'We Need to Tell the Marine Story’

By Douglas Graves © 2009

Orginally published Semper Fi Magazine Jan/Feb 2009


Meeting the Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps in his Pentagon office made it clear that enlisted Marines, the staff non-commissioned officer and the non-commissioned officer corps of the Marine Corps have a superlative representative standing next to the Commandant. When Sergeant Major Carlton Kent spoke with Semper Fi Magazine in November, the 16th Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps discussed a wide range of issues but the conversation had a recurring theme: Kent has very high opinions of his Marines, Staff NCOs and NCOs—and high expectations from them.
“The Commandant [General James T. Conway] did a great thing recently,” he said. “The Marine Corps was the first service to nominate staff non-commissioned officers to the congressional fellowship program. No other service has put an enlisted service member up for the fellows program.”
The program assigns some of the country’s best and brightest service men and women (up until now, officers only) to serve on the staffs of U. S. Senators and Representatives.
“We had eighty-some nominations,” he said. “Eighty per cent of those Staff NCOs had college degrees.”
The Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps is very proud of the two senior enlisted Marines selected for the program; his pride and enthusiasm for the enlisted leadership of the whole Corps was evident.
He first experienced the Marine Corps’ staff non-commissioned officer leadership as a student and athlete at South Side High School in Memphis, Tennessee. “Gunnery Sergeant Bill Adams always had a story to tell,” said Kent about his recruiter. “He walked around talking to everybody. He was a very impressive guy.”
It was the gunny’s “hip-pocket” stories that first got Carlton Kent to consider the Marine Corps. After graduating from high school, he enlisted in November1975.
Boot camp was also Kent’s first opportunity to shine as a leader. He was a squad leader in his Parris Island recruit platoon. Recruits don’t get a squad leader’s job by just standing around doing enough to get by—they are selected by drill instructors for their leadership potential revealed by the high intensity demands and stresses of recruit training. The next time he was in a recruit training regiment (in San Diego) as a staff sergeant drill instructor, he was meritoriously promoted to gunnery sergeant.
However, at end of his first enlistment, Kent, then in Hawaii, was considering whether to stay in the Marines or to get out and go to college. “A gunnery sergeant knew I was thinking of getting out,” said Kent. “He said, ‘Let me tell you some of your options. You can go and do other great things in the Marine Corps.’
“He also told me that the grass is not always greener on the other side—and it’s not,” said Kent. “From that day on I knew my place was in the Marine Corps because there’s nothing like the Marine Corps family—the common bond we all have.
“The Staff NCOs and NCOs have to be positive examples. Their Marines are going to listen to them,” said Kent about the role of the enlisted leaders. “They have to talk to their young Marines.”
He sees the work of the enlisted leaders as being key to the Corps’ re-enlistment rate. “We have a combat-hardened Staff NCO and NCO corps. When they talk to their Marines and tell them their options we have Marines re-enlisting at a high rate,” said Kent.
“The majority who re-enlist want to stay in the operating forces. We have to make sure we give them a break, however, and not constantly have them in a deployment cycle. They have to be well-rounded in the Marine Corps.”
Asked for an example of the success of the Corps’ retention program, Kent talked about 2/5.
“Second Battalion, Fifth Marines [5th Marine Regiment] was getting ready to re-deploy,” said Kent. “Two hundred Marines volunteered to extend past their EAS [expiration date of active service] and go back to Iraq with their unit and fight. That’s one of many positive examples of the outlook that the Marine Corps has today.”
However, Sergeant Major Kent sees the need to look past Iraq. “We’ve been focused on Iraq. That was our initial focus—to get over there and kick some butt; however, we have lost some of our corps competencies; for example, jungle training and amphibious operations. We use our Navy brothers and sisters to get us there—and they fight with us, but the average young Marine has not even been on a ship. We haven’t had Marines going to Bridgeport [California--for cold weather training] like we used to do. We need to do combined arms exercises at 29 Palms. We haven’t done those in several years. We need to get back our corps competencies. That’s what the Commandant is doing and Marines are excited about it.”
Sergeant Major Kent is proud of what his Marines have accomplished in Iraq, but shares the Commandant’s concept of focusing greater effort in Afghanistan.
“All those places [Ramadi, Al Anbar, and Fallujah] used to be [scenes of] bloody, bloody battles. They are very good right now. And now the Iraqi people want to take back control of their country.
