projected deployment. To ensure that
the best qualified Marines fill these key
billets over those with just geographic
convenience, the Marine Corps will
fund these staffs’ travel to and from
training periods. Training periods will
be aggregated to reduce travel costs and
to increase the effectiveness of their
time together.
Create two CE training facilities.
These should be located near major airport hubs to facilitate efficient travel.
They should include a barracks-style
billeting capability to house the BCE
staffs during training periods in order
to cut costs and to allow for continuous
operations training. Each facility will
maintain a command operations center (COC) equipped with the latest
command and control (C2) suites used
in theater.
Each CE training facility should be
manned by a small but veteran inspec-tor-instructor (I&I) staff responsible for
assisting two of the rotating BCEs
through a progressive training program.
The I&I staff should be led by a post-battalion command colonel and assisted by officers and SNCOs with
expertise in each of the staff functional
areas. Unlike a traditional I&I staff concurrently tasked with Toys For Tots, funeral details, and building community
relationships, the sole mission for these
staffs will be the preparation of the
BCE for C2 in a combat environment.
Establish a progressive training
package to prepare each BCE for combat. The training model should be similar to those currently used by Marine
expeditionary unit (MEU) CEs. Like
the MEU program, the formation and
training will be sequenced with sister
units to ensure that one BCE is always
fully mission capable—ready to mobilize and deploy—while the others are
in various stages of workup.
Each BCE’s training will be progressive, beginning with unit formation
and individual skills training, moving
to advanced staff planning exercises
over an 18-month phased workup period. BCEs will share vetted and com-bat-tested standing operating procedures. The workup period will cul-
