by Mark E. Cantrell

About the author: Mark E. Cantrell is a major in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Judging from newspaper accounts, Marine leadership training will soon need to incorporate the following scenarios into its curriculum:

Scenario #1

You are the officer in charge of a disbursing office at Camp Lejeune. One Monday morning, you are surprised to learn that Johnson, a promising young private first class, has failed to report for duty. Then, just before lunch, you receive a phone call from Johnson’s enraged father. With considerable effort, you calm the father. He then explains that his son unexpectedly showed up at home over the weekend. Eventually, the father got the son to reveal the reason for his unauthorized absence. On Friday night, after drinking at...