USMC Officer training exercise

[malthaussen]

Last edited Thu Sep 17, 2015, 10:39 AM - Edit history (1)

The USMC's Basic School had/has an exercise whereby the officer is expected to react to a more-or-less realistic moral crisis in leadership, to see not just how he reacts, but why he chooses the actions he does. This was (or is) also open to civilians for management training programs (and the differences between how the Marines act and how the civilians act might surprise one).

What follows is the description of one such "scenario," and I was interested in finding out how the Lounge denizens might react to the situation. It is perhaps a bit melodramatic, but withal not outside credibility. It has been actually used in the course.

Your mission is simple: you and your team are being sent as emissaries to a tribal chief to accept his alliance in upcoming operations against the Bad Guys. When you arrive, the chief is happy to see you, so happy, in fact, he has decided to grant you a great honor: to witness the marriage of his son to a lass from another tribe. Spot on being told of this honor, you see a battered and bruised young woman being dragged, kicking and screaming, into camp by a couple of the chief's henchmen. As soon as she sees you, she begs you to save her: she is going to be raped, she doesn't want to marry the kid, don't let them do this to her. She gets dragged off to a tent, and now you, young Marine, have some decisions to make.

Without prejudicing the test any, I'll just add that you may reasonably expect your team to do what you order, and calling higher HQ and asking for instructions isn't an option. You're the person in charge, and this is why we pay you the big bucks. What do you do?

**
I'll also add that this is not intended as a "gotcha" question, but to explore the officer's rationale for whatever action he takes. You may rest assured that, if this were an actual test, your instructing officer would rip strips off you whatever you did, and enjoy the opportunity to explain in loving detail why you are a subhuman swine not fit to wear the uniform of the United States Marines. So, with that out of the way, you can go ahead and honestly respond, if it is your pleasure.

-- Mal

[YabaDabaNoDinoNo]

1. If this was real. ......

What very well may happen is the villagers are wasted, village torched then blamed on bad guys

War is hell

[malthaussen]

2. Not exactly what I was looking for.

But it appears that Loungers have no wish to share their thoughts on the question.

-- Mal

[YabaDabaNoDinoNo]

3. Did you attend USMC Oriface training at Quannico?

[malthaussen]

5. Nope. Read about it a couple of years ago.

I'm a bit long in the tooth to be a platoon leader.

-- Mal

[Xyzse]

4. I thought about it, but I wasn't sure if I would share.

Thing is, when looking at that I automatically thought 3 things:

1 - The mission comes first and foremost.
2 - I am unallowed during the mission to change the dynamics of the relationship between the tribe and the US.
3 - I don't have enough information about the matter.

Saying that, I also know that I do not have the mentality to be a marine. However, if it was me, and I had the training that they do, as well as the fact that I have other disciplines and hobbies that I go for:

1 - I would have cased out the location. I would think, that this is imperative and a given.
2 - I would have to finish the mission first, accept the alliance. Once that is done, it frees me to act outside of my initial duties.


The second part of point number 2 becomes hazy, since I tend to think in acting alone and figuring out what I can do. Again, I do not have a marine mentality, and when it comes to moral decisions I would not expect any one else to follow what I do. I will do as my conscience dictates, which is to save that woman after the mission. How I would do that depends on the situation, but I will not involve any one else.

If things go wrong, they can easily call it as my own deriliction of duty, but I would not want it to go beyond me and my actions.

[malthaussen]

6. You may have more of a Marine mentality than you think.

I no longer have a link to the article, but it turns out the officers are far more likely to exercise initiative, even to the point of trashing the mission, than are the corporate managers who also took the course, who almost universally decide "the mission is all that matters."

I appreciate your response. The complexities of the matter are what intrigue me.

-- Mal

[NV Whino]

7. Acting as a marine...

I would complete the mission, use this tribe as allies to defeat the other tribe. As planned. To do otherwise would put the mission and my men at risk.

Once the mission was complete, I would try to rescue the woman.

As a civilian, I might do something completely different.

[malthaussen]

8. Thank you for your response.

I had feared this post would fall dead-born from the Press, as most of my OPs do.

-- Mal

[Glassunion]

9. Without thinking about it, the mission always comes first.

But that's not the end all be all to everything. To me the mission just changed, and the USMC will no longer be seeking the alliance of that village, and there would be no "wedding".

Mission first, people always.

[malthaussen]

10. Thank you for your response.

[BlueJazz]

11. I would do nothing. Interfering could backfire, perhaps even causing the chief to side with the..

..."Bad guys". "You will kill the ones that destroyed our sacred ceremonies...at another time"

I don't like this decision but interfering could cause more deaths.

[malthaussen]

12. That's why the training officer is warming up his voice...

... damned if you do, damned if you don't.

-- Mal