Q & A GEN. JAMES F. AMOS, USMC
lation. • During an interview with Contribut- ing Editor Tom Philpott, Amos said he was the new “player-coach” for the F-35B. He uses dual computer monitors on the credenza behind his desk to track progress on every aspect of the aircraft. The Corps plans to buy 420 fighters, in- cluding 340 B-models to replace its aging fleet of AV-8B Harriers. • A graduate of the University of Idaho, Amos is the first aviator to lead the Marine Corps. He commanded the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing from 2000 to 2004, including in combat for the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and the II Marine Expeditionary Force from 2004 to 2006. He also was commanding general of Marine Corps Combat Development Command and dep- uty commandant for combat development and integration. He served as assistant commandant from 2008. • The interview has been edited for length and, in some cases, clarity.
The priority of commandants for a decade has been resourcing Marines to fight two wars. But with Marines still fighting in Afghanistan, do you now have budget challenges that past commandants haven’t faced? Yes. I saw [retired general and former commandant] Jim Conway two weeks ago and said, “Jim, you had it easy.” All he had to do was build the force from 180,000 up to 202,000, get more money, and sustain the war. We’ve got conflicting azimuths now. We still have 20,000 Marines and sailors on the ground in Afghanistan [and] another 10,000 forward-deployed around the world on ships and
52 MILITARY OFFICER NOVEMBER 2011
with Marine Expeditionary Units [MEUs]. So, requirements haven’t gone down, but we know where the budget is going. It will decline. Pressure to live with less money is going to drive the services. The Marine Corps budget for 2011-
12 is $26.5 billion. If we drop to some number below that, the only way to absorb it is with [smaller] force structure and mortgaging [plans for] reconstitution of forces and [equip- ment] modernization. These diverg- ing vectors will force the Marine Corps to make decisions that will af- fect it for a decade or longer. If we reduce force structure and something happens where we say, “Let’s grow again,” you can do the
manpower part reasonably, except for some unique skill sets like at cyber command. But if you reduce major procurement, you may never recover. That’s the environment I see us in.
You can see that budget storm on the horizon, but can you do anything about it? One thing I can do, that all the services need to do, is to make sure civilian leadership is making decisions based on knowledge and not just math. Math decisions are easier than thoughtful decisions based on strategy and what’s best for the nation. I will make sure civilian leaders understand what the Marine Corps does for the nation, not in 10 years, but what we do today and have done in the last year. Because we truly could reach a point where we won’t have that capacity anymore.
Marines are America’s expedi- tionary force, but you have been in landlocked ground wars for many years. What has that done to expeditionary force capabilities? It concerns me. It concerned my predecessor, too. It was Marine leaders who first said, “People say we’re a second land army, so why do you need the Marine Corps?” That caught on, and now we get angry when people liken us to the U.S. Army — because we’re not them. It’s true, we have been used in
Iraq and Afghanistan as a second land army. I make no apologies for it. We did so in Vietnam. We did it in France [during World War II]. To some degree, we did it all through the Pacific after Pearl Harbor. But that is not why the na- tion has a Marine Corps. We have not been able to do some things. However, we have been able
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