This is CBSI in the world. I'm John Batch with my colleague, Gregory Copley. The United

States Marine Corps commandant, General David Berger, stepping away, but leaving on his desk

figuratively, a plan for the Marine Corps, remaking their mission in the 21st century,

considering the threat of the People's Liberation Army Navy. This is in a Marine Corps without

tanks. Is that a fair way to describe it, Gregory, without tanks, but with landing ships

and able to move effectively across the Pacific from island to island, or to deal with the

Chinese breakout from the First Island chain? Is that what General Berger imagines?

More or less, General Berger wanted a much more nimble Marine Corps, one capable of

island hopping in the Pacific, in the Indo-Pacific, but particularly the Pacific, as we saw

in World War II, but able to move swiftly with large numbers of men in an amphibious capacity.

What he inherited was a Marine Corps, which had become literally a very heavy second-level

army with lots of heavy main battle tanks, Abrams battle tanks, heavy artillery, and lots

of air power. What he wants is something which can be moved more quickly and nimble into

these islands, occupy places to deny them to the People's Liberation Army of China, and

also to be able to forward deploy systems which would deny the area to the People's Liberation

Army, particularly the People's Liberation Army Navy. To that end, General Berger's reorganization

to achieve this expeditionary advanced-based operations, as he called them, EABO, EBO, he

got rid of the tanks, got rid of the heavy artillery, and a lot of the air power. Before he

had put in place the force he needed to do the next job that he wanted, this man that

he lost his budget, and in Washington, of course, once you lose your budget, you don't get

it back, and he needs some of that budget back to do what he needs to do. And to have this

nimble capability to lift amphibious forces around the islands, he needed long range, smaller

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