MCA MCCDC Dinner
hosted by the Marine Corps Association
and the Marine Corps Combat Development Command
On Wednesday, 22 August the Marine Corps Association and the Marine Corps Combat Development Command co-hosted the first ever MCA-MCCDC Dinner at the Clubs of Quantico. A new annual event in the MCA professional event program, the dinner featured the theme of combat decision making addressed by guest speaker and former MCCDC Commanding General, LtGen James N. Mattis, USMC.
Following a no-host cocktail hour the guests attending the dinner gathered in the banquet room for some initial administrative and introductory remarks by MajGen Les Palm, President and CEO of MCA. After a color guard ceremony and an invocation by the chaplain, the capacity crowd settled 
down to an evening of camaraderie and a great dinner of excellently prepared London Broil. The Clubs of Quantico did a super job.
After the dinner, LtGen Amos, Commanding General of MCCDC, introduced the guest speaker. Recognizing some of the dinner guests, General Amos pointed out that he and LtGen Shea had spent a life time trying to keep General Mattis out of the press and that he hoped the media present at the dinner would go easy on him that night. Gen Amos pointed out that no one he knew had dealt with more or thornier issues than Gen Mattis and that the biography appended to the dinner programs was indicative of his character-written in big font and showing no fluff assignments and nothing but command billets throughout. After thanking the club, the base commander, Colonel Charles Dallachie, and the Marine Corps Association, he introduced LtGen Mattis, Commanding General I-MEF as the evening’s guest speaker.
General Mattis thanked General Amos for having him at the dinner and also thanked him for all the air support he had provided to him and Marines over the years when voices were several octaves higher than normal. Pointing out that the night – the first MCA-MCCDC Dinner was very special indeed, that it had to be because BGen Brogan was in the audience with his wife on the night of their wedding anniversary. The dinner guests chuckled appreciatively at that introductory humor.
Addressing the theme of the evening, LtGen Mattis began his presentation by stating that he was by no means an expert in combat decision-making and that no one had made more mistakes in combat than him. Pointing out the Marine Corps’s organic and self-contained advantages in combined arms warfare, he said categorically that no one can withstand us. The grunts surge while the air wing makes ready and the grunts pause while the air wing surges in a sustainable cycle that leads to success for Marines in war.
Stating that combat decision-making is personal and personality driven problem solving process, he indicated that there had to be a framework to make it work. Elaborating, he said the musical group, Crosby Stills Nash and Young had a song which captured the thought well; “We who are on the road….must have a code that we can live by…” Having a coherent behavioral code can help you face challenges and helps decision making in combat or stressful situations.
Another personality driven attribute necessary for successful combat decision making, he stated, is the ability to read the enemy and grasp enemy intentions. The inability to do so always makes problems for subordinates.
Relaying an anecdote from the operation to expel the Taliban from Afghanistan, he explained how the Marines and other U.S. forces were able to read Taliban intentions from the way they were geographically arrayed and that this allowed him to accept a tremendous amount of risk in launching a dispersed offensive far removed from support and hundreds of miles outside of the artillery fan. Elaborating he said that the approach used was a risk but it was not a gamble.
He stated authoritatively that commanders must be optimists. Optimists felt comfortable taking risks while pessimists don’t tend to take risks and that willingness to risk was the mark of a commander and a key factor in generating success. Things ALWAYS go wrong, the key was to stay positive.
Turning to the subject of doctrine, LtGen Mattis said effective decision making required that Marines had to know doctrine but be able to recognize when to ignore it and that doctrine could be a trap…”The last refuge of the unimaginative.” Decision makers need to know doctrine but not be confined to it and know when to move outside of it.
Further on the theme of imagination, LtGen Mattis expressed gratitude and admiration for the Marines preceding him who had the imagination to see the need for KC-130 aerial refueling platforms and the aerial re-fuelable CH-53E helicopter as well as the extra week added to Marine Corps recruit training that helped cement intense bonds of loyalty and discipline in today’s Marines. These were important, he said, because they allowed him as a commander to be very opportunistic.
Commanders must be prepared to move opportunistically against our enemy and that they much be disciplined but unregimented. To do this they need to know and use history to enable the judgment to know when opportunities arise. Further on this vein, he related an anecdote about a reporter asking him how long he had considered an incident before he decided what to do and he responded “Oh, about 30 years” indicating the power a well-studied knowledge of history has on decision making. Refining that point, he strongly averred that commanders have to be thick skinned enough to allow for the free competition of ideas in public forums and that getting bruised at happy hour discussions while exploring ideas was great preparation for commanders and helped the decision making process because it forced commanders into becoming “quick studies” and helped them form a bias for action.
LtGen Mattis stated that we are in the information age characterized by more and faster criticism than in earlier ages and as a result, what is needed are commanders who are self confident rather than arrogant.
Addressing the subject of ethics and seizing the moral high ground, he said that commanders, and the troops that follow them, need an ethics framework – “an ethically compelling thread” that all must draw tight around them to help them make quick, correct and morally defensible decision. Providing some examples from Operation Iraqi Freedom where he used two easy touchstone phrases to capture the essence of his ethical framework; “No better friend, no worse enemy” and “First-do no harm”, the framework was powerful, easy to remember and helped give his Marines the moral high ground. He stated that maintaining an ethical balance and the moral high ground has a direct and positive operational impact and that an ethically sound approach to decision-making and action breeds combat power.
The Marine Corps Association thanks LtGen Mattis for taking the time from his busy schedule and speaking to the dinner guests at our first annual MCA-MCCDC Dinner.
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Thank you to our MCA MCCDC Dinner sponsors:
Gold Sponsor
Bronze Sponsors
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Program Sponsor:
Wine Sponsor:
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