“The Marines have done a great job of crushing the insurgency,” said Kent.
“The Commandant said we need to focus more on Afghanistan,” said the Sergeant Major. If you talk to the average Marine in Iraq they will tell you they are bored. They say, ‘We don’t have any bad guys to kill.’
“We have Marines in Afghanistan and it’s very austere. There’s nothing out there. We don’t need a big PX, mess halls, Burger Kings and Popeyes,” said Kent. “We are an expeditionary force. The Marines are taking it to the enemy over in Afghanistan.
“We [Sergeant Major Kent and Commandant General Conway] went to visit these Marines [in Afghanistan]. The Commandant asked, ‘What do you need?’ They just smiled. They were ankle deep in dust, they were sleeping on MRE boxes and they said ‘Nothing, sir. We’re just happy because we can go and engage the enemy all the time.’ And that’s the kind of attitude our Marines have, said Kent. “That’s why the Commandant says ‘It’s our type of fight’—it really is.”
Are Marines up to the highly technical equipment that is being fielded? “We are constantly training; we trust the commanders [to get the training done]. We have new equipment throughout the Marine Corps,” he said.
The quality of recruits is fine according to the Sergeant Major. “Our recruiters go after high standards They don’t go after sub-standard recruits. We don’t have any issues with the education level of people coming in. The Commandant and I just have to tell the Marine Corps’ story.”
When asked to describe the value of the Marine Corps’ martial arts program, the Sergeant Major quickly made the point that it is not just all about hand-to-hand combat.
“It actually works because these Marines have used these techniques in combat. It’s not just the physical part—it’s where we teach important corps values: honor, courage and commitment. But yes, it does work; Marines have proven that it works. It builds a lot of confidence in Marines.”
How does some of the battles fought in Iraq stack up against such icons of Marine Corps history as Belleau Woods, Iwo Jima, the Chosin Reservoir and Hue City?
“I think Fallujah is up there,” said the Sergeant Major. “I witnessed what those Marines were doing there. It was heroic.
“Marines don’t want to let down the Marines who came before them. They are going to continue to live up to the legacy. They fight for their country and their fellow Marines. And they take pride in that.”
The Sergeant Major believes that the Corps’ young heroes are getting their share of recognition. As the sergeant major of the Marine Forces at Central Command he was on the board that reviewed combat citations for Marines. “I can tell you that the Marine Corps has the most fair [awards approval] process of any of the services.
“The first thing that should go through a Marine’s mind when he sees someone wearing an award is, ‘That Marine earned it.’ More young Marines are getting combat V’s [a device affixed to a medal’s ribbon denoting valor] because they are the ones out there hooking and jabbing.
“Corporal Jason Dunham is the only Marine to be awarded the Medal of Honor,” said the Sergeant Major. “But I could go down a list: Navy Crosses, Silver Stars, Bronze Stars, Navy Commendation and Navy Achievement medals with Combat V’s, Purple Hearts . . .
“One example of [valorous conduct] is a corporal that died protecting his fellow Marines,” said Sergeant Major Kent. “His convoy was hit by an IED [improvised explosive device] and he was trapped—he was burning. When Marines tried to rescue him he yelled, ‘You all get away from the vehicle! It’s going to explode!’ He didn’t survive, but he was thinking of his Marines, not himself. His comrades continued to try to get him out, to no avail.”
He told another story of a brave lance corporal who died laying down a base of fire while urging his fellow Marines to evacuate a building in Fallujah. Sergeant Major Kent’s voice resonates with pride as he tells his stories about individual Marines.
How are their families holding up?
“One of the things that the Commandant has done is to improve the Family Readiness Program by hiring Family Readiness Officers instead of relying on volunteers from military spouses. It’s a great program that the Commandant kicked off to assist our families.”
What can the Marine Corps League do to help?
“The Marine Corps League is one of our biggest fans, they really are. We love them,” said Kent. “They are part of our legacy.
“They can assist by continuing to tell the Marine Corps story. That would be a great thing that would attract a lot of people as far as recruiting.
“They are involved with the Marine-for-Life program—helping Marines find employment. They are a great network and they assist our Corps with numerous things like the Toys-For-Tots program. They are truly part of the ‘Once a Marine, Always a Marine’ tradition. Their [former Marines’] legacy will be continued by the great Marines we have in our Corps today.”
Sergeant Major Kent concluded on a personal note, “It’s an honor for me to serve as Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps.”