#10--John Schmitt

Controversy & Clarity

In this episode, we discuss

-The emphasis (or lack thereof) placed on self-study, critical thinking, and creative problem-solving during John’s time as a junior officer

-The four priorities of lieutenants when John served in the 2nd Marine Division

-On then-Major General Al Gray making maneuver warfare the official doctrine of the division

-The Marine Corps’ approach to warfighting before it adopted maneuver warfare

-The influence that Captain W.L. Smith had on Lieutenant Schmitt

-Some hypotheses on why maneuver warfare seems harder to practice in garrison

-John’s experience with commercial wargaming before the Marine Corps

-How wargames played a role in John’s eventual preference for tactical decision games (TDGs)

-How John first got into TDGs

-The origins of Enemy Over the Bridge, John’s first TDG and the first TDG of its kind published in the Marine Corps Gazette

-How writing FMFM-1 Warfighting influenced John’s writing of TDGs

-The experience of writing Enemy Over the Bridge

-How TDGs can bring to light the concepts of maneuver warfare

-The primary purpose of TDGs

-The creation and activities of Marine Corps University’s TDG Group

-How John and other member of THE saw themselves as maneuver warfare insurgents

-John’s thoughts on common TDG pitfalls

-How The MCU TDG Group came to the name “Tactical Decision Games”

-Where John draws inspiration from when developing a TDG

-Some of the more creative and unusual TDGs that John has created

-John’s thoughts on using TDGs at formal schools

-How John used TDGs as a Marine Officer Instructor with his Naval ROTC unit at the University of Illinois

-John’s thoughts on the Marine Corps’ renewed emphasis on wargaming

-The work that John’s been doing with online TDGs

-What John’s ideal unit PME program would look like

-How John first learned of maneuver warfare and what led him to contribute to it as Marine Corps doctrine

-The two stories of John’s “audition” to write FMFM-1 Warfighting and General Al Gray’s signing of it

-The Marines and military theorists who influenced John while he was writing Warfighting

-Which of the FMFMs/MCDPs that John wrote is the most enduring and which of them most requires revision

-The efforts to revise Warfighting under Generals Joe Dunford and Robert Neller

-Why John thinks someone other than him should write the next version of Warfighting

-What defeat mechanisms are

-The recent critiques of Warfighting and John’s thoughts on them

-How John might expose the youngest generation of Marines to Warfighting

-Alternatives to the German school of maneuver warfare

-John’s evaluation of the trends he’s seeing in the Department of Defense regarding war and warfighting

Links

Enemy Over the Bridge TDG by John Schmitt: https://mca-marines.org/blog/gazette/the-enemy-over-the-bridge/

Marine Corps Doctrinal Publication-1 Warfighting: https://www.marines.mil/Portals/1/Publications/MCDP%201%20Warfighting.pdf

"Tactical Decision Games in a Virtual Setting" by John B. Douglas: https://www.benning.army.mil/infantry/magazine/issues/2020/Winter/PDF/15_Douglas_TDG.pdf

Errata

*When discussing technical MOS’s and TDGs, I meant to say “weapon optics repair Marines”

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