The Exercise Has No Clothes

By Captain Will McGee, U.S. Marine Corps
January 2018
As the nation’s expeditionary force of choice, MAGTFs must be able to understand and operate in highly ambiguous environments lacking a clearly identifiable adversary, similar to the Russian intervention in ...

Focus on Warfighting

Lieutenant Travis F. Bean, U.S. Navy
January 2018
The problems identified in the recent Comprehensive Review are not just surface fleet issues, but service-wide ones. Returning submarine crews' focus to warfighting can help the "silent service" correct course ...

What Happened To Our Surface Forces?

Captain Kevin Eyer, U.S. Navy (Retired)
January 2018
To chart a course going forward, it is necessary that we understand what went before and how it all went wrong so we can avoid the mistakes that have led ...

In the Long Calm Lee of Midway

By Lieutenant Commander Colin Roberts, U.S. Navy
January 2018
aken the Navy to its core, and it is a solemn reminder of the hazards of life at sea. The flurry of recent commentary attributing both incidents to systemic problems ...

HM Coastguard Focuses on SAR

By Jim Dolbow
January 2018
Her Majesty’s Coastguard is the United Kingdom’s 24/7 civilian maritime and aeronautical search-and-rescue (SAR) agency. The operational arm of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), HM Coastguard operates under the ...

When a Career Goes Up in Flames

By Lieutenant Commander John R. Liddle, U.S. Navy
January 2018
On the other hand, there are very few accounts that tell us what follows traumatic events, and how survivors managed the burdens they carried. While your life may change greatly ...

Comment and Discussion

January 2018
A Mistake Should Not Kill a Sailor’s Career(See E. Heck, p. 14, December 2017Proceedings)Prepare for the “To Be Or to Do” Moment(See R. Schuhart, pp ...

French Mids Drive Ships

By Lieutenant Commander Michelle Mecklenburg, U.S. Navy
January 2018
Established in Lanvéoc, Western Brittany, after World War II, the French Naval Academy sits along the roadstead, or bay, of Brest. This large bay of 70 square miles, deep water ...

Bolster the Navy’s Patrol Forces

Lieutenant Commander Matthew E. Dryden, U.S. Navy
January 2018
The Navy can replace its worn-out Cyclone-class coastal patrol ships with a combination of up-gunned, up-armored expeditionary fast transport ships and Sentinel-class fast response cutters for a fraction of the ...

The Navy Cannot Afford Large Crews

By Captain George Galdorisi, U.S. Navy (Retired)
January 2018
The Navy’s ability to accomplish its mission is at risk from one primary factor—the high cost of manning its ships. There is no question that personnel costs consume an increasing ...

Surface Forces Are Refocused

By Vice Admiral Thomas S. Rowden, U.S. Navy
January 2018
Over the summer, two tragedies took the lives of 17 sailors on board the USS Fitzgerald (DDG-62) and USS John S. McCain (DDG-56). These accidents were preceded by the grounding ...

Check Your Ego At The Hatch

By Lieutenant Commander Luke Kelvington, U.S. Navy
January 2018
Humility often gets a bad rap in the military. It gets mistaken for weakness or a lack of confidence—an anticommand presence, so to speak. Humility means putting others before self ...

Build Teams with Board Games

Sergeant First Class Joseph “Jay” Arnold, Illinois Army National Guard
January 2018
Modern board games can create opportunities for controlled chaos that open up great opportunities for team building. Jay Arnold, host of the podcast "The Veteran Wargamer" and a veteran of ...

Time to Redress XO/CO Fleet Up

By Captain John P. Cordle, U.S. Navy (Retired)
January 2018
Excessive time spent away from ships is doing a disservice to surface warfare commanding officers.It often is the case that significant decisions, made for good reason, have unintended consequences. Recent ...

Increase Strike Group Lethality

By Lieutenant Commander Justin Reddick, U.S. Navy
January 2018
The term “lethality” can be associated with any number of things in the Navy. Oftentimes it will be associated with a weapon system, such as those found on a naval ...

Coast Guard Needs Mine Countermeasures

Peter von Bleichert
January 2018
Naval mines and underwater improvised explosive devices (M/UWIED) are a threat to U.S. homeland waters and maritime forces abroad. Because the nation relies on the sea for commerce and defense ...

