Congressman: I'll 'keep fighting like a bulldog' to rename the Navy Department for Marines
Lance M. Bacon, Marine Corps Times 3:48 p.m. EDT May 2, 2016
http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/2016/05/02/congressman-ll-keep-fighting-like-bulldog-rename-navy-department-marines/83822866/635641166983038223-1000px-USNavyFlag-Official
The 15th time is a charm.
At least that's what Rep. Walter Jones is hoping, as the North Carolina Republican tries once again to get Congress to redesignate the Department of the Navy as the Department of the Navy and Marine Corps.
The change would also affect department titles, like that of the Navy secretary.
The resolution included in the draft of the annual defense authorization bill, which the House Armed Services Committee approved last week. The push to rename the Navy Department has made it that far every year since 2001, but has always been shot down as the bill makes its way through the House and the Senate.
Jones told Marine Corps Times that he is “cautiously optimistic,” the effort will pass this time around — but he is prepared to carry the fight into the future.
“I have long been an advocate of giving the Marine Corps the recognition it deserves as one of the official branches of the military,” said Jones, a member of the HASC whose district includes Camp Lejeune and Marine Corps Air Station New River. “I plan to keep fighting like a bulldog.”
This isn’t the first time Jones has refused to back down. For nearly 16 years, he worked to clear the names of two Marine pilots who, in his words, were “unjustly blamed for crashing a V-22.” That victory came in the form of a March letter from a top Pentagon official more than a decade and a half after the crash.
This could be the year Jones nabs another long-awaited win. His proposal has unprecedented support in the halls of Congress. Ninety-eight percent of the House supported the bill in 2008, while 80 percent of senators supported a companion bill. In 2010, the set a House record when it hit 415 cosponsors.
The idea is also backed by the Marine Corps League to the Fleet Reserve Association. Six consecutive commandants, from Gens. Al Gray through James Conway, have also voiced support for the change.
As for current Commandant Gen. Robert Neller, his spokesman said they "appreciate the spirit of the congressman's proposal."
“We believe it is proposed routinely out of respect for the Marine Corps," said Lt. Col. Eric Dent, Neller's spokesman. "But a name change alone would not fundamentally change the relationship and responsibilities the Marine Corps maintains with and within the Department of the Navy.”
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus' office did not immediately respond to questions about his opinion on the proposed change.
'Asking for an honorable mention'
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is credited with killing the idea for a Department of Navy and Marine Corps in the past.
The veteran naval aviator who heads up the Senate Armed Services Committee has said in the past that he sees no need for the change. Whether he still agrees is unknown as SASC members make it a point to not comment on bills from the House Armed Services Committee.
High-profile retired Marines like Lt. Col. Oliver North and Gunnery Sgt. R. Lee Ermey have been more outspoken.
“When we die, when mama and dada get that letter of condolence, it would be kind of nice if the Marine Corps was mentioned,” Ermey told Marine Corps Times in 2010. “Just change the letterhead. What's the harm in that?
“These young men and women are fighting and losing their lives for this country. We aren't asking for our own department. We are reasonable people. We are just asking for an honorable mention.”
The Congressional Budget Office in 2013 determined the cost change to change the name of the department would be less than $500,000 a year over a period of several years. The report categorized this as having “very little effect on most U.S. Naval or Marine Corps installations since signage, service flags, and other items bearing the emblems or names of the Navy or Marine Corps generally do not reference the Department of the Navy and would not need to be replaced.”
The Marine Corps considers its birth certificate to be Continental Congress resolution penned Nov. 10, 1775. Congress officially organized the Marine Corps in 1798, the same year the Navy Department was founded. The National Security Act of 1947 defined the Marine Corps, Army, Navy and Air Force as four separate services, but it wasn't until 1979 that a Marine commandant would sit among the Joint Chiefs.
For a service that prides itself on history and heritage, change has become the rule, rather than the exception, in recent years. Mabus has pushed hard to make uniforms more gender neutral and to integrate women into ground combat jobs, which the Marine Corps opposed.
Those efforts have led to a growing cry from leathernecks to create a Marine Corps secretary position.
Any changes to the Navy Department's name would still need to pass the House and the Senate. Lawmakers must reconcile differences between their respective versions of the defense authorization act before the bill is sent to the president and becomes law.
Congress is set to break for its summer recess on July 15, but agreement on the NDAA has not been reached until late fall in recent years.
