A Letter from DC I&L
Posted on: February 18,2022March 2022
A MESSAGE FROM THE DEPUTY COMMANDANTFOR INSTALLATIONS & LOGISTICS
Our Commandant has stated it clearly in his planning guidance, force design documents, and in an article addressing Stand-in Force capability: the Marine Corps will be trained and equipped as a naval expeditionary force-in-readiness and prepared to operate inside actively contested maritime spaces. As such, the Marine Corps Logistics Enterprise must transform to sustain the future force over great distances, across multiple bases, stations and installations, and in the face of multi-domain threats.
Central to this transformation, the Marine Corps must resolve the paradox of effectively organizing, training, and equipping a force that is mobile, lethal, and low signature, yet possesses the requisite amount of redundancy and self-sustainability to persist in a contested environment. We will no longer have the luxury of weighing down units with logistics capabilities that improve self-sufficiency at the cost of making them heavier and less agile.
We must continue developing and retaining high-quality, multi-skilled Marines that can think critically about the enemy and our capabilities. We need logisticians that understand the future threat environment, their contributions to the competition continuum, and realize that the same capabilities that threaten battlefield maneuver hold at risk our force generation and deployment platforms. Our logisticians must appreciate that our bases and stations are no longer sanctuaries and must be resilient in the face of these threats—whether from kinetic fires, cyberattacks, or the effects of climate change. The Marine Corps Gazette provides an excellent forum to articulate ideas, foster discussion, and stimulate debate on meeting these challenges.
We received nearly 30 submissions for this year’s Marine Corps Gazette Installations and Logistics edition. I applaud all those that were willing to put pen to paper whether printed here, published online, or submitted for later publication. Major General Reventlow and the team from DLA highlight the challenges of global distribution in a contested environment—a perspective often underappreciated at the tactical level. Captain Sneed’s “The Seven Principles of (EABO) Logistics” offers valuable guidelines that could prove helpful in devising future tactics, techniques, and procedures. The MCB Albany and MCAS New River submissions reflect the creative approaches needed to better posture our installations for the future. Major Katzman’s article assessing the supportability of EABO provides an excellent counterpoint to our current thinking and highlights known capability shortfalls and requirements, underscoring the challenges we face ahead.
We must continue to examine and challenge traditional thinking related to the logistics capabilities across the Marine Air-Ground Task Force, integrated with the Navy and the Joint community. I am committed to creating maneuver space for all Marines, whether in the halls of the Pentagon, at our bases and stations, or on the battlefield, to help us innovate and experiment in order to accomplish this transformation. I hope you enjoy this edition of the Gazette and it sparks your thinking in sustaining the future force.
Semper Fi,
Edward D. Banta
Lieutenant General, U.S. Marine Corps
Deputy Commandant for Installations and Logistics
