Note to insurgents: hit the treadmill. The Marines are about to get a few steps quicker.
Reacting to injuries caused by over weighted body armor and security improvements in some combat zones, the Marine Corps is adjusting the way it equips Leathernecks in the field with personal protective equipment.
The service is shifting the decision making down the chain of command and instituting a graduated armor scale in the coming weeks for the promise of a lighter load to reduce injuries and hopefully quicken the feet of Marines in the field.
The first move, effective immediately, will push control to lieutenant colonels in deciding what amount of personal protective equipment Marines will wear for a given mission.
“Recognizing that body armor is modular and scalable, [we’ll] try and leverage that by empowering our commanders to make the appropriate decision with regards to what composition of body armor their Marines will wear,” said Maj. Tom Wood, infantry advocate for the plans, policies and operations branch of Marine Corps headquarters in Washington.
Previously, the decision for the body armor composition Marines wore into the field rested in the hands of colonels. The Corps hopes devolved decision making to the equivalent of battalion commanders will translate to a more flexible policy.
“Our battalion and squadron commanders are really the right individuals to make the decision with regards to balancing weight versus protection in a given operating environment,” Wood told Military.com in an exclusive interview.
Wood trumpeted “increased tactical mobility” as a key justification for the new move.
“What you are going to see, undoubtedly, is the ability of the average Marine to move quicker and enhance his tactical mobility and thereby the unit can move from point to point quicker,” Wood said.
Combatant commanders will still have the authority to issue theater– or region-wide guidance on the level of personal protective equipment, but Wood hopes that “the reduced level of violence of this new authority may help stir some discussion between Marine force commanders in Iraq and their joint force commander supervisors.”
In January of last year, Corps commanders in Iraq were pushing to shed the body armor load of their grunts by making neck guards, groin protectors, side plates and even helmets optional in some areas of Iraq. But they were shut down by higher-level Army commanders who were unconvinced the threat had diminished enough to justify the new armor edict.
As more Leathernecks deployed to Afghanistan, with its high altitude battlefields and rural geography, the Corps quietly began letting grunts wear light-weight plate carriers instead of the bulky Modular Tactical Vest, exchanging protection for pounds as the strategic environment dictated.
Potentially an even more drastic change is a forthcoming move by the Corps to create a graduated system of personal protective equipment that will allow Marines in the field to quickly move between different body armor configurations.
Wood explained the so-called “armor protection levels” are being modeled after the MOPP — mission orientated protective posture — gear levels that Marines are familiar with in relation to nuclear, biological and chemical attack protective gear. Currently, the Corps is drafting a proposal to create four APLs.
We want to “standardize that across the Marine Corps … so that a commander can rapidly disseminate what his chosen body armor protection level or posture is for his forces,” Wood said.
It’s not new gear, just a new mindset. The four levels will incorporate the small-arms protective insert plate carrier and the modular tactical vest already in use.
Wood acknowledged that complaints from Marines in the field, bolstered by a growing litany of injuries related to gear, played a significant role in prompting these changes.
“We needed to get away from the one size fits all mentality of ‘you are going to go out with all your kit,’ ” Wood said. “Marines have become very, very comfortable operating with all their gear, but there are some body injuries that have occurred that we are just now starting to get our arms around in terms of long-term damage to the human body.”
He said neck, shoulder and back injuries are the most common, but did not provide figures as to the seriousness or frequency of the injuries.
Wood said heat considerations — unavoidable in places like Iraq and Afghanistan where temperatures routinely climb above 100 degrees in the summer months — also factored into the decision.
And besides, walking around like some bulked-up Storm Trooper in head-to-toe armor makes it tough to win hearts and minds in a war that hinges on separating the population from the insurgents.
“There are times and places where a Marine who is less kitted up poses less of a civil, informational or psychological threat to the people that he is attempting to engage with,” Wood said.
As a result of their own success, Marines are spending a lot more time in places like that. The tough part is figuring how to dress for it.
– Bryan Mitchell
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I’ve never understood why REMFs or state-side leaders were making decisions for troops in the field to begin with, but this is a good decision no matter how you slice it.
Excellent decision by the Corps.
This goes the same for the whole Mrap/ Humvee fiasco. Armor is nice, but it requires a trade off. Turtles are well armored but slow too. The mindset that we can make everybody bulletproof has proven to be a mistake in a lot of cases.
Good Morning Folks,
On this one Major Woods is 100% correct, how much if any body worn on any given operation should be the call of the battalion commander.
What might be the right body armor riding around in a HUMVEE in Ramada, where IED’s and EFP’s can be expected, would be the wrong armor for Marines operating in a small boat on a river patrol, any armor would tend to make them sink if they found themselves in the drink.
Major Woods is a breath of the fresh air of common sense which has been in short supply in the wars.
ALLONS,
Byron Skinner
Byron, while I agree whole-heartedly with your comments I see just one problem.
From a troop’s perspective, on the whole, junior officers seem incapable of making this kind of decision. Junior officers seem to shy away from making the big calls that could blow up in their face and end their career.
A junior officer would rather not have to explain to a Colonel why some of his Marines are KIA because they weren’t wearing full body armour based on an order handed down from said junior officer.
They much prefer these decisions to come from somewhere higher than them, leaving them to merely enforce any order handed down.
So while it seems like a good idea I wonder just how much will really change.
I do however hope common sense prevails and this benefits Marines.
IYAAYAS,
I see where you’re coming from and if a junior officer is nervous about making a command decision for fear of his career, its because he learned the habit from his superior. Many a full bird pisses his pants at the thought of going against the grain and making decisions that aren’t politically safe. If a senior leader shows his subordinate officers that he’s not afraid to make a command decision, then those other officers will emulate him.
I’ve seen battalion and company commanders screaming for this kind of leeway for years. I don’t think junior officers are incapable of making that kind of call, they just need to know their superiors will back them if they do.
i hate america al la la la la la la la la
Give them some DRAGONSKIN too.
TB,
Perhaps this is my point.
I’m seeing that even though they’ve been authorised to make a command decision that they can be held accountable for, junior officers will err on the side of caution and just enforce the wearing of full body protection in lieu of reduced protection in appropriate areas, because they do not want to have to deal with the consequences of their Marines going KIA due to reduced body armour.
As cynical as that sounds, I merely tell it as I see it after more than 10 years service. Junior officers come, and junior officers go. We are still left to do our job. They try, but don’t really leave a lasting impression, and ultimately will always wait for direction from above. In my opinion.
Sounds like a good opening for Dragonskin, as it’s lighter for the same coverage as a rigid plate and being flexible, gives better mobility,
Great news at last!!! Definitely one step in the right direction. Hope the Army adopts the very exact same policy (or something similar). Its about time we focus on mobility (and comfort) as we fight this war while preparing for other possible future conflicts where even greater mobility (and less armor/weight) be needed, such as jungles. Semper Fi!!!
That flak sucks. I hate it personally. It’s too bulky and awkward to wear and I think that it is an awesome decision that they went to a smaller version that fits closer to the body. The new one is basically a plate carrier.