'Waiting Is Not an Option for Marines': Top Marine Officer Issues Guidance as Confirmation Stalls

The Marine Corps' acting chief issued a letter to the force this week pledging continuity as an unprecedented congressional blockade of his confirmation to commandant continues.

Gen. Eric Smith officially holds the title of assistant commandant; however, he assumed the additional role of acting commandant when Gen. David Berger stepped down nearly a month ago without a Senate-confirmed successor. For the first time in 164 years, the service does not have a confirmed chief.

Smith's appointment has been stopped by Tommy Tuberville, a Republican senator from Alabama who is holding up roughly 270 military nominations and promotions over his objections to the Pentagon's policy allowing troops and their dependents leave and travel reimbursement for reproductive care, including abortions.

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"Until the Senate confirms our 39th Commandant, this guidance will serve as our reference point," Smith wrote to thousands of Marines via a letter dated Aug. 1. "I cannot predict how long this process may take, but waiting is not an option for Marines, so we will move out as a team -- just as we would in combat.

"We are always strongest as a team," he added.

In 2019, Berger issued a 26-page "Commandant's Planning Guidance" a week after he took command. Smith, whose hold has no clear end date, intentionally left his four-page letter "broad" to "leave space" for his future official planning guidance.

During Berger's retirement ceremony, Smith told reporters that he retains the authority of the office of the commandant despite the hold.

"So as far as budgetary, experimentation, changing formations," he said, "I can still do all that."

The opening volley of the letter centered around Force Design 2030, a sweeping restructuring and modernization plan for the Marine Corps that was implemented under Berger and will be continued under Smith.

A key ingredient to the redesign is its fervent desire to bolster the amphibious core and heritage of the service, even amid technological and structural changes. It was a clear thread in Smith's guidance.

"We are a naval force, biased towards the high-end fight, but capable of responding across the spectrum of conflict," he wrote. "We have a legacy of fighting ashore, from Belleau Wood to Helmand, but we are and must remain naval in nature -- always with an eye toward the sea."

Smith listed five priorities: accelerating modernization efforts and rapidly responding to crises; integrating with the Navy "at every level possible"; improving quality-of-life items like living conditions and child care; recruiting and retaining Marines; and providing resources for the reserve force.

"What I require is that when decisions are made, we move out as one to attack our problems together," he wrote. "Those decisions will be made after hearing from Marines and their leadership."

Smith said that he expects standards to be applied equally, no matter the rank; he said he owes Marines "a command climate where honest mistakes can be made" and expects troops to exceed standards set out before them. He warned that criminal activity, like DUIs and sexual assaults, "must be eliminated."

If, and more likely when, he is confirmed, Smith will take the commandant spot during a seismic shift for the U.S. defense apparatus as tensions with China simmer and the service enters what Sgt. Maj. Troy Black, who will assume duties as the senior enlisted adviser to the joint chiefs in November, described as an "interwar" period while talking with reporters Wednesday.

Sgt. Maj. Carlos Ruiz, the incoming top enlisted leader of the Marine Corps and Smith's counterpart upon confirmation, told reporters that Marines are "gonna get called somewhere."

"This is your time to prep," he said, addressing young Marines.

"Our profession of warfighting is unforgiving, with no margin for carelessness," Smith wrote. "Errors in combat lead to defeat, and Marines do not lose."

In June, Smith had a confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee where Tuberville lauded his background and offered the four-star general his support.

Smith's letter was focused on direction and guidance to the force and did not reference Tuberville's hold overtly. When asked about the blockade during the hearing, however, he said, in part, it "certainly compromises our ability to be most ready."

-- Drew F. Lawrence can be reached at drew.lawrence@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @df_lawrence.

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