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Panama Canal Case Study

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While reading the case study about the problems during the structure of the Panama Canal, I identified two principles of warfare that can be applied to our own “Scorges” in the Marine Corps. Executing “Training”, and “Orienting on the enemy”, are two important warfighting principles that were not properly executed during the initial phase of the construction. The “standing water” that we see today in the Marine Corps can be tied back to these two principle of warfighting which i will be explaining. MCDP 1 states the following about training, “The purpose of all training is to develop forces that can win in combat.” The leadership and workers engaged in this battle against malaria and yellow fever, were not properly trained to face this enemy. When Gorgas arrived at Colon in June 1904, he discovered …show more content…

This is why training is a strong principle in warfighting. When the Marine Corps faces a problem that they want to fix, they start their process of identifying what it is they do not like about the certain outcome or situation, then orient their solution to produce their desired outcome. The principle “Orienting on the enemy”, is a combative way of saying that you need to be orienting your solution to the exact cause of the problem, so you can achieve your desired outcome. The problem during the Panama Canal construction was the spread of Malaria and Yellow fever. The way the leadership in the case study initially oriented themselves, was to attack sanitation problems. That’s how they oriented their solution, and that's why they initially failed. The enemies were the illnesses, but the exact cause of the problem was not sanitation. If they had properly oriented their prevention plan to stopping the breeding of mosquitoes, they would have seen positive results sooner. Throughout the Marine Corps there are still problems trying to be solved with the wrong solutions. GCSS-MC is one of those issue in the Marine Corps that needs to be oriented towards

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