Analysis of First To Fight Essays -- Book Review, Military History

First To Fight begins with Krulak engaged in a conversation with a Gunnery Sergeant who was asked how the oceanic Corps got the reputation of having champion of the worlds greatest fighting formations. The GySgt replies Well lieutenant they started express everybody how great they were and pretty soon they started believing it. The story goes on to prattle ab step forward how there nearly wasnt a Marine Corps.starts out with Marine Lieutenant General Holland M. Smith on the bridge of the look across ship Mt. Olympus, off Iwo Jima on the morning of 23 February 1945 with deposit of the Navy James Forrestal who said that the raising of our flag atop Mt. Suribachi gist there depart be an Marine Corps for the next quintet hundred years. Smith commented When the war is over and money is short they will be after the Marines again, and a dozen Iwo Jimas would actualise no difference. The resolute general was voicing the frustrations of the many generations of Marines before him who had larn finished hard experience that fighting for the right to fight often presented greater challenges than fighting their countrys enemies. The Marines survival struggles during their first degree Celsius and a half were mere skirmishes compared with what was to commence following the Second piece War. Even as America was still trying to see through the smoke of Pearl Harbor, there were problems which were seen that were far more serious. A guardedly designed plan which, if implemented, would destroy the Marine Corps as a fighting force. The scene was set according to Krulak by three events. In early October 1942 Krulak was a member of a team of four Marine officers assigned to the Armys 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii to conduct instruction for the divisi... ...states there are three ruling external factors that cloud the Marines horizon. The first being the oppressive influence of flagellum. That threat is rooted in the attitudes or aspirations o f the Army, the Navy, or various chief executives. Its disposition has varied-threat to the Corpss repute, to its right to fight, to its very survival. Secondly, the recurrent military sadness called austerity. At worst, they linger in active service and are a hazard to all around them. The third is the dead hand of bureaucracy that lies over the entire military establishment. While the larger services whitethorn be able to handle the pressures of bureaucracy, the Marine Corps has neither the intellect nor the time for it. The Marines are an assemblage of warriors, nothing more. Paper massaging and computer competitions do not kill the enemy, which is what the Marines are supposed to do.