I called up the truck, unloaded it and did what we could. Since we obviously did not have near enough of anything to meet the entire task, we put up concertina from the defensive position as far out as we could. To let everyone (with the need or curiosity to venture out there) know we were trying to “play the game,” we left notes at the far end of the construction, stating to the effect that, “This obstacle extends on this azimuth to the distant trees,” and did the same with the intermittent stretches of barbed wire, in a constructive attempt to support the Company Commander.

A day or so after the exercise had ended, I went over to the 3/7 Headquarters to square-up the usual After-Action issues. At some point I was told that the Company Commander, referred to above, had “bad mouthed” the #Engineers to the Battalion Commander and / or the S-3; saying things like, “They don’t do anything; why do we even bring them along?”. I must admit that I did not hear this first-hand. I cannot verify the Good Captain had actually said it or anything like it, and I acknowledge that it might have been somebody trying to “yank my chain” a bit. I found that the “Grunts” appeared to enjoy doing that to non-infantry types.

At some point in the day, I ended up in the S-3 office talking with Lt. Berger, and I mentioned what the Company Commander (supposedly) said. I distinctly remember that he shrugged his shoulders in response and gave me a look that appeared to imply, “If the shoe fits, wear it.” At that point I just about “blew a head-gasket.”

I do not remember the exact verbiage I used, but I distinctly remember hitting these points:

“You allow us one vehicle to haul troops and gear; what could you possibly expect?”

“With those limitations there is no way we can give you anything close to what you need, etc., etc.”


The Battalion S-3 should “… provide us (the Engineers) with your plan (they had not) and let us decide what and how much to bring and the amount of transport assets we need to support it,” and “Why would you limit us to only one vehicle that could hardly haul the troops, let alone everything else? Would it have been a big deal for us to bring three, four or five trucks?”
“You won’t even allow yourselves the opportunity to see the additional options and capabilities we can provide to you.”

To that last point, I distinctly remember Lt. Berger replying to the effect that, “Well, we don’t know what you can do.” I came back with (and this is pretty darn close to verbatim), “Your C.O.’s been in (the Marine Corps) almost twenty years; he should know by now what we can do, almost as well as we do. He may not know all the equipment upgrades, but he should certainly know what we should be able to do for him.” Lt. Berger looked down, put his right hand behind his neck and said, “Oh, I don’t know about that.”

As an important side note here, all Marine Corps officers during their initial Officer Candidate School training and following this, at The Basic School in Quantico, Virginia, and at their follow on Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) schools, are taught and emphasize the essentials of the Marine Air Ground Task Force (MAGTF) employment in Fleet Marine Force Manual (FMFM) 1 “Warfighting”. And this is closely followed in both offensive and defensive warfighting with the essential employment of Combat Engineers in “MAGTF Breaching Operations” FMFM 13-7. Sadly, Berger was clearly remiss in his understanding, appreciation for, or comprehension of basic MAGTF Warfighting doctrine at the Tactical, Operational, and Strategic levels. This has everything to say about failure in the Marine Corps evaluation and promotion system, as he has now divested the USMC of all its tanks, all of its assault breaching gear, all of its bridging, much of its artillery, much of its aviation, and a sizeable portion of its infantry, in order to turn the Marine Corps into a “one trick pony” with his China obsessed FD 2030.

These are indeed dangerous times for America’s Marine Corps.

And History teaches us that its #1 Lesson is Humility. Or at least should be.

Well, that’s it for Lt Gladbach vs. Lt Berger. As Jim related: “I don’t remember anything said after that. In fact, I don’t recall ever seeing or talking to Lt. Berger again, but I know I had to have, because we supported his Battalion again shortly after that. I do not recall seeing him again until I found his name and photo in the Marine Corps website.”

The biggest reason why this was burned in my memory is because, for the entire walk back to 1st CEB, I beat myself half to death. I thought I had blown my future, thinking to myself, “Geez, man! You just chewed-out somebody who outranks you -the S-3 Alpha- in his own office, in front of his own troops, and just down the passageway from his C.O.’s office!” The more I thought about it, the more I was amazed they let me walk out of the building. I figured news of that exchange would certainly beat me back to my own battalion (1st Combat Engineers) and I was surely in for one huge ass-chewing. All this work, and now I’ve not only shot myself in the foot; I’ve blown my leg off at the hip!
So, for the next week or two, I’d get nauseous every time a Marine would stick his head in the door or I’d get a phone call saying, “Lieutenant Gladbach, (insert rank & name here) wants to see you ASAP.” All that worry for nothing though; I never heard a word about it. I must admit I thought about it regularly over my entire service afterward. Now here I am thinking about it all over again nearly forty years later (sigh).

I am sure every Marine Engineer can recall many examples like this. Interestingly, I do not recall these kinds of issues when working in the Force Service Support Group (FSSG) environment. I think the FSSG-related missions were so diverse that, while not everyone knew what everybody else did exactly, we all understood there was always way more to the job than what meets the eye or slaps you in the face, even though they were not intimately familiar with our mission, nor were we with theirs. Overall, I think that, with the requirements of our MOS, we Engineers got to be pretty dog-gone well rounded in all aspects of our Corps.

In closing I will add that I personally experienced very similar issues as described above while assigned as the S-3 of a Marine Wing Support Squadron. But that’s for another day. Give me a shout the next time you need a cure for your insomnia. Yes, history can be a dear teacher of humility.

SemperFi & Semper Gumby, Jim Gladbach

US Marine Combat Engineers supporting Infantry with their M-51 Dump Truck, 1980s
Note all the gear to include M-58A1 Line Charge with Rocket