How Grunts and Coders Can Coexist and the Marine Corps Can Reap the Benefits: Lessons for the USMC Cyber Auxiliary
Christopher Papas | March 25, 2020
Is the United States Marine Corps creating a cultural clash for itself? Born in famed battles, passed through internal indoctrination, and cemented by the perception of a group set apart from its sister services, the mythos of “the few, the proud, the Marines†is a bedrock notion of America’s understanding of the Corps and the Corps’ understanding of itself. Aaron O’Connell, a Marine himself, emphasizes in his book Underdogs the Corps’ purposefully developed view of self. “Marine culture may not have been entirely unique or exceptional, but it was so to (the Corps). . . . This exceptionalism, with its attendant sentiments of insularity and mistrust of outsiders, was the first principle of Marine Corps culture.â€
Last year’s announcement that the Marine Corps will start a cyber auxiliary, intended to “train, educate, advise, and mentor Marines†on cyber skills and tactics, seems at odd with that ingrained culture. In overcoming one problem—the need for resources, namely highly technical human capital, for the Marines’ expanding mission set—the service seems to have created another: the need to successfully accept and indoctrinate outsiders into their organizational ways.
https://mwi.usma.edu/grunts-coders-can-coexist-marine-corps-can-reap-benefits-lessons-usmc-cyber-auxiliary/
