Lt. Gen. Sklenka on Staying in the Fight

War on the Rocks

News, Politics

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 3 March 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Marine general and deputy commandant in charge of installations and logistics was kind enough to join Ryan for a wide-ranging conversation on military service, logistics, and so much more. Whether you are a servicemember or someone interested in how the U.S. military will be able to stay in the fight should a war break out in the Indo-Pacific, this episode is a must-listen.

This episode was supported by Onebrief.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You are listening to the War on the Rocks podcast on Strategy, Defense, and Foreign Affairs.
0:14.1	My name's Ryan Evans. I'm the founder of War on the Rocks. This episode is brought to you by
0:18.3	one brief, which is transforming the future of the military
0:21.2	staff.
0:22.2	Work seamlessly across teams and tech stacks on plans.
0:26.0	Send PowerPoint packing.
0:27.7	Go from five hours to 45 minutes with One Brief.
0:30.6	Learn more at war on the rocks.com slash one brief.
0:33.1	That's O N E, BR-I-E-F.
0:41.3	In this episode, I was joined by Lieutenant General Stephen D. Sklanka of the U.S. Marine Corps.
0:45.5	He's the deputy commander of installations and logistics, and before that, he was deputy commander of Indo-Pacific Command.
0:47.9	Enjoy the show.
0:50.7	Thanks for joining the show.
0:52.2	What made you decide to become a Marine? It legitimately was a calling. I was raised to Catholic and you're familiar with the priest's calling. At a young age when I was a kid, I decided I wanted to go to the United States Naval Academy and wanted to be a Marine. My parents even have a letter that I wrote to my congressman when I was 10 years old and the congressman wrote back
1:11.1	essentially saying, you're a little bit young for this, but good luck in the future type thing.
1:16.1	Saying you wanted to be in the Marine Corps? I said, I want to go to the Naval Academy and I wanted
1:19.2	to be a Marine. Do you remember what captivated you about the Marine Corps when you were younger?
1:23.0	Did your family have a history of service? Was it just a movie, a story, something you saw? That's a great question. Probably hard to remember if it was before you were 10. Yeah, I had some Marines in the family,
1:32.0	I think like great uncles that fought in World War II. I didn't really know them growing up.
1:36.0	I did live across the street where I was born from a Naval Academy graduate. He was a captain
1:41.4	of one of the first nuclear submarines that may have piqued my interest.
1:45.0	I know I also, from my earliest memories of seeing the Iwo Jima Memorial, that statute to me, says America, more than just about anything else I've ever seen, says America.
	...

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