Preparing your Company Physically, Mentally, and Morally
by LtCol Gordon Emmanuel
Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in the CxFile in July 2020. From time to time we will highlight previous work from our archives. The author’s information has been updated to reflect his current rank and billet.
Company commanders should be purposeful as they prepare their units for combat physically, mentally, and morally. These three “forces of war” have become cliché when it comes to how we articulate preparation, but we can do a better job ensuring that everything that we do in preparation for combat goes towards developing one or more of these factors.
Physical
How do you “physically” prepare your unit? Physical preparation for combat can be a simple as the combat centric PT that squad leaders lead their Marines in every day. The focus is to actually get the body stronger and capable of adapting to the physical rigors of combat. Forced marches, foot patrols, functional fitness, strength training, and yoga are all things that can physically prepare Marines. You also want to focus on how your company utilizes the physical tools of war at their disposal. Combat marksmanship, fighting, machine guns, and indirect fire are among many of the physical things that we use to win in combat and thus must become physiologically second nature to the company, platoons, squads, and individual Marines employing them. Reps and sets ad nauseum coupled with pursuing excellence in the little things will go a long way in ensuring that combat units are dominant as it pertains to the physical nature of war.
Things that the team at Golf 2/5 did during my time as the Company Commander to enhance the physical preparation of the unit.
Vampire Nights – We talk a lot about owning the night, but do we allocate time to train the physical skills needed to own it? I asked the battalion commander to allow the company to come in at 1300 so that we could conduct night training during a garrison day. These would typically begin at 2100 and end around 0000. We would draw weapons and optics, gear up, conduct battle drills at the squad level and the company staff and platoon commanders would facilitate the debriefs. The Marines took immense pride in this and we became a more effective unit at night-time operations. We did this once a month.
Physical TDGs – We conducted physical TDGs once a month as a company. This was a great way to drive certain focus points whether it be machine guns, indirect fire, suppression, movement, maneuver, or communication. The physical TDGs evolved throughout our workup. I had the lieutenants take the lead on putting the first couple together, then integrated the squad leaders will developing the ground rules. Bottom line – fighting in a manner that taught infantry concepts.
Basic Skill Mondays – We were a well-trained unit when we deployed to Okinawa. So much so that I could sense that there was a hint of arrogance in myself and the unit that we had to protect against. When in doubt, go back to the basics. We implemented Basic Skills Mondays during the deployment. It usually ran from 0900-1100. The squads drew weapons and conducted individual, fire team, and squad level drills. Squad leaders had a drill card and ran through the reps and sets until complete and to standard (mag drills x 50, fire team fire and movement, squad bounding, tourniquet drills etc...) The point was to ensure that the foundation that is basic skills never got away from us. Suggest having your squad leaders come up with a drill card that would take a couple of hours to run through.)
Mental
What are mental forces? What does it mean to prepare your unit mentally? Simply put – mental force is the ability of a Marine or unit to “solve problems”. The better a Marine is at solving problems that arise, the better the unit is mentally. In the case of a unit preparing for combat, we want to prepare for complex problems that will arise during a combat scenario. Some of the more traditional ways that we do this is via Tactical Decision Games (TDGs). The TDG is meant to immerse a participant into a scenario and force himself to think through the problem and provide a solution. It is a mental workout. It is meant to provide an experience on paper from which to learn from.
Another way that we serve to mentally prepare our units is the use of force on force scenarios. These dynamic exercises force Marines to operate as both the hunter and the hunted. This requires critical thinking, an understanding of the enemy, and understanding of oneself, and creativity. There are countless opportunities to learn from the multitude of decisions that your Marines make during these scenarios. Capture them and ensure that these lessons are vastly shared. This takes us to the After-Action Review (AAR). These scenarios that we have been discussing are worthless if we do not capture the lessons. AARs are an opportunity for commanders to highlight focus points, reinforce good actions, and emphatically denounce poor ones. Learning and subsequently integrating what you have learned makes you a mentally superior unit.
Things that the team at Golf 2/5 did during my time as the Company Commander to enhance the mental preparation of the unit.
Squad Leader Focus: I was a former IOC instructor and the class advisor for many of my platoon commanders. This gave me a distinct advantage when it came to them understanding how I think and understanding what they “know”. This allowed me to follow my instinct of getting two levels deep. I believe that it benefits the squad leaders to get constant mental development directly from the senior infantry officer in the company. I did monthly TDGs with the squad leaders. This allowed me to gain a thorough understanding of how these NCOs thought about warfare. It also gave me an opportunity to double down on things that I was confident that the lieutenants were teaching. I do not regret focusing on them. I learned a lot about what they knew as a whole and was able to pick out the problem solvers that I could assign the most difficult squad level missions to. Don’t do it once – do it often. It will pay.
