MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. -- Students and faculty members of the Marine Corps University attended the inaugural Thomas Lord Charitable Trust Lecture at Little Hall on Nov. 27.
The Marine Corps University and the Marine Corps University Foundation put on the lecture that featured Gen. James F. Amos, commandant of the Marine Corps. The lecture was to help broaden the students’ and faculties’ perspective on social, political, cultural and other topics that impact the nation or the global community.
Amos spoke from the perspective as commandant and member of Joint Chiefs of Staff regarding what the world will look like in the next two years and the fiscal difficulties the Marine Corps and the military are facing.
“When you run out of money, you have to make hard decisions,” said Amos. “We have to decide what is good enough and what will allow us to be always ready.”
The budget is one of the biggest topics the commandant has to face in the coming years, said retired Lt. Gen. Frederick McCorkle, a member of the Board of Directors of Lord Corporation, who introduced the commandant before his lecture.
The Marine Corps wasn’t the only topic Amos covered, “Stop and think, is there anything to indicate the world is getting nicer?” asked Amos. “As we look ahead the world is increasing in instability, failing state, conflicts, poverty and unemployment. We have to decide where we should apply the resources we have.”
Amos said the Marine expeditionary units are what give the Marine Corps and our nations a chance to think and figure out what we should do.
“The value of our forward deployed units is that they are already there,” said Amos. “That is how the Marine Corps responds to today’s crisis today.
“We do land business well, we do what the present tells us to do well and we will always be ready,” he said.
Correspondent: tabitha.bartley@usmc.mil