Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Ronald L. Green
Stars and Stripes reports that Sergeant Major Ronald L. Green has been named to the top enlisted position in the Marine Corps;
Green, the current sergeant major of I Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton, Calif., will assume duties as the senior enlisted leader of the Corps on Feb. 10 in a ceremony at the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Va.
“His dynamic leadership is well known throughout the ranks of our corps,” Dunford said in a written statement. “His wide range of experience in both peacetime and combat, and his record of performance, make him extraordinarily well-qualified to serve as our senior enlisted leader.”
According to his biography, he’s been a non-commissioned officer for nearly 20 years. It looks like he came up through the combat arms ranks as an artilleryman and he has one six month deployment to Iraq, but I don’t see a combat action ribbon.
Congratulations, Sergeant Major.
Category: Marine Corps
Congratulations, SgtMaj; however, I’m not impressed. Only one combat tour in all those years? Sure, DI duty kept him from Desert Shield/Desert Storm, but what about OIF/OEF? Surely the Commandant could have found someone with more combat experience.
Especially a SGTMAJ appointed by Fighting Joe…that’s really curious.
He deployed to OIF with HMLA-169
MGuns: Yeah, I got that. One 6-month tour with a light attack squadron. Whoop-dee-friggin-do. That’s it? We’ve been at war continuously for 13 years and all he got was six months. I spent less time on active duty than this guy has and I have over three times as much time in combat assignments and I was with the wing the whole time.
Marines go where they are sent. Always been that way. Having a CAR does not automatically guarantee someone is a good leader. Remember…we had officers, NCOs and SNCOs who had never heard a shot fired in anger leading Marines right out of the SOI at the beginning of the Gulf War as well as OIF/OEF. And they performed flawlessly. It’s about leadership. General Dunford apparently believes that SgtMaj Green has the attributes he was looking for.
Cushy staff positions are noticed. This guy seems to be the king of them. Should that really be top enlisted in the Corps?
This has all the hallmarks of that previous story about that senior enlisted over in Army boot that was eventually removed from command and had dodged any real deployments her entire 20 years.
I knew CSM Teresa (No Slack) King would be mentioned in here at some time.
Interesting choice. You will probably get some shit for the no CAR comment, I too find that odd in todays world.
He has certainly been advanced ahead of his peers many times. Let us hope that was not because he simply knows how to suck up.
The rank of Sergeant Major is mostly a leadership/administrative position. He is the enlisted assistant to the commanding officer/general. We used to call their MOS of 9999 a non-trainable SNCO. Probably why they stopped using it.
The problem here is we are not talking about a command SgtMaj. The Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps is mostly symbolic. Is this the Marine I want to symbolize the absolute example of what every career Marine should strive to become. NO he is not. Is he probably going to make a great administrative assistant, probably.
I knew Jonn would catch some shit for the CAR comment and he is being generous with his responses. Give me 30 minutes with the records of the senior Sgt’s Maj in the Corps and I will find a dozen who are better selections.
This man had a fine career, was promoted quickly, and is obviously a fine Marine. Selecting him was an error. Too bad he didnt get assigned to a combat zone where he qualified for the CAR. I want a leader in that particular office with some proof of VALOR. An MSM or a Tiara will not cut it.
I do not like his selection, he might be a great guy, but he reeks of REMF. I will have to take solace in the fact that I was promoted more times than he will ever be. Semper Fi.
not a REMF…. the USMC has its own name for it.. POG.
It’s not POG, it’s pogue.
Poguee (pronounced with long e) was a Filipino slang for prostitute back in the days of the Spanish American War.
USN and USMC personnel stationed in the Philippines back in the day would keep bags of hard candy on hand since the poguees would take hard candy as payment for services rendered.
Hard candy became known as poguee bait.
Poguee became shortened to pogue. Pogue meant someone stupid or weak enough to bend over for a candy bar.
During WW2, pogue became slang for someone not mentally, emotionally, psychologically strong enough to do their job.
