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'Give us clear vision that we may know where to stand and what to stand for, because unless we stand for something, we shall fall for anything.'
The interwar period emergence of a Marine Corps amphibious philosophy has served to guide, structure, equip, and train Marine warfighters for over six decades.l The primary product espousing that philosophy, the 1934 Tentative Manual for Landing Operations, provided the grand conceptual framework and direction around which the Fleet Marine Force was built. This document, and its associated research and development, served not only to guide the Marine Corps into the future but also identified and provided a niche that ensured its survival during a very tenuous period in Marine Corps history.2
The collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War have, once again, given rise to a downsizing of the military. In attempts to align with new national strategy directions, as well as ensure their survival in the long term, the Navy and Marine Corps have issued guidance and policy on future naval directions. In the White Papers, . . . From the Sea and Forward . . . From the Sea, the Navy and Marine Corps:
Presented a common vision for the future in which skillfully handled naval forces would enable the United States to exert its influence in the littoral regions of the world.3
The fundamental tenets of these documents are expounded upon in the latest work, Operational Maneuver From the Sea (OMFTS). This treatise provides a potential framework in which maneuver warfare principles are applied to operations in the littoral environment. Just as the Tentative Manual for Landing Operations paved the way for Marine Corps development in the past, this document is now serving to guide the Marine Corps into the 21 st century. It will be argued that the overarching concepts contained in OMFTS, while viable, are often misunderstood or misinterpreted and have been mutated beyond their original intention. Furthermore, these concepts when analyzed support not only deep littoral penetrations but also forcible entry operations alike. Finally, in order to realize many of the more robust capabilities in OMFTS, steps must be taken now to transition from concept to reality.
The Aberration of a Concept
`Men are disturbed not...