OPINION - Editorial

War among the geek squads

High speed, low … well, just high speed

THE OLD ADAGE is that the generals fight the last war. Once upon a time that was demonstrably true. As it happens, World War I is in the news these days, as the world remembers the 100-year anniversary of all those 1918 battles--and November will be the anniversary of the armistice. Those generals were still lining up men and charging over open ground. As the new "machine gun" filled the graveyards.

It's good to see American generals thinking ahead. The brass is not known for doing that.

The Marine Corps, for example, made the papers the other day when the Pentagon announced a new policy to entice older Marines to stay in the fold. Not old Marines, just older ones. And ones with cyber security training.

The papers say more than 62 percent of all Marines are 25 years old or younger. That's the nature of the beast. You've got to be one high-speed, low-drag sort of a super athlete, with a mean streak, to make it as a Marine. Most Americans have no desire to participate in that kind of life. Word around the campfire is that only about 30 percent of all young people in this country have the physical ability or mental toughness--or lack of a rap sheet--to even enlist. Then a lot of them would wash out during boot camp, no doubt.

The youth of the Marine Corps is a feature, not a bug. And after about four years of it, many Marines decide to make a little more money on the outside--and sleep in on Sundays.

But that makes it more difficult on the cyber security outfits. They need experience.

The Marines are considering a new bonus system to entice older Marines to re-enlist. You know, older Marines about, say, 29 or 30 years old.

Or as Gen. Robert Neller, the head of the Corps, put it: "It's going to be a Marine Corps that's a little bit older, a little more experienced, because as much as we love our young Marines, we need a little bit older [person] because it takes longer to learn these skills."

In the next war, a computer hacker can do more damage to our military by logging on than locking and loading. Imagine if an enemy agent in a basement somewhere were able to shut down our air defense artillery over a whole theater of operations. Or cut off communication between the front line grunts and company headquarters. Or, worse, intercept and send wrong information.

Imagine a bad guy sending our artillery folks coordinates on our own people. Or shutting down an Air Force runway at a critical time.

Older Marines--like older butchers and older bakers and older candlestick makers--would also be a maturing element in the barracks.

"By older Marines, we're not talking guys with walkers but rather second- and third-tour enlisted Marines," said Gary Solis, a military expert at Georgetown University who served 26 years in the Corps. "They may be only a few years older than the 18- and 19-year-old Marines, but those three or four years difference could make a hell of a difference as far as maturity when it comes to their outlook and unit cohesion."

There's that. And there's also a return on taxpayer investment. It takes hundreds of thousands of dollars to run just a handful of military schools for a few weeks. You can imagine that training folks in cyber security probably costs a lot more than other fields.

The next war, unfortunately, is coming. For an imperfect mankind, it's always coming. Let's prepare for it.

And as always, let the Marines lead the way.

HOWEVER, and there's always a however, some brilliant writer of an op-order proposed recruiting new Marines completely, and allowing those with certain computer skills to skip boot camp. That idea was run up the chain. And laughed off. Good for the brass, this time.

Marines should still be Marines. There shouldn't be a fast track around recruit training.

The Army has a saying: Everybody is infantry first. That's why you have to learn how to move, shoot and communicate as an infantryman before you're shipped off to a more specialized school such as tanks or artillery or the signal corps. In that spirit, every Marine should be a Marine first.

Semper fi!

Editorial on 06/16/2018

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