Marine Infantry Training Shifts From ‘Automaton’ to Thinkers, as School Adds Chess to the Curriculum
Infantry Training Battalion instructors play chess in their instructor ready room at School of Infantry-West at Camp Pendleton, Calif. US Marine Corps photo.
The Marine Corps is about to revolutionize infantry training, more than doubling the length of initial training for enlisted infantry Marines and weighing consolidation of its core grunt specialties into a single, all-around infantry warfighter.
The transition – which aims to build Marines adept in ground weaponry that can tackle the higher-end threats they will face on the dispersed battlefields of the future – will focus as much on brains as brawn.
In a School of Infantry-West initiative, chess will be part of the pilot of a 14-week basic infantry training starting next month. The Infantry Marine Course, or IMC, will replace the eight-week Infantry Rifleman Course for new Marines assigned to the “03” occupational field. The new IMC course, as directed by Commandant Gen. David Berger, will grow to 18 weeks once enough instructors are assigned to the course. Infantry is the Marine Corps’ largest enlisted community.
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STEEL THRUST LITE
They should be playing Steel Thrust Lite. My final four years in the Marine Corps Reserve were the Amphibious Warfare Technology Directorate at Quantico. I took our Steelthrust Game and reduced it to a two to six man game, with the idea that two or more Marines could play it for recreation, or to drive an exercise. We used regular maps so there was little start up work and it could be played quickly.
Too much work to recreate the idea, but the Marines would be better playing that versus chess.
S/F
Craig Hulligner
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