It also became slang for anyone not in the infantry by infantrymen, but also any in the infantry that were not reliable in their duty.
POG is something that numpties invented because they were too stupid or lazy to know their history of the Corps.
Now that the numpties are in control, we’re on the way of getting women in the infantry forced onto us, with all the unnecessary crap that’s gonna cause in garrison and the unnecessary deaths it’s gonna cause in war.
See what happens when we let personnel be too stupid or lazy to know their history?
The little things are important. Failure on the little things leads to collapse of the big things.
Semper Fi.
He’s not Ronald Green. He’s Ronald DARK Green.
I’m sorry!! I’m sorry!! I just couldn’t resist!
I’m a fucking Marine! It’s in my blood!
Green puns for all!
The senior Sergeant Major in the Corps, after 13 years of continuous war has no combat action ribbon, but does have the military volunteer service medal. Not impressed. He may be Smedley Butler and Dan Daly reincarnated, what does he tell a young Sergeant that has three or four tours down-range, about how cool that B-billet was?
I talked to a Sergeant Major friend that I completely trust that knows him. Sergeant Major Green is the heat, no shit. Having said that, I will argue with anyone that although Marines go where assigned by the Corps, Marines also get creative about getting to where the fight is. A CAR is not the be all to end all, but it is an important piece of ribbon in an organization that is about combat, and has just come off thirteen straight years of it. It does a lot for the credibility thing with that young Sergeant that has four or five deployments. Kind of like when I was at the First Sergeant seminar. We had all these Sergeants Major giving lectures, that had been in the Norfolk, Quantico, DC triangle for ten to fifteen years. What are you telling me about leading Marines in 2003 if you haven’t seen the fleet since Ronald Reagan was President? They may have been studs of the first order, they had almost no credibility with me. Wrong? Maybe. But there it is.
I wonder if he too feels that Marines are over-paid?
Just saying…
WORD.
A REMF to lead? Our nation is in trouble.
I once worked at a car dealership where a very young guy had been promoted repeatedly from sweeping the parts-room floor to partner in a very successful dealership. When asked why, the dealership owner said “because when I give Steve a job to do, I only have to tell him once, and it gets done without any drama or any further attention on my part.” Let’s hope SMAJ Green is getting promoted for a similar worthwhile reason.
If they would have picked this career Marine at lest he has a CAR I would know what to expect.
http://valorguardians.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/mailahn_17.jpg
Yeah,but ain’t his CAR on upside down?
Wow … I thought the Marine with multiple tours, CAR, Bronze Stars and or Silver Star might have gotten the job.
But what do I know?
I wish the Marine luck!
Sounds a lot like the old arguments in USAF about leaders coming from the ranks of other-than-aircrew. Guess it’s the same everywhere.
Sorry but we’ve been in armed open conflict for over a decade in multiple theaters and that service history is weak as fuck for a Marine enlisted.
Looks like warriors are being passed up for politics.
Should have been SgtMaj. Booker one of the finest men to evèr walk the Earth: Who along with LtCol. Kennedy and Maj. Weiler brought my son Nick home alive from Ramadi in 04.
Kelly6actual, out
I always find it odd when I read about these Field Grade folks, or SNCOs who after 13 years of sustained combat operations have only once (or sometimes never) set foot on the field of battle. Yeah yeah yeah needs of the Army / Marine Corps, roger that… but where there’s a will, there’s a way.
Deep down inside I wonder about folks like that. Maybe its a physical or perhaps mental limitation? Maybe due to luck of the draw he miraculously happened to PCS to a unit right when they returned from deployment, and then through some insane stroke of luck… excuse me… “Needs of the Marine Corps” PCS’d from it right before they had to deploy again… repeatedly… over the course of 13 years. Yeah, sounds plausible.
