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Originally Posted by August
I thought the Marines had begun the practice of using FAC's as early as Guadalcanal. I guess I was mistaken.
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No, you're not mistaken. But they did manage to frack the concept up. At the time it was thought that sheer weight of firepower, be it from aircraft or artillery or naval assets would flatten the enemy and allow us to simply walk in and take the territory. Since that never happened even once in the entire war, we were forced to reconsider our attitude. Then we screwed it up again in Korea and Vietnam. Then we just ended up copying the WW2 German model.
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But don't you think "throwing men and machines at worthless targets of no justifiable effect" is kind of harsh for men who managed to win their war against a tenacious and committed enemy with less casualties than we suffered in a single Civil war battle?
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Harsh? No, not really. Marines don't think like that. Marines think in terms of mission accomplishment. Simply winning a battle or a war is not accomplishing the mission. The fight must be won, and it must be won without undue casualties. Every dead or wounded Marine is a Marine who isn't around to fight later. Every casualty is blemish on our reputation as a fighting force. It is difficult to explain.