By Jim Fisher-Thompson
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- General Michael Hagee, Commandant of the Marine Corps and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, not only understands the Corps' mission but is a visionary who supports cultural awareness training and electronic networking to make the Corps more effective both in the current war on terror and in more traditional conflicts.

Hagee, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate with degrees in engineering, told an August 23 National Press Club luncheon, "What we [Marines] do is project sustainable combat power" to troubled areas like Afghanistan, Liberia, Haiti and Iraq as needed. "Our focus is excellence in war fighting" and "nobody does it better."

But projecting power in the modern world is more than simple weapons and logistics; it requires a greater understanding on the part of military personnel of the people and environments with which they will be working.

In that regard, Hagee prides himself as an "education" Commandant, who believes training is vital for the Marines to meet their missions. In coping with the initial invasion and subsequent peacekeeping operations in Iraq, Hagee explained, "We sent 800 Marines to Arabic language courses. We hired a couple of civilian professors who were experts in the religion of Islam and brought them to southern California and every single Marine got exposure to that great religion.

"We brought professors who were experts in the Arabic culture and every Marine got exposure to that culture to raise their situational awareness to give them an understanding of the environment that they were going into" in Iraq, he added.

At the same time, Hagee sees communication as equally essential. To make communication among commanders and all Marines more fluid, Hagee described the work being done on a new enterprise network that seeks to harness the myriad communication capabilities of the Internet for internal use by the Marine Corps.

"Before the implementation of the Navy/Marine Corps Internet we had a lot of little fiefdoms out there that had their own internet with their own legacy systems," he explained. "Today we're moving toward a true worldwide enterprise network to where I can sit here in Washington and look at the [electronic] address book for anyone in the Navy or Marine Corps. We're using the same software program. We're exchanging information without having to go through a whole series of firewalls that individual agencies created and controlled.

The new communication systems facilitate deployments, which is at the core of the Corps' role. The Commandant explained the Corps is now able to deploy combat forces abroad more effectively, in part, because of innovative new programs aimed at a more efficient use of U.S. Navy assets to speed up the delivery of ground forces to hot spots worldwide.

One such proposal, he said, involved cutting down the time it took warships and Marine amphibious units to travel between the United States and the Gulf region; a journey that now takes more than a month in each direction. The plan, called "Sea Swap," would have the Navy vessels permanently deployed overseas, and have sailors and Marines due for replacement brought in by air.

The overall goal, Hagee told his audience, was to reach a "joint sea-basing" capability with the Navy that would permit the Marines to conduct ground operations solely from their support ships without depending on a land lodgment. Eventually, "We want to do Iraqi Freedom without [using] Kuwait," he explained.

The Marine Corps has come a long way since it was established in 1775 to furnish snipers for the topmasts of U.S. warships. It later chased Barbary pirates in Tripoli and stormed the "Halls of Montezuma" in the Mexican War. But one thing remains a constant, said Hagee, and that is the spirit of selfless service that continues to motivate all 176,000 Marines under his command.

Reflecting the Corps' slogan: Semper Fidelis (Always Faithful), Hagee said his Marines remain confident no matter what the goal or conditions under which they serve. They are assured, he explained, because "they know they are well trained. They know they have the best equipment that this country can provide. Finally, and this is really quite important, they know they have the backing of the American people."

As commandant of the Marines, Hagee was in "no doubt there are some fairly steep challenges out there" to implement these new system and maintain the military integrity of the Marine mission but, he said, "my sense is that we can overcome them."

Ultmately, even though Hagee may be a modern, computer-literate general, he has 31,000 Marines currently serving in Iraq, many engaged in fierce combat in Najaf, so his aggressive warrior spirit of the Corps shone through as he reminded his audience, "We are at war" and "There are some individuals out there who need to be killed."