Keith Marine’s Afghan Review (XVII and last): Pulling the plug prematurely

Posted By Thomas E. Ricks Thursday, January 28, 2010 - 5:00 PM Share

I am sorry to report that CWO2/Gunner Keith Marine has decided that he no longer wants me to excerpt his terrific review on lessons to be learned in Afghanistan. I was ambivalent about complying with his request, but I decided that it would be wrong to use the document against his wishes. He is a terrific writer, a clear thinker, and a honest man, and to continue to run excerpts would punish him for those virtues. So, with great reluctance, I am terminating the series now, only one-third of the way through. It is a shame because he was just getting to his particular field of expertise, the performance of weapons in the field.

MANPREET ROMANA/AFP/Getty Images

EXPLORE:SOUTH ASIA, AFGHANISTAN, MILITARY

(15)

HIDE COMMENTS LOGIN OR REGISTER REPORT ABUSE

KNS

5:10 PM ET

January 28, 2010

Did he give any particular

Did he give any particular reasoning behind his request?

RPM

5:47 PM ET

January 28, 2010

any way to access his full document?

The weapons discussion would be interesting.

WALKING WOUNDED

6:04 PM ET

January 28, 2010

The termination follows on his critique of organic air support.

I have to wonder if he got muzzled by Marine PAO's, for throwing light MV-22's unsuitability and resulting lack of money for USMC helos. The MV-22 buy isn't complete yet, nor are the responsible flag officers safely retired. What a tangled web.

JPWREL

6:31 PM ET

January 28, 2010

Methinks WW has discovered

Methinks WW has discovered the pearl in the oyster.

MEG

6:33 PM ET

January 28, 2010

As the mother of a Marine

As the mother of a Marine, I am really sorry to see him go.

UNICORN

7:50 PM ET

January 28, 2010

Tom: This guy was so spot on,

Tom: This guy was so spot on, it's a real loss, still if his insights were good for us, they would have been pure gold for the bad guys.Did he ever post on the performance of individual and crew served weapons? Unicorn

TOM RICKS

10:46 PM ET

January 28, 2010

Yeah, he did a lot on the weapons, but I can't use it

He actually went through the whole inventory, critiquing everything from the M9 pistol to rocket systems I haven't heard of. That was yet to come.
Best,
Tom

JOHN SCHWARTZ

8:14 PM ET

January 28, 2010

Is there anywhere else to read this?

I'm curious if this is available anywhere else? Is there a book being published or something? If so, that would make sense why he would ask you to cut short on the excerpts.

JOHND99

8:42 PM ET

January 28, 2010

Shame

As a soldier about to deploy they have been thought provoking articles. The only way to learn is to share this info.

CMEYERGO

8:56 PM ET

January 28, 2010

The V-22 Gangsters

He violated the Golden Rule, and unpublished rule, that officers never demean major Marine Corp procurement programs, and the V-22 is the Corps #1 program. Worst of all, the Gunner is right, the V-22 is crap.

I had a dozen articles published in the Marine Corps Gazette. After two V-22s crashed in 2000, I wrote an article on alternatives. The new editor liked it and set it for publication in March 2001. Somehow, the V-22 gangsters found out, had it pulled, and my articles were no longer welcome there. Bell-Boeing has a V-22 advertisement in every Gazette issue. Is this because they think readers might buy one, or it this an indirect form of bribery?

I repost Gunner's last words here. One can imagine the screaming phone calls around the world, and the Gunner told the Colonel needs to speak with him ASAP.
------------------------------------------------------------Gunner

Luckily the Army and Air Force guys will drop right where you want them to pick up casualties, we are lucky to have them.

I have heard a lot of excuses on why this is and here are the two most plausible ones. 1) They have superior aircraft with better handling capabilities; 2) Their pilots are pilots, whereas our pilots fill a dozen different billets and get about a tenth of the actual stick time these guys do. Like most of you, I love the Corps and it hurts me to say it but I think we have been chasing the wrong aircraft. We don't need to create a capability; the other branches already have it in the aircraft they use. We need that capability for when they aren't there. You just can't fit a 46 or 53 and definitely not an Osprey where these things will land.

MAJORMARGINAL

12:08 AM ET

January 29, 2010

Thanks Gunner

Hang tough.

TYRTAIOS

12:13 AM ET

January 29, 2010

The Kit Fox - The Gunner

Members of this society were agile and clever in battle as the fox and were noted for their care and concern for the tribe in peaceful times as well as in times of war - which aptly describes the Gunner.

Hecheto aloe - tokala kin hemacha, taka yakapi channa - iyatan michila! ; |

4:32 AM ET

January 29, 2010

Keep writing, Gunner. You owe it to your fellow Marines.

It's unfortunate the Gunner is choosing to withhold further publication of his personal AAR. I hope he has his own reasons for having done so, and that it wasn't due to external pressure...but I suspect otherwise.

Based on my experiences as a Marine Aviator, I didn’t agree with all of the Gunner's observations, but such is the marketplace of ideas and observations. I thought some of his points were spot on and some were a bit exaggerated.

I would encourage the Gunner to continue publishing his observations. If the powers-that-be can't stand a little criticism...it's time they rejoined the civilian world (no offense, Tom).

ZATHRAS

5:25 AM ET

January 29, 2010

Marine

If this is CWO2 Marine's decision, I regret it. If it is not entirely his decision, I regret it even more.

Those of us neither in the military nor in-country have very limited means to find out what is really going on in Afghanistan (or, for that matter, in Iraq). To some of us, this is a source of considerable frustration, and I cannot think it is very good for the country.

With respect to the V-22, I always thought it was a waste of money. We were a few months into our second war with Iraq before all the Iraqis put together managed to kill as many Marines as that damned airplane did. If its interminably long gestation period and staggering cost had yielded a platform Marines thought helped them in a war zone, I was willing to revise that opinion. CWO2 Marine's vow of silence makes that a little more difficult to do.

SFWO79

8:47 AM ET

January 29, 2010

I'm sorry to see him go. As a

I'm sorry to see him go. As a fellow Warrant Officer (albeit Army), I applaud his frankness and honesty and I hope many of our brothers downrange have benefited from his observations. Most good Warrant Officers will speak the truth and damn the consequences, and for that they are both valued and vilified.
It's interesting that his last post was a critique of the Corp's pilots and aircraft. Was pressure brought to bear from the aviation mafia?