Commandant wants all Marines to do a tour in the Indo-Pacific

However, the Marine Corps is also in the process of returning to its roots as an amphibious force following years of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, when it served as a smaller version of the U.S. Army, said Katherine Kuzminski, director of the military, veterans, and society program at the Center for a New American Security think tank in Washington, D.C.

The Marine Corps’ Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations concept, or EABO, which calls for deploying small teams of Marines to temporary operating bases, is also geared to the geography of the Indo-Pacific region, Kuzminski told Task & Purpose. In fact, an August 2021 Marine Corps news release referred to EABO as a “modern island hopping campaign.”

Smith’s comments about Marines needing to spend time in the Indo-Pacific region may not be a change to Corps’ policy, but it can affect promotion board members’ personal preferences when they look at a slate of candidates, Kuzminski said.

The formal guidance for promotion boards is outlined in board precepts, but individual members may look more favorably on an officer with EABO experience in the Pacific than another officer based on the East Coast, she said.

“There’s a lot of art to board selection beyond the science of what the precepts say,” Kuzminski said.

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