want to have faith in something
greater than themselves. These wants cause them to join gangs, fraternities, clubs, and other
causes. These are also the same attributes and attitudes that offer the Marine Corps a
tremendous opportunity. Genera- tion X does not want to be babied. These young Americans
are looking for a real challenge. They desperately want to be part of a winning team; they crave
the stature associated with being one of the best. From them will come the Marines of the
future—the warriors of the 21st century. The transformation gives them exactly what they
want, and it also give us what we need.
However, transformation is not just a new block of instruction. It is not a new event
introduced at recruit training. Transformation is an ongoing, dynamic process. It is a process
that begins with an individual’s first contact with a Marine recruiter and continues throughout a
Marine’s life. Transformation has five phases: recruitment, recruit training, cohesion,
sustainment, and citizenship.
The remainder of this chapter was removed for the purpose of brevity.