Final 12 months, an thought started percolating amongst some Marine infantry officers: How might they draft ideas and procedures for if the Marines discovered themselves in a battle just like the one now raging in Ukraine?
Utilizing open-source evaluation and commentary, a staff of volunteers led by a retired lieutenant colonel started working answering this query.
Two paperwork emerged out of this casual Marine effort.
One was an in depth 126-page handbook that described a collection of situations and defined how current Marine doctrine would apply to such a combat.
The handbook lined all the things from how an organization chief ought to write an order — one web page, handwritten, no imagery — to drone use, and the way every drone would help one unit, with leaders tasking drones within the firm order.
It additionally candidly acknowledged gaps in official Marine Corps steerage on learn how to disguise from enemy drones, learn how to use anti-tank missiles alongside drones to hunt and destroy the enemy and learn how to transfer beneath artillery hearth.
The second doc was a quick abstract of 10 “classes for leaders” about combating on a battlefield like Ukraine.
That five-pager specified what Marine floor forces would want to win in these circumstances: drones in each unit and echelon, anti-drone digital warfare jammers, and, counter to the Corps’ latest choices on the longer term form of the drive, a reliance on tanks.
“The tank is just not lifeless, as many have predicted,” the authors wrote, citing Ukraine’s employment of armored automobiles and its need for extra to face off Russia’s mechanized items.
These paperwork have been mixed and printed in June on 2ndBn5thMar.com, a web site that takes its identify from a Camp Pendleton, California, infantry unit, however is unaffiliated with the Corps.
It’s run by Brendan McBreen, who retired as a lieutenant colonel in 2011 and is now a college member at Marine Corps Intelligence Faculties in Dam Neck, Va.
The location dates to 1998, when McBreen, then connected to 2nd Battalion, fifth Marines, was tasked with distributing customary working procedures being developed to combat and practice. When a sergeant instructed posting the doc to the “World Huge Internet,” McBreen took it upon himself to create a spot to host it.
“I didn’t do something for a few years,” McBreen mentioned. “And my spouse mentioned, ‘Hey, we’re nonetheless paying $9.95 a month to this hosting firm. And so I bought on – you already know, as soon as each six months, I might look and see the way it’s doing. And there have been hundreds of downloads.”
For these involved about operational safety, McBreen mentioned all materials mentioned on his web site is predicated on open-source info and doesn’t cowl something labeled.
As McBreen’s profession progressed, the positioning traveled with him. Occasionally, fellow infantry Marine officers would attain out to share their very own finest practices for particular duties, corresponding to 81mm mortar employment.
Whereas official Marine Corps doctrine supplied common steerage, McBreen mentioned he seen a scarcity of unit-level practices and procedures, creating area for this crowd-sourced infantry community to fill within the gaps.
“A few of it was good,” McBreen mentioned of the casual enter he acquired. “A few of it was common, however all of it was shareable.”
The emergence of drones as a battlefield issue lately has created new demand for steerage on learn how to combine the know-how into the combat and defend towards it. In 2020, Marine Capt. Walker Mills co-authored a paper on how items might camouflage themselves to evade aerial surveillance and printed it on McBreen’s web site.
Now a drone officer, Mills contributed to parts of the brand new Ukraine paperwork coping with drone warfare that have been printed on 2ndBn5thMar.com.
“The doctrine at all times lags considerably,” Mills advised Marine Corps Instances. “Our customary infantry firm and platoon publications are a number of years outdated, perhaps even a decade outdated. So, they don’t discuss a ton about small tactical [drones].”
McBreen mentioned he’s often seen spikes within the web site’s recognition through the years, notably round 2005 when he printed “Evening Warrior,” a coaching information for nighttime fight. More often than not, he mentioned, he can’t inform what’s driving a brand new surge in site visitors.
“The monitoring stuff would present jiggle, jiggle, jiggle, jiggle, after which an enormous spike,” he mentioned, “And you might additionally inform, though I by no means knew the origin, that some teacher mentioned at some college, ‘Hey, college students, you ought to have a look at this doc.’”
(Gunnery Sgt. Daniel Wetzel/Marine Corps)
Maj. Zachary Schwartz, who not too long ago served because the operations officer for third Battalion, seventh Marines out of Marine Corps Air Floor Fight Heart Twentynine Palms, California, and is now enrolled in Marine Corps Command and Employees faculty, mentioned he’s used the positioning for steerage as an infantry chief at numerous ranges.
Whereas a 1st lieutenant serving as a staff chief, Schwartz recalled benefitting from an article about condensing conventional Marine Corps five-paragraph orders into concise verbal directions.
He’s additionally employed the sensible steerage throughout the camouflage guide to show signature administration and deception: easy issues like habitually utilizing leaves and brush to cover the form of a helmet. Schwartz was additionally a contributor to the not too long ago printed Ukraine doc.
It’s laborious to know the precise attain of McBreen’s web site, which has usually been shared through phrase of mouth.
“I might say the infantry group embraces what Brendan McBreen has finished,” Schwartz mentioned. “The actual professionals in our group all know this web site. All of them know the sources on it, they usually all go it round.”
Although the paperwork include candid evaluation that typically challenges standard Marine Corps views — corresponding to calling for tanks even because the Corps has divested itself of them to combat lighter — the positioning’s supporters really feel that such casual discussions are what leaders need of their Marines.
“I really feel such as you hear numerous leaders say, hey, skilled dialogue is a part of being within the Marine Corps,” Mills mentioned. “You realize, go away issues higher than you discovered them.”
When McBreen printed the Ukraine handbook in June, he bought a direct indicator that the doc was fashionable when a discover from the web site internet hosting service warned that downloads had exceeded the positioning’s capability and 2ndBn5thMar.com was in peril of crashing.
“OK,” McBreen recalled saying. “I’ll provide you with 4 extra {dollars} a month, or no matter you want.”
Hope Hodge Seck is an award-winning investigative and enterprise reporter overlaying the U.S. army and nationwide protection. The previous managing editor of Army.com, her work has additionally appeared within the Washington Put up, Politico Journal, USA At the moment and Standard Mechanics.
