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From the forums

ROTATE JAPAN TOURS

The Corps should rotate units on Japan deployments. For infantry units, the rotation should go from combat tour, to Okinawa, to Marine expeditionary unit deployment and then repeat. It would allow the Corps to maintain its “every clime and place” motto that has gone to the wayside. There are senior noncommissioned officers and staff noncommissioned officers who have never deployed anywhere but Iraq or Afghanistan. Deploying units to Okinawa or Guam will ensure skills aren’t lost.

ARLINGTON CEMETERY PROBE

Arlington National Cemetery needs more than the probe ordered by Army Secretary John McHugh to investigate allegations of poor record-keeping and lack of accountability. When I was in Washington, D.C, a couple of months ago, I visited Arlington. What a shock. It is not as pretty and well-kept as portrayed on television. There were many headstones that were falling over, or about to. There were also headstones being destroyed by trees growing into them.

Serious, immediate and drastic effort needs to be given to correct all the wrongs that seem to have happened at Arlington National Cemetery. This is a shame and demands a national outcry.

NEW COUNTER-IED TASK FORCE

There may be a very simple solution to a very complex problem. Granted we have a lot of experience these days with IEDs but their employment is not much different than the convoy ambushes we faced in Vietnam or the mines laid in WWII. These people who put the IEDs out are not rocket scientists, rather they are copycats. With infrared, heat detection, explosive detection and other technologies that exist, the answer may be right in front of us. A task force targeted at improved explosive devices is a good idea.

There is already an organization with this charter, the Joint IED Defeat Organization. If it isn’t performing, fire the leadership or disband it and start over. Adding an organization muddies the water.