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This month the Gazette offers a look at the Marine Corps' engineer community.
This article sets the stage for a series of articles that provides a comprehensive review of the Marine Corps engineer community.
The last Marine Corps Engineer Conference was held in January 2001 at Camp Lejeune. In addition to sponsoring briefs on a variety of topics, several working groups were formed to develop priorities and identify issues for resolution. The products and recommendations from the conference were substantive. The real question is, will the issues actually be addressed?
It seems the same issues are brought up during every engineer conference. Every year a wrap-up message is released identifying these issues and proposed solutions-and another year passes without much real progress. Indeed, it can be said Marine Corps engineering capabilities have improved only minimally from the numerous shortfalls identified over 10 years ago during DESERT STORM. General officers have been quoted as saying, "engineers are broke." This is perhaps an overstatement, but the community is overdue for sincere attention in both the personnel and equipment arenas. The purpose of this article is to put forth some ideas on ways to address longstanding Marine engineer deficiencies.
Get Aggressive With Engineer Advocacy
During the past several years-with the exception of the commanding officer (CO), Marine Corps Engineer School-there has been no senior engineer leadership to ensure that critical issues receive proper attention in the Aviation; Plans Policies, and Operations (PP&O); Installations and Logistics (I&L); Marine Corps Combat Development Command (MCCDC); and Marine Corps Systems Command (MarCorSysCom) mazes. Despite the best efforts of the Engineer School commanders, they have discovered they are too far away from the "beltway" to have a sustained impact. Fortunately, at the direction of LtGen Gary S. McKissock, an Engineer Advocacy Center (LPE) has been created within the Deputy Commandant (D/CMC) I&L office to formally work engineer issues at the three-star level. To be headed, at least initially, by a colonel, LPE will be a much needed entity that can ensure key engineer issues are properly staffed and brought to the attention of the Corps' leadership. The key to the group's success will be the ability to prioritize combat support, combat service support (CSS), and aviation ground support engineering issues and...