Marines Don’t Eat Alone

Sergeant Major Michael Burke, U.S. Marine Corps
January 2018
A sergeant major reflects on the ways Marines can get in trouble, and how many of those ways involve a lone Marine. Getting Marines to look out for each other ...

Negligent Homicides: A Bridge Too Far

By Captain Kevin S. Eyer, U.S. Navy (Retired)
January 2018
Earlier this week, it was reported that the COs of both the Fitzgerald and John S. McCain are expected to face charges, including negligent homicide. According to the Navy, “After ...

Naval Guns Still Matter

Lieutenant Andrew Wiley Miller, U.S. Navy
January 2018
Missiles can do a lot, but naval guns are necessary, too. They cost less and remain functional in difficult environments—and can place dozens to hundreds of rounds on target for ...

Enlisted Education Must Be More Than Training

Lieutenant Colonel Kyle G. Phillips, U.S. Marine Corps
January 2018
The Marine Corps has traditionally understood and executed training very well for enlisted personnel; however, it should explore opportunities to provide enlisted Marines with an education that emphasizes a deeper ...

Don't Micromanage Response Boats

By Chief Boatswain's Mate Phillip Null, U.S. Coast Guard
January 2018
Coast Guard districts and sectors should provide boat crews with objectives and support, but authority in most cases must rest with those risking their lives and performing the work at ...

Establish a Maritime War College

By Captain Buck McDermott, U.S. Navy Reserve
January 2018
A U.S. Maritime War College would provide Coast Guard and Merchant Marine officers a focused curriculum that would allow them to apply their decades of practical experience to complex national ...

Task Force 355

By Harlan Ullman
January 2018
The Trump administration has set as one of its top defense priorities a 355-ship Navy. While numbers can be arbitrary, three separate studies analyzed the current requirements and demands on ...

Character Has Real Consequence

Commander Kevin Duffy, U.S. Coast Guard
January 2018
In this Online Exclusive Leadership Forum from the January 2018 issue of Proceedings, a Coast Guard officer says that the relationship between character and promotion to senior leadership isn't as ...

Combat Fleets of the World

By Eric Wertheim
January 2018
U.S. Navy, D.M. YoungThe Interim Afloat Forward Staging Base Ponce (AFSB(I) 15) was officially retired from the U.S. Navy on 14 October after 46 years of service. The 16,000-ton ...

Let Marines Be Marines

Captain Brendan Boley, U.S. Marine Corps
January 2018
The Marine Corps has arguably the best recruiters and marketing of all the military services. Its call to duty and service above self attracts many motivated and patriotic young Americans ...

Professionalize the Surface Force

Captain Ted Hontz, U.S. Navy (Retired)
January 2018
We were heading for this crisis before the damaging manning and training decisions of the early 2000s. While it may be convenient to blame those twin factors—and they certainly play ...

The Value of (Unrep) Time

By Commander John A. Lukacs IV, U.S. Navy
January 2018
Underway replenishment (UnRep), the Navy’s “secret weapon of World War II” as coined by Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, has enabled historically unprecedented, sustained combat operations by the U.S. Navy. Continuing ...

Give a Cyber Edge to the Warfighters

By Captain Ramberto Torruella, U.S. Navy<p>
January 2018
The Battle of Savo Island in August 1942 was the first surface action of the Guadalcanal Campaign, remembered by most for the humiliating defeat imposed on the Allies by the ...

Where Russian Information Warfare Is Failing

Captain Bill Bray, U.S. Navy (Retired)
January 2018
Western democracies can, at least to some degree, take heart at how Ukraine has so far stood firm against a ruthless and pervasive Russian information warfare campaign. Indeed, when measuring ...

Lest We Forget: Nickel Grass: U.S. Resupplies Israel

By Lieutenant Commander Thomas J. Cutler, U.S. Navy (Retired)<p>
January 2018
DefCon (Defense Condition) 3 had been set. Fifty B-52 strategic bombers were moved from Guam to bases in the continental United States. Airborne divisions in both the United States and ...

Book Reviews

Reviewed by John Lehman
January 2018
Seablindness: How Political Neglect is Choking American Seapower and What to Do About ItBy Seth Cropsey. New York: Encounter Books, 2017. 304 pp. Notes. Index. $27.99.It often is said ...

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