Commandant Outlines Vision

Within days after taking the oath as the 38thcommandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. David H. Berger came forward with his vision for the future of the service.
The Commandant’s Planning Guidance addresses five priorities: force design, warfighting, education and training, core values, and command and leadership.
Berger based his ideas for each upon the understanding that the Marine Corps must anticipate a decade of “conflict, crisis and rapid change.”
The Marine Corps will work closely with the Navy in every arena, with the Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF) serving as “our principal warfighting organization,” Berger said. Rather than strive to be identical, he said that each MEF should be capable of adapting to situations each may face.
Berger also emphasized the requirement that officers and senior enlisteds take care of their Marines. Every step possible must be taken to help each Marine succeed, while holding all who wear the uniform to the highest standards.
Warfighting will focus on “preserving the ability to command and control in a contested information network,” retaining the most talented individual Marines, training them, and increasingly employing assistance from unmanned platforms and artificial intelligence.
While training and education will continue to operate within the service’s tradition of anticipating the unexpected and being ready for it, Berger believes that “substantial required in the organization of our training commands and our formal schools.”
Strict hierarchical oversight of “every minute of every day” must give way to a more flexible plan to keep tabs of Marines at their home stations, Berger said. At the same time, professional training should be “as competitive and rewarding as possible,” he said.
While the sentiment of the service’s core values remains the same, the fight against sexual assault, drug abuse and hazing will continue in earnest under his tenure as commandant.
“We are an elite institution of warriors, and will remain so on my watch,” Berger said.
Commanders and leaders will continue to be held to standards in regards to taking care of their Marines. Those who misuse their authority will be dealt with appropriately. Operating vehicles while under the influence of alcohol, and discrimination because of race, gender and sexual orientation will not be tolerated, Berger said.