I WISH... I wish I would have tasked my Company Gunny, as the senior tactical advisor, with conducting TDGs with the NCOs of the company. It is always a fight getting the company gunny out of the senior logistician role and into the tactical role. You need him there. I recommend that you have him run monthly TDGs with NCOs of some sort. I would assist him with developing the TDGs but make him own it. I would then debrief him on the conduct of the TDG. These things will make him a better GySgt, tactical advisor, infantryman, and will increase his “street-cred” with company.
AARs – I understand that most units conduct AARs. Something that we did on top of that was force Marines to recall lessons learned from previous evolutions when planning for future, but similar evolutions. For example, squad leader is planning a night ambush... force the squad leader to identify previous lessons learned within his coordinating instructions portion of his order. Don’t settle for arbitrary lessons. Ensure they are specific to the company’s shared lessons.
Moral
Finally, we are left with “moral” preparation. For the sake of brevity, the moral is the most important out of the three forces we are discussing. Countless authorities from Napoleon – Clausewitz highlighted at length how important it is to develop moral force within units. What is moral force? The term “moral” has less to do with the difference between “right vs wrong” and more to do with the “why should I fight for you or this unit?” The bottom line is that your Marines can be physical savages (physical) capable of solving tactical problems with ease (mental), but if they are unwilling to die for each other than they are worthless. Moral strength is cohesion. Moral strength is faith in leadership. Moral strength is knowing that the cause for which you are fighting for is greater than the cause that the enemy will be dying for. This cannot be stressed enough. Many battles in history were lost by units because their moral strength was depleted despite physical and mental advantages. What makes a Marine leave a perfectly good piece of cover to run across a 100-meter open field under fire? Moral strength. It is the force of not wanting to let their fellow Marine down.
There are many things that company commanders can do to increase the moral strength of their units, but I would offer that the first prerequisite is to spend an “uncomfortable” amount of time with each other. Buddy pairs, fireteams, NCOs, squads, lieutenants, command team, each of these cohorts should be dedicating time to developing that bond. There is not really a thing such as spending too much time with each other. Much of it will be in the field, but this has to go beyond that. You are fighting for your brother which means he has to be treated like your brother. That comes with time. Invite your lieutenants over early in the workup and make it a regular thing. I wish I did this more. Be purposeful about them understanding how you think and you understanding how they do. You will learn a lot outside of uniform.
Make sure that the First Sgt is doing the same thing with SNCOs. Build the bonds. All of them. Team leaders should be smothering junior Marines with positive influence constantly (every day). This means that team leaders need to be smothered with positive influence from NCOs and SNCOs. We get the point. During a safety brief, ask which teams are hanging out with each other. Make it an expectation. The bonds that form are the bonds that the enemy will find impossible to break. If you think that this will happen naturally then you may be disappointed when your unit faces a stressful situation.
Things that the team at Golf 2/5 did during my time as the Company Commander to enhance the physical preparation of the unit.
I WISH I WISH I WISH – I wish that I had my platoon commanders over at my house more. Not just once or twice during a workup in some weird and overly formal format, but every month, at least. This would have tripled down on the mutual trust that I believe that the officers built, but most of that trust came from a recent IOC experience, followed immediately by a 30-day training exercise at Bridgeport in the winter as a young company. These things strengthened our moral bonds, but I could have been more proactive with bringing them in to make it bullet proof. Make it simple but make it consistent. Every month – at least.
First Sergeant – My First Sergeant and I were always together. I believe this sets a good example for the Marines, but it also builds a strong brotherly bond between the two of you. As a commander you need someone capable of helping you carry the burden of leadership. In combat it is absolutely essential. To have a brotherly bond you need to be around each other as often as brothers. Force it. It may even be awkward at first, but it will be natural after a few months and a force multiplier on deployment.
FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT – If there was one thing that the company did a lot of it was fight. Everyone. All the time. Fighting became a part of our culture. It gave the Marines a comfort with violence and being uncomfortable. It became normal for them to throw on the gloves, anywhere, anytime. This will make your Marines close. While they may fight with each other, this will get them to bond and I believe it was the number #1 event that built cohesion within the unit.
Highlight Squad Leaders – The squad leader is the Marine that will receive most of the missions. They will be the ones leading these missions in the initial outbursts of chaos. It is important for every Marine to have trust in and respect the squad leaders. This starts with you. Treat them differently. Very differently. Little things. For example, pick a few squad leaders to break open an MRE with in the field. Make sure the Marines see it. Pick a squad leader to bring up to chat with the battalion commander or the gunner for 15 minutes. Make it about anything the squad leader wants but make them prep. Make sure everyone knows about it. Do little things and the impact will be great. If you have a bunch of Marines that want to be like their squad leaders, then you will have a fighting machine of a company.
“Because it is difficult to come to grips with the moral and mental forces, it is tempting to exclude them from our study of war. However, any doctrine or theory of war that neglects these factors ignores the greater part of the nature of war.” MCDP -1
LtCol Gordon Emmanuel is currently serving as an Operational Planner with 1st MLG. He can be reached at emmanuelusmc@gmail.com.