By CHAD GARLAND | STARS AND STRIPES Published: February 22, 2021 The Marine Corps is ditching some of its formation marches and adding board games to a new, longer entry-level infantry training course aimed at creating Marines who can better think and act for themselves. The Infantry Marine Course pilot program launched last month at the service’s School of Infantry-West on Camp Pendleton, Calif., where instructors were pictured instructing new Marines on how chess relates to battlefield tactics. The course focuses less on micromanagement and more on individual responsibility, the service said in a statement. “Rote memorization, instant obedience to orders are good for certain things, and they’re not getting thrown away from this course,” Chief Warrant Officer 3 A.J. Pasciuti, the training battalion’s gunner, said in Friday’s statement. “We’re just going a step further, and understanding that the individual and a collective of individuals is what wins in com
Chess during downtime: How the Corps wants to increase ‘thinking’ in Marine infantry January 25 Marines show Japan Ground Self-Defense Force service members room-clearing techniques during Exercise Forest Light Western Army at Kirishima Maneuver Field, Kumamoto, Japan, Jan. 27, 2020. (Sgt. Audrey M. C. Rampton/Marine Corps) Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger has a vision for the Corps’ future fights that sees Marines fighting a near-peer enemy in small dispersed units, raiding islands, sinking ships and attacking the enemy’s cyber capabilities. The plan ultimately will push increased responsibility further down the Marine Corps chain of command, with infantry platoons potentially taking on the responsibilities that currently reside at the company or even battalion level.
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Home » Military Personnel » Marine Infantry Training Shifts From ‘Automaton’ to Thinkers, as School Adds Chess to the Curriculum
Marine Infantry Training Shifts From ‘Automaton’ to Thinkers, as School Adds Chess to the Curriculum
December 15, 2020 3:59 PM
Infantry Training Battalion instructors play chess in their instructor ready room at School of Infantry-West at Camp Pendleton, Calif. US Marine Corps photo.
The Marine Corps is about to revolutionize infantry training, more than doubling the length of initial training for enlisted infantry Marines and weighing consolidation of its core grunt specialties into a single, all-around infantry warfighter.
The transition – which aims to build Marines adept in ground weaponry that can tackle the higher-end threats they will face on the dispersed battlefields of the future – will focus as much on brains as brawn.