In this episode, we discuss:
*Gunner Gilchrist’s advice to his past self, Private First Class Gilchrist
*What Infantry Training Battalion-East was like when Ryan attended as a student in 2003-2004
*What Ryan’s first unit (Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marines) was like
*Ryan’s deployment to Karma, Iraq—what the experience was like and what he learned from it
*How Ryan attempted to get his Marines to adopt a population-focused approach to counter-insurgency when he was a squad leader and platoon sergeant
*Fox 2/2’s operations in Iraq
*Ryan’s experience as a team leader
*What makes a first-rate team leader
*What every team leader should be doing intellectually to get better
*The challenges of leading your peers
*Ryan’s first MEU: his expectations and experiences
*Ryan’s advice on keeping young Marines engaged on a MEU
*What Ryan learned from training with the Kenyan army
*His experience at Corporals Course and Drill Instructor School
*Ryan’s response to my calls to change recruit training
*The one thing Ryan would change about recruit training and why
*Ryan’s thoughts on the 4th Phase of recruit training
*Ryan’s experience at the Infantry Squad Leaders Course
*His deployment to Sangin, Afghanistan, as a squad leader with India Company, Third Battalion, Seventh Marines
*What lessons he took away from the deployment
*Ryan’s second deployment to Afghanistan, this time as a platoon sergeant, and what he took away from it
*What makes a good platoon sergeant
*As a platoon sergeant, what Ryan expected of his squad leaders
*Ryan’s experiences teaching at the Infantry Small Unit Leaders Course (ISULC) at the School of Infantry-West and how these influenced how he understands and practices maneuver warfare
*The challenges associated with running ISULC field exercises
*The intellectual shift Ryan experienced teaching at ISULC
*Ryan’s initial reaction to seeing me (Damien) at ISULC
*Why Ryan finds decision-forcing cases (DFCs) so effective
*Ryan’s favorite DFC and why
*Ryan’s facilitation of The Hornet’s Nest, a DFC that he built for ISULC
*Unexpected themes or uses of DFCs
*Ryan’s experience of having the protagonist of a case in the classroom while he’s teaching and his advice to case facilitators interested to employing this technique
*Ryan’s time as the operations chief for Weapons Company, Third Battalion, 1st Marines, including his deployment with the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit
*His experience working with Italy’s San Marco Marine Brigade
*Ryan’s time as the tactics chief at Officer Candidate School (OCS)
*The one thing Ryan would change about OCS
*Ryan’s experiences as a student at The Basic School and in the Infantry Weapons Officer Course
*Ryan’s work on reshaping recruit training at Parris Island and how he’s integrated DFCs into The Crucible
*The one thing Ryan would change about Marine enlisted professional military education
*The one thing he’d changed about how we train Marines
*The one thing he’d change about Marine infantry
*What maneuver warfare in garrison looks like
*Ryan’s thoughts on Force Design 2030 and what a war with China might look like for Marine infantry
*His reaction to discussed plans to make Marine infantry more like special operations forces
*What concerns Ryan the most about the future direction of the Marine Corps
*What excites Ryan the most about the future direction of the Marine Corps
Links
Tribal Leadership by David Logan et al.: https://amzn.to/3niff9y
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card: https://amzn.to/3opXDrw