Checkers? Gas futures?: The Marine Corps commandant says his primary goal is to get his commanders to think fast in unpredictable circumstances. To that end, he has sent officers to the commodity exchange in New York and also has them playing a computerized version of checkers.

By GILBERT A. LEWTHWAITE

SUN NATIONAL STAFF

WASHINGTON - Gen. Charles C. Krulak, the 31st commandant of the Marine Corps, is a man of faith and a fan of war games.

He holds daily prayer meetings in his office. He believes that a "miracle" helped his troops battle Iraq In 1991. He believes that his generals can sharpen their wits through computer combat with Wall Street traders, who, after all, are among the fastest decision-makers anywhere.

"If you think that one is off the wall, well, I have a game of checkers," says the general, a diminutive figure with a chestful of ribbons, and who has led the 174,000 strong Marine Corps since June. "Some people have said, 'You better watch out -- you are going to show your fanny. 'I am not worried about that."

One predecessor upgraded the Marine Corps' battle doctrine. Another improved its weaponry. General Krulak wants to change its mind-set.

"We may not have the money to do all the modernization we must do, but one thing you can modernize is the mind," says General Krulak, the first Naval Academy graduate to serve as Marine commandant since 1975.

The computerized checkers game, one of his early initiatives, accelerates the pace of moves and splits the screen into two boards, doubling the difficulty for the Marine player. It's part of a drive by General Krulak to have his troops thinking faster in anticipation of battlefield decisions in the next century.

Another initiative sent a dozen senior Marine officers to New York last week to play war games with commodity traders, whose decisions are often based on fragmentary information and are driven by intuition.

"What better way to look and see if there are methods already in use that are forcing people to think more rapidly, to have to stick with their decisions and meet the challenges that decision might bring?" the general says.

So there was Wall Street trader William Nugent, fresh from dealing in gasoline futures on the New York-Mercantile Exchange, trying to find an enemy unit that was refusing a United Nations order to evacuate an area. It was exactly the sort of scenario that could face U.S. troops in Bosnia, where the Marines will be waiting offshore in case fighting flares up.

The search-and-destroy mission lasted two hours, under the watch of Lt. Gen. Paul K. Van Riper and other Marine officers.

"Traditionally, the military has made decisions in an analytical mode," General Van Riper says. "You do a checklist. You do procedures. But it is very clear to us in the Marine Corps that in future, you are going to have to do it intuitively in order to get the kind of speed you need."

Gary Klein, an independent psychologist and specialist in decision-making, commends the war-gaming mission to New York: "The traders have much more experience in decision-making than the Marines. The survivors are the 'big risk-takers here. It is quite the opposite of the Marine Corps."

 

 

Gen. Charles C. Krillak, who became Marine Corps commandant in June.

For General Krulak, innovation is critical. Within days of taking command, he ordered every Marine to take a three-day break to ponder the future, an unaccustomed role for a force known more for action than reflection. The Marines were expected to use the time, in part, to read General Krulak's 29-page "Planning Guidance" -- a plea that the Marines explore technology to improve "speed, protection, tactical mobility, and lethality."

The general then ordered a study of Federal Express and other rapid-delivery companies to see whether the Marines could borrow techniques to improve their supply systems.

"That requires a brand-new mind-set," says Lt. Gen. Bernard E. Trainor, a retired Marine who directs Harvard's National, Security Studies Program. "It's making use of the technological capabilities both within the Department of Defense and outside the Department of Defense. I think it is great approach."

General Krulak's campaign to modernize the corps was unveiled after a year in which the Marines seemed beleaguered and hunkered down against change. Amid a review of military roles and missions, the Marines feared for the survival.

"I think the Marine Corps has painted itself into a corner," says Ron O'Rourke, a naval analyst with the Congressional Research Service. "Krulak came out as pro-change, pro-experimentation."

Among General Krulak's ideas: streamlined command structure, greater use of light forces and smaller, more mobile units, development of a lighter gun, broad use of the V-22 Osprey - an aircraft that can take off and land like a helicopter but fly like a fixed-wing aircraft.

"If I do the right job, what I am is nothing more than the bridge to the 21st century," he says.

The commandant's office is one to which he appears to have been born. His renowned Marine father Lt. Gen. Victor H. "Brute" Krulak nearly got the top job in the late 1960s, when he was Marine commander in the Pacific.

The younger General Krulak, veteran of Vietnam, says it was in the Persian Gulf where he encountered what he describes as a "miracle."

He commanded the Marines' logistical support group. As he tells it, the Marine base camp was in a singularly arid part of the desert. They needed 100,000 gallons of water a day. Every well they drilled was dry. They consulted the Kuwaitis, the Saudis, the Bedouin. All said there was no water in the area.

The Marines built an invasion route to the Iraqi border, a road General Krulak traveled frequently. The Sunday -- before the invasion, one of his officers said there was something he should see.

They drove along the highway for a quarter-mile. The officer pointed 100 yards to the side of the road. "There, sticking up out of the desert," General Krulak said "was a large pipe, and at the top of the pipe was a cross beam." Beside the pipe they found a diesel engine and four batteries, still in their plastic wrappers. General Krulak pressed the starter button. The engine sprang to life.

"You want to know, how much [water] came out?" he asked. "100,000 gallons. Some can say it was always there. Fine.

"I say it was a miracle. We couldn't have gone on the offensive without that water."

General Krulak says he was "led to the Lord" by an Army chaplain in 1976, and every morning conducts a Christian prayer meeting in his office: "We have 25,000 Marines around the world in harm's way. I don't think there is anything wrong in praying for them."

He says he is confident that the Marines belong where they are -- on the front line. He likes the description of the Marines as the nation's 911 force.

"The day the whistle blows and the Marine Corps doesn't respond, it is time for us to go out of business," he says. "We have got to be ready, and we have got to be able to put steel on target.

"What we do for the American people is we make Marines, and we win battles."

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