I read the Marines going back to being Marines thread the other day and have observed it, living only a few miles from Camp Lejeune. Today I received my email copy of Army Echos, the US Army retiree quarterly newsletter. It normally begins with a column by the Chief of Staff, I copied and pasted the second half of his column below. Evidently the entire DOD is transitioning back away from light desert warfare to becoming more concerned with our peer competitors (Russia and China). Odessa

Your Army is modernizing to ready itself for a return to great power competition and the
threat of large-scale ground combat. Those of you who served in the 1970s and 1980s might
remember the days of transitioning to AirLand Battle and developing “The Big 5.” Now we’re
adopting the concept of multi-domain operations and developing our six modernization
priorities: long-range precision fires, a next generation combat vehicle, future vertical lift,
the Army network, air and missile defense, and Soldier lethality. This spring we’re executing
Defender 2020 in Europe, the largest Army exercise in 25 years. Ten countries will host
37,000 participants, including Soldiers from five divisions, National Guard Soldiers from
eleven states, and seven Army Reserve units. Our current Soldiers and potential recruits can’t
visualize an exercise of that scale or something so foreign to the post-9/11 environment they
know. Many of you can though, especially those from our REFORGER era. I encourage you to
tell those stories.
The Army must be ready for a 21st century environment that has much in common with the
20th century environment of its past. And you are our best historians. Please help me to keep
your Army the world’s premier fighting force.
People First! Winning Matters! Army Strong!
Gen. James C. McConville
40th Chief of Staff of the Army

The Corps is axing all of its tank battalions and cutting grunt units

clic pic for story

Gearing up for China?

In the icbm age...no

More than likely more [bleep] in the desert or perhaps Africa...

Jim McConville was my Brigade commander when I was in 1st Cavalry Division. Flew him in a Longbow several times. A great commander and a very smart man.

John

They wanting to cut the grunts? Are the Chinese cutting their grunts too?
I can remember back in accent times <83> when I went threw basic training, the D.I.'s where always barking for us to get our shiRts together because if we where to go against the Chinese at that time with their population, it would have been 5 to1 on the battle field. 5 Chinese to 1 American soldiers.

John, are you or were you an Apache pilot? If you are/were I have a couple of questions for you.

U.S. Marines in the Boxer Rebellion

Pvt. Dan Daly and 1stLt Smedley Butler were a couple of the names associated with fighting the Chinese back at the turn of the Century. We learned this history and these names, among other great Marine Corps heroes, in bootcamp.


Chinese Boxer


U.S. Marines landing in Peking

Yes. PM to you.

John