I have a whole twenty months between Iraq and Afghanistan in my 13 years of service. Spent four years in The Old Guard and was turns down when I volunteered to go to Djibouti. Tried ‘re-upping for Hawaii couple of years later only to find out I was fenced in due to a shortage of SSGs. Six months after that I got DA selected for recruiting while many of my peers were on their third tour. There was talk of keeping me on Rear D two years ago; I was fully prepared to separate rather than remain an AD Soldier with one deployment in (then) eleven years. “Needs of the (insert service here)” be damned, ultimately we serve to fight or to support those who do. Six months overseas is shameful for a combat arms SNCO in today’s military.
That said, I hope he was selected on merit as opposed to politics. Don’t know if it’s still the case, but the SMAJ of the Marine Corps lived on Fort McNair while I was stationed there.
I understand the sentiment being expressed here and I agree that it would certainly improve the appearance of the appointment if the Sgt Maj had substantially more time in combat.
But the simple truth is, once a soldier or Marine makes command sergeant major, his primary function is administration. It’s also political and those who are most clever and adept at manipulating the system to the benefit of their troops, are the best sergeants major. Even in a combat zone the sergeant major is usually in the rear helping the XO with administration and logistics, several kliks from the actual fighting.
As someone who was a grunt NCO and then a staff NCO at battalion and brigade level, I worked with several sergeants major and I never saw any correlation between combat experience and effectiveness in their jobs. And the simple truth is that there are many NCO’s with plenty of combat experience who simply can’ handle administrative jobs effectively or don’t care to.
All that said, in the current vernacular, “It ain’t good optics.”
Your conception of the battlefield duties of a CSM, at least at battalion level, don’t reflect reality since about 2004. Are there CSMs who are “usually in the rear helping the XO…several klicks from the actual fighting.” Of course, but in my experience battalion level CSMs in the combat arms are more likely to be found forward than hanging out in the “rear.” I got it- there is a pretty hefty bias against CSMs/SGMs on this blog, probably with good reason in many cases. I would be interested to hear what Army and USMC fighters from the GWOT have to say about their experiences with senior enlisted leadership on the battlefield.
In a word?
Sucked.
What you say is in a large part true Poetrooper. There are a couple of areas where a little more combat time would help the incoming SgtMajor:
Credibility. A large part of the force he is inheriting have multiple tours under their belts. Those Marines are going to have a hard time accepting a Senior Leader who hasn’t but briefly walked in their boots.
Knowing his Marines.
For much of the same reasons as stated above, he is not going to fully know and understand some of the problems his Marines may face after a few combat tours, and may not be able to effectively fight for what these Marines will need in a post-combat environment. Much like the “know” part of the Army NCO requirements of “Be, Know, Do”.
Credibility is a huge part of whether or not leadership is going to be respected in the Corps.
Or, at least it was, once upon a time. After or last CMC, who knows?
My guess is that Obama (the same Obama who recently gave out a bunch of MOHs, decades after the fact, to a group of “diverse” combat vets), wanted a black Marine SGM. And the Commandant complied. Either that or the Commandant knew such an appointment would please Obama, and chose a black appointee on his own.
Either way, I have a funny felling this is an “affirmative action” appointee, and more-qualified candidates were bypassed.
In modern day America, no important position or entity, from USMC SGM, to the Supreme Court, is exempt from being politicized and “diversified.”
Absolutely correct: with hard-men Marines like Sgts Maj. Booker or Kassal in batter’s box we go to taxi-squad on the depth chart.
Kelly6, out
I seriously fucking doubt that General Dunford would appoint a black Marine to the top enlisted post of the Corps just because he wanted to please Obama. I trust that the General has balls much harder and bigger than that.
Sheer unadulterated wild-assed speculation, with absolutely nothing to back it up. You have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.
Agree … The whole Affirm Act theory would not hold water.
Good pick, bad pick … The selection has been made.
Wish him luck!
I was expressing MY opinion and yes, speculating. Being the cynic that I am.
So what insight do you have into why Gen. Dunford appointed SGM Green? Anything?
