Blog

The Marine Corps recognizes eleven principles of leadership and fourteen traits of leaders. In this and coming editions of “Front and Center,” we will present…

Last month, we considered the first principle of leadership recognized by the Marine Corps: Know yourself and seek self-improvement. We considered also the first trait of a leader: Justice….

In an essay titled “On Remembering Who We Are,” the late Melvin Bradford observed the following: “Yet as [Michael] Oakeshott insists, moral conduct is an…

Last month, we considered the Marine Corps leadership principle of knowing one’s people and looking out for their welfare. The next principle, keep your Marine…

In his excellent book Memoirs of a Superfluous Man, Albert Jay Nock discusses in part his impatience with what he calls “social legislation” aimed at improving society…

Marine Corps recruits at Parris Island, South Carolina have the interesting experience of a pattern guiding the way drill instructors train them. In an ordinary…

When pianists learn a challenging piece of music, they often will learn the music for each hand separately and then, when the left and right…

Upon hearing the Marine leadership principle of making sound and timely decisions, one might reasonably respond, “Right, but how?” We get a sense of how…

When someone is sworn into a branch of the armed services, he takes an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States…

Some people are capable of self-reflection, others are not. One indicator that someone is able to examine himself is that when a mistake is made,…

We have arrived at the eleventh and final principle of Marine Corps Leadership: seek responsibilities and take responsibility. The idea of responsibility asserted in this…