Lt. Gen. Richard P. Mills is envious of this year’s Marine Corps University class.

At the class’s convocation Aug. 2, 2013, at Little Hall, Mills, the commanding general of Marine Corps Combat Development Command, told the new students he was jealous of the opportunity they have to spend the next year reading, thinking and conversing about the future of military operations. He emphasized, though, that their studies are not just for their enjoyment, but for the benefit of the service members of decades to come.

“Here sit the new thinkers; here sit the doers,” Mills said, addressing a packed auditorium. “There’s no substitute for the ability to step back, think clearly and think outside the box.”

As the operating environment changes, the armed forces must change with it, he said, noting that failure to change comes at a cost.

For example, he said the military adapted too slowly to the threat of improvised explosive devices in Iraq and Afghanistan. He noted that then-Capt. Wayne Sinclair wrote about the threat of IEDs and pointed to mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles as a solution while he was a student at MCU in 1996, long before the U.S. launched major operations in the Middle East. Officials were slow in heeding that advice, though.

“The speed with which we adapted to those changes was paid for in blood,” he said. 

The students will discuss future adaptations in the context of more limited resources, emerging cyber-warfare threats and capabilities, a new focus on the Pacific, a preference for coalition operations and other changes in the operating environment, Mills said.

“War is best understood as an intrinsically dynamic whole,” he said, invoking Carl von Clausewitz. “Take a look at this year as a whole. It’s your year to challenge conventional thought.”

He said many of the students who come from other countries and other services will also have to do some adapting of their own, such as learning new terminologies. “Don’t confuse the head with the overhead. Don’t confuse it with the bulkhead,” he cracked.

“This will be a year of hard work and of great reward,” said Brig. Gen. Thomas Weidley, commanding general of Education Command and president of MCU, adding that the students’ work will not simply be a series of tasks and tests but an opportunity to develop knowledge, insight, mental acuity and an understanding of the operating environment.

Their education will not end with the school year, he added. “You should leave here recognizing that a well-educated officer will always know that he or she has more to learn.”

— Writer: mdicicco@quanticosentryonline.com