If not, your opinions (as evidenced by your statements “I seriously fucking doubt..” and “I trust that the General..”) show that you are engaging in exactly the same “speculation” that you rip into me for.
And if you honestly think that some appointments like this are not politicized, or about “diversity,” then you are a rather naive fellow.
Out.
The USMC have had 3 Black/African Americans as the SMMC…w/ SgtMaj Green due to become the 4th.
From 1999 to 2011 the SMMC were black/AA:
Alford McMichael (1999-2003)
John Estrada (2003-2007)
Carlton Kent (2007-2011)
Well I guess that settles it. Send Big Steve a memo written in crayon on a cardboard box!
SgtMaj. McMichael and SgtMaj. Kent were outstanding SMMC. SgtMaj. Estrada was a dick. SgtMaj. Green will be just fine. Everyone seems to have their panties in a wad over a goddamn combat action ribbon. I have two, I will loan him one. Problem fucking solved! Give the man a chance. He is currently working for LtGen. Dave Berger, who was at one time my battalion commander. If he is up to snuff in General Berger’s eyes, that is good enough for me.
If anything, the fact that there were 3 consecutive Black/AA Sergeant Majors of the Marine Corps, over 12 recent years, sort of validates my previous statement that many such appoints ARE driven by politics and “diversity.”
Unless there are a hell of a lot more Black/AA Marines than I thought there were. 🙂
I will refuse to accept the term Black/African Americans as the SMMC.
They are Black Americans. To my knowledge we have NO African’s in our beloved Marine Corps.
But that doesn’t even really matter – black/white/brown/red….whatever. Marines are GREEN and dat’s a FAK !
I’m a non-combat arms, Signal Corps E7 type, and I had more deployment time as fresh green E5 than this man has had in an entire career. I don’t profess to know the mysteries of the USMC, but my first thought is that this appointment is not going to begin or end well.
In spite of my previous commentary, I am taking nothing away from the man personally. He is accomplished, and has been in the Corps a long time. His service as an artilleryman and DI is not for the faint of heart.
He’s a good man, but probably not the most qualified man for SGM of the Corps, with so many other hardcore meat eaters in the upper echelons of USMC enlisted ranks.
Big Steve,
You went full on retard.
Never go full retard … It is impoosible to put in back.
The Affirm Act pick comment is not appropriate.
Marines are not stacked by color and I doubt they are selected because of it.
The man has something senior leadership wants.
So, in review … Never go full retard!
Master Chief – Just in case I don’t make it through the night, I want you to know that I am dieing over here. How a man like you can have enemies is beyond my comprehension. V/r – GDC
Here to serve!
GD–if I have the same enemies as the Master Chief (and we do have a few in common) then I know I’m living right.
Oh, and as for the selection?
Can’t be any fucking worse than Chandler.
Thanks for the lecture, Navy.
But be advised…I will continue to say what I want here, when I want to. Unless Jonn objects to anything, in any way.
Your repetitive ad hominem may be cute to some, but it simply bores me.
That said, in retrospect, you are probably correct about my “affirmative action” comment. Point taken.
Not impressed. I was in 4 years and ended up with 11 ribbons/medals and 3 deployments to Iraq. Where has this guy been hiding? This will only serve to hurt morale more. Grunts are about tired of it.
Actually, he’s got almost THIRTY years as an NCO–the USMC NCO ranks begin at Corporal.
He made Sergeant Major in 2004. I doubt that he had much opportunity to get a CAR. I don’t think its his fault and I’m judging him on his future performance. A Marine without a CAR is still a Marine. If he had earned a CAR in Iraq, someone was screwing up.
Yup. Notice that his assignments as a Sergeant Major show an upward progression as well. Three consecutive tours at senior HQs? He got picked out fairly quick as a fast-mover. Generals do NOT hire Sergeants Major who aren’t, first and foremost, brutally competent.
