#3--Ray Smith

The topics we discussed in this episode include: -Smith’s thoughts on professional military education (PME) and training -What good PME and training look like -The best PME experience Smith ever had -Major General O.K. Steele’s approach to training and PME -The effect that bootcamp had on Smith’s development as a person -How to get young Marines interested in learning -The value of getting to know your Marines -Why squad leaders are the most important people in a unit -The key role of trust in maneuver warfare -Smith’s thoughts on leaders being teacher-scholars -What gets in the way of building trust in a unit -Responding to when Marines make honest mistakes (“sins of commission”) -The zero-defect mentality and the value of second chances -The responsibility of a commander to protect their Marines -The “colonel syndrome” and becoming self-interested -Why it’s tough to be a major in the Marine Corps -What it was like serving with Tony Zinni -Smith’s battlefield “sixth sense” -How the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) fought -Comparing how Marine and NVA units fought -The role that Vietnam played on Ray Smith’s journey to maneuver warfare -Smith’s destruction of an NVA battalion in Aug 1968 -Working with a company of tanks as a rifle company commander -Smith’s experience in Operation Urgent Fury, the invasion of Grenada -The need to know your enemy in maneuver warfare -What surprised Smith the most about Grenada -Smith on the fog of war -The biggest maneuver warfare lesson Smith took away from Grenada Links “Commemoration of Grenada with MajGen Ray Smith, USMC (Ret) at Marines' Memorial 10-23-2019”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzSi_5ZvJ7Q