Some thoughts about The Basic School: The lousy command climate explained

In my response to my
request for someone to tell me about what is going on at The Basic School, the
Marine training school for new officers, a friend writes:

It's basically a function of going
from Dale Alford as CO of TBS to Todd Desgrosseilliers.

Under Dale, TBS had a focus on
tactical proficiency and ethics training/acculturation for lieutenants. Dale
made changes like taking out administrative humps and incorporating them as
tactical marches into the POI, made field training more realistic and demanding,
and really put a lot of attention into ethics and character. And he solved
cultural problems fairly thoughtfully -- remember, this is our best COIN guy. Instead
of having a war with lieutenants over consensual sexual relationships -- forbidden,
difficult to enforce, and leading to punitive action when discovered -- he
ended the dating restriction, but mandated a fairly enforceable ban on any
romantic activity in the BOQ (enforceable because the populace supported it).
The flipside is that the staff had a lot of freedom -- you could PT when you
wanted on your free time and wear whatever athletic attire you wanted, uniform
spit and polish wasn't a focus -- and there were a few captains who abused that
("look how salty a Tactics instructor I am -- I don't wear a skivvy shirt
since I was in the 'Stan").

Under
Todd, there have been some ambitious and interesting changes made in NCO
professionalization. But there has also been a maniacal focus on garrison
stuff, and a loss of focus on tactical/professional preparation of lieutenants.
If you PT on your own, green-on-green only; if I catch windows open in the BOQ,
I will summarily fire the Co. commander (no shit, that actually happened). Captains
in the bullpen will be used as a labor force for stuff like painting rocks. That
last one has become symbolic of the madness there -- painting rocks is
something we did at the worst commands in the '90s because it was easier to
make your garrison area look nice than come up with a creative, challenging
training plan that prepares Marines for operational and life challenges. BTW, I
don't mean policing your area and having it squared away, I mean stuff like
captains on their hands and knees edging the grass and painting/arranging rocks
to make stuff look pretty. That inspires rage and contempt in the staff. One of
my buddies recently left TBS to go to C&S and he said it was the best
orders he's ever got in life -- he would have asked for an early out if he'd
had to stay at TBS any longer.

Talked a little earlier to a friend
who recently left TBS, asked him his take, and he said (not a direct quote,
paraphrase): The difference is that Col. Alford was really concerned about
critical thinking -- he wanted Lt.s to be able to figure out "What are the
rules I can break on my own, or who can I ask permission to break, because it's
stopping me from doing the right thing, or making me do something stupid?"
On the other hand, Col. Desgrosseilliers' favorite saying is, "All I want you to do is follow the
fucking rules" -- he says that all the time.

I
thought that was an interesting perspective for someone who was a commander and
staff officer under both.