You mean, the CAR is awarded less frivolously than the CAB? Around 2008 I noticed how many of the latter were sported by those in our CoC. Both the CSA and the CJCS were generals before 9/11, but somehow they and countless other senior officers “earned” the Army’s latest bauble while junior Soldiers were denied (or simply not put in for) a rightly earned award. Guess it’s kind of like the CIB awarded to those staff wienees in Afghanistan who heard a rocket impact a hundred meters on the other side of a t-wall.
It’s not really about a CAR or not by instead a lack of real deployments and experience during the war on terror. The corps has some mother fucking warriors in its enlisted ranks that would garner respect and inspire. This sgtmaj however isn’t that by a long shot.
Last thing some lower enlisted want to do is hear about marine corps warrior ethos and inspiration from a marine that hasn’t been through it and instead was able to skate by in ridiculous cushy staff assignments. The Lack of a CAR instantly bringing up the valid question to even the newest private “what the hell was this top dog doing for decades instead of being a marine”.
A lot of the warrior SNCO’s that you speak of do not have service with a general officer of sufficient rank. That is a pre-req for being considered for SMMC. In 4 years, there will be a much more combat flavored crop to choose from.
Exactly. He was promoted to 1stSgt in 2000 & SgtMaj in 2004. We didn’t start serious combat ops until late 2001.
His successor will likely have some significant combat time; the guy after him will likely have multiple combat tours.
Poobah: given the force levels in Afghanistan in 2001-2003, one could argue that we didn’t really start large-scale combat operations until 2003.
That’s the same reason my First Sergeant and CO didn’t earn a CAB.
This guy is a REMF, period. Maybe not of his own volition but one tour in 13 years and no CAR? Seriously, the USMC doesn’t have one E-9 with grunt experience and an inspirational story for young Marines to look up to?
Managing to dodge combat for an entire career is not aspirational!
I was straight up told by many MSG/SGM/CSMs in my food chain and acquaintance throughout my career that anything above E-7 was politics and that competence or potential wasn’t the first criteria for promotion to those ranks. This was confirmed by my own observations.
I wish the new SGM of all Marines well and knowing what I know about the Marines, I am sure that his skills were also a big factor in his selection. I just can’t see a “faking the funk” Marine that makes it to SGM. That seems to be a contradiction in terms.
There has never been a SGM in the USMC, ever.
SGTMAJ, on the other hand…
Since were gonna go all @nal retentive…actually the correct address is SgtMaj. I prefer the way the Army does it (SFC, SSG, CSM, LTC, BG, LTG, etc..) clean, and to the point.
SgtMajMarCor.
Reference: http://www.marines.mil/Portals/59/Publications/MCO%20P1070.12K%20W%20CH%201.pdf
(page 6-36)
If the only critique of my comment is the abbreviations, I’m good with that.
It’s not my fault the Marines can’t abbreviate rank correctly. 😀
No shit. Haven’t they heard of the Paperwork Reduction Act?
SgtMaj Green was my SgtMaj for a bit when I was at MALS-39. I thought he was a good leader who connected well with the rank and file and had their interests in mind when working with commanders.
Seems like there is a significant number of comments about lack of combat deployments, the noted absence of a CAR etc. etc.
Well, SgtMaj Barrett was a grunt with multiple combat deployments and a CAR. Did it make him a better leader? Was he the guy looking out for Marines welfare and morale?
http://www.armytimes.com/article/20140409/NEWS05/304090064/Sgt-Maj-Marine-Corps-Barrett-Less-pay-raises-discipline
OK so we have a new SgtMaj in the Corps. I am one who feels the better choice would have been SgtMaj Brad Kassell who a much more complete combat record with Navy Cross(which should have been the Medal of Honor)Who can deny his leadership ability and love for the Marines. With over a decade of combat there is always a way to get where the fight is if you really want to do what you are trained to do. In our Corps it’s fight and kill the enemy. I highly believe SgtMaj Green found ways not to get into the fight. I also know many Marines and soldiers that had 3-5 deployments in 4 years and many were because they wanted to and volunteered to go again because that was what